We always see a fair few young Gunners and some lesser used members of the Arsenal squad during the pre-season games and there is always at least one who catches the eye and gets us fans excited about their future playing career. I do not think too many of you would argue that this season’s candidate was Reiss Nelson, but has the talented youngster done enough to earn himself a place in the Arsenal XI to face Chelsea at the weekend.
Even though there is a trophy on offer, we do not really count the Community Shield as a fully competitive fixture even though both sides will be desperate to win and set a marker for the season to come, especially with both hoping to be in the frame to lift the EPL trophy next May.
So Arsene Wenger will be picking a strong side but that does not mean that Nelson should not be in it. I feel that it would be a great chance to build on the confidence he will have gained in pre-season and the way that he played in general and linked up with Theo Walcott down the right in particular gives him a good shout of starting.
Assuming that we are going to play a 4-3-2-1 formation the options on the right of that four, as well as Nelson, are Hector Bellerin and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, so which of the three would like Arsenal to start the Community shield with?
Bob.
Why are you assuming a 4-3-2-1 formation when all preseason save parts of some games we went with 3-4-3 or 3-4-2-1? In either case, though Nelson showed some promise, I think the Community Sheild is important enough to field the best team we can and there isn’t any room for him on that team. Sorry.
OFF TOPIC… what can we do as Arsenal fans to finally get Kroenke out of the club? Apart from my personal opinion that he is the main one responsible for our poor transfer budgets and lack of ambition for the club since he became majority shareholder but worse still he has now shown who he really is by the launch of the appalling hunting channel just launched in the UK by the company that he owns!
If we as Arsenal fans and especially Arsene Wenger believe in how we as a club should play the game then we should have nothing to do with this man and his support of what effectively is the simple murder of animals who have no chance of defending themselves.
We can do nothing to get rid of Kroenke. He owns a controlling interest in the Arsenal shares …. end of.
Fans complained about Wenger all last season.. and seems to have had an effect on larger transfer budget etc … why couldnt same happen with a campaign to get Stan out ?
Why do we keep talking about a poor transfer budget when the club has $150mil to spend. How is that poor budget amount. The fact is, we’re not attracting quality players on a level that Man.City, Chelsea, ManUtd do. It may be the manager or no UCL, but it’s definitely not the transfer budget.
I think we can not complain that we have not really brought through many young top guns if we don’t give them a real chance on the big stage. Nelson is an exciting player and would not mind seeing him in the community shield and the Europa league and other minor cup game.
Otherwise, we risk he gets sent on loan and then sold in the dark of night like other once promising young guns. And it is not like we are full of talent and competition at the moment in his position. I would be happy for the lad to get 15-20 first team starts mainly in cup games including the Europa league.
Europa League is not Minor
We should play strong team in that
If Mourinho had that attitude, he would not have won it. We need to go in with a winning attitude
I would love to win Europa League
As far as Community Shield goes, It’s more pride. I don’t want to lose to Chelsea, so we should play a strong team. It’s also good practice for Leicester match.
Semantics. For me, CL is a major trophy and Europa league is a consolation price for the many teams not good enough to make it into the CL.
Personally, I wish we could focus on the PL only and do not have to play the Europa league this season. It is handy if you win the Europa league because it gives you access to the CL but can you really call beating Ajax in a Europa league final a major trophy? For me, not. Always nice to win a trophy but personally I would not sacrifice my PL campaign for it. Shift your starters or top players to the Europa league if your second string makes it to the final 16 or 8 but not before. With our roster, our back-ups should be able to beat most Europa league teams.
For me, there are only two major titles for us PL and CL.
still i would very much like to win the europa to tick a box off the list of trophies we havent won. other european history is poor very poor, 1 fairs cup winners and 1 cup winners cup. lol even chelsea pre-russian oil had a better record. so if we are in it and it is one of the rare time we will be in it considering our recent history; better we try to win it.
tired of united, pool chelsea fans taunting me about our europe trophy haul, hell barca have 4 uefa cup/europa and they are a mega team.
not* other : our
Arsenal Wenger should consider buying Mahrez am tired of Tomas Lemar daily stories.
arsenal shud jct sign that seri guy…the likes of nelson make no sense right now.
He has done enough to earn a place on the team to play Chelsea……….that’s how stars are found or made……..I’d play him…..
Nelson looked good – but still lots to learn. I wouldn’t play him in Com Shield – but in some minor cup games. I thought Wilock was more impressive – so also like to see him in some games-
Com Shield is final pre-season game – and will surely give us a great competitive game to lead us into the official season-
Also give us another chance to try a different team shape (slightly) to try and combat Chelsea who beat us comfortably in last game, and due in my humble opinion to to individual perfor,Andes but a style / shape that Arsenal failed to cope with
I’d play him. It would give him a chance to prove himself in big games. He deserves a shot. THE KID IS HUNGRY
* NOT due to individual performances but a style that Arsenal failed to cope with
We lost the game against Chelsea in China because Chelsea started with a full strength side and we fielded some youngsters who were out of their depth and got swamped. Chelsea only brought on some of their younger players once the game was won; a case of Conte outhinking Wenger again.
So we should start with our strongest eleven and see how the games takes shape. Oxlade-Chamberlain is showing some awesome strength and was our best player against Seville. He should not only play, but be secured at The Emirates with a good new contract.
I mistakenly thumbed you down….i mean to thumb you up…..nice comment you have there
Controversial suggestion-
Given that over the course of a season we play many different teams, with different styles, different situations etc. I think we should again use this game as a critical learning experience, despite it being an important game despite its so-called ‘friendly’ status-
Imagine we were at the end of the season, and all we needed to do in our final game was not lose to win the EPL – ie we needed to defend at ALL cost- shouldn’t we practice for these types of scenarios?
OK I admit that specific scenario is a long shot. But honestly I’d consider a 0-0 against Chelsea to be a good result.
I honestly feel we are a good attacking team, what I’m not convinced about is we could ever Close-Up-Shop if we needed to- So shouldn’t we try?
I’d seriously experiment and play Kolasinac as a Defensive Midfielder –
He is built like a friggin tank, play alongside Xaka (I’m assuming Coq is injured) for a very defensively secure team shape. He can still contribute going forward as he has already shown
Our more recent 3 at the back shape has produced largely good results – so why not go one small step further with defensive paring in mid-field.
We have great wing-backs and creativity, and speed upfront we can threaten any team in the world on the counter-attack – but WE NEED TO LEARN TO DEFEND BETTER
Wenger experimented with Sanchez up-front (and wasn’t instant success) – but I think this is def worth experimenting with –
I’m expecting lots of thumbs down, because its not authordox – but anyone agree?
I prefer to see Ox play that right attacking full back role…..He plays like Dani Alvez when is playing that role, something he even acknowledge himself….he always watches Dani Alvez footage……….Bellerin must buckle up, otherwise?……I love that guy Nelson, a very useful asset…….he has all the right ingredients needed to make it to the top…..
Yes
I think we have to include the 3 new top top players ?
Would have no problem with Nelson starting, would be a good test for him. This would give Bellerin another week to get up to full fitness. Ox looked very good at rwb but if he wants to leave and the club are willing to sell him then he shouldn’t start. Or potentially play Ox with Xhaka in the middle.
I think chamberlain is the best choice we have at the moment.