Arsene Wenger must have been beside himself after hearing that the Arsenal and Chile international forward Alexis Sanchez had played the full 90 minutes of a bad tempered World Cup qualifier against Uruguay, despite his national coach Jorge Sampaoli revealing before the game in Montevideo that Alexis had picked up a knock to his calf and was therefore an injury risk.
The concern about that calf problem together with the long haul flights involved and two full games played will surely make Wenger´s mind up once and for all to rest the overworked player, at least for the next Arsenal game away to West Brom on Saturday and probably for the Champions League game at home to Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday.
Alexis definitely needs a rest both to recharge his batteries and to make sure that his tired body does not pick up a serious injury and you would have to say that our next two Premier League opponents, West Brom and Norwich, are ones that you would pick if you had to rest a key player.
The problem is that our list of players who are fit to play, especially in the front three, is a bit limited right now so how does Wenger line up the Gunners without Alexis this weekend? A lot will depend on whether we have Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain or Aaron Ramsey back and if either can play then they will probably come in on one side of Giroud with Joel Campbell on the other.
If not the boss will have to be a bit more adventurous and might decide to play one of our young Gunners such as Alex Iwobi. Another option would be to put Santi Cazorla on one flank where he has played a lot over his career and then bring either Arteta or Flamini onto the centre with Coquelin.
How do you think Arsenal will line up against the Baggies?
I’d play the only natural substitute in that position there – Campbell. He’ll do more than good. I mean it’s make it or brake it for the lad, and honestly he only played horribly against Sheffield Wednesday, so hell yeah, he should star. Anyway you can always bench him at the hour mark if he underperforms and put Ox or Wallcot there.
i guess the question here is how WILL arsenal line up and not how we want Arsenal to line up, so i’d have to say AW’s line up will be:
Cech
Bell- Mert- Kos – Mon
Coq – Carzola
Ox – Ozil – Campbell
Giroud
You can take Koscielny and Ox out!
?
I doubt that Ox or Walcott will be ready this week and I think, unfortunately, we will see Sanchez starts against WestBrom … I would like to see this against WestBrom:
Cech
Beb – Gab- Kos – Mon
Coq – Carzola
Bell – Ozil – Gibbs
Giroud
Campbell is not reliable at all, he needs to do better …
Some may disagree but i think Monreal is better than Gibbs going forward..He is more confident, doesn’t loose the ball easily, can hold onto the ball when need be and delivers better crosses.
Cech
Debuchy Mert Kos Monereal
Coq Carzola
Campbell Ozil Sanchez
OG
People are trying to act like they don’t know Wenger, when does the man ever do things or say what others want him to. If he plays Sanchez from the start depending on how he will asses him I wont blame him really, the EPL is our real target and we might have a better chance this season so lets put our best resources in.
What’s the major difference a fit Sanchez starting the game and been withdrawn or him been brought on when things are not going our way, the man will still play 100 no matter what.
My point is, if the medics, the manager and Sanchez himself feels his fit and up for the game lets start him. I sense others feel Westbrom game will be a walk over, from our last 4 to 3 games (yes including those that we have won) I beg to differ based on performance. Theo, OX and Ramsey and now Bellarine have left a big whole in our starting 11 already, no need to do more damage by removing one of our key players. When players like Ox, Theo, Jack, Ramsey, Welbz are back (and its not far off hopefully) Sanchez can have all the rest he needs because we will have good enough cover not to unsettle the team. A good 50 minutes or so for him will be especially if he can rekindle his goal scoring.
Debuchy needed games to shake off that rust anyway. I hope he gets better and better.
@ Budd, yes he did and its good to see him back. On the flip side our team has lost something minus Bellarine in it, especially since his partners Ramsey and Ox are out too.
The Debuchy / Campbell combo does not do it for me, too slow and not the most creative in my opinion (they are abit too similar, Debuchy needs a more attacking and pacey partner to compliment his skills at the moment). It would be exciting to see how Debuchy will fair been partnered with Ox / Welbz or Theo on the right though.
Lets just give them both a rest. We have only saw a few games those two were also pretty big games to be thrown into with not much match fitness. If they are given a string of games, I hope they can perform well. Atleast Debuchy may help us until next season, then we can recall Jenkinson. And we can keep Campbell for future. Lets maintain our squad depth.
Do the right thing and bring on Jeff Adelaide this would be a case like where he was forced to give Bellerin a chance and you see now he is starting 11.
Just get Alex Iwobi on the left hand-side and arteta in cazorla.
Cech
Bellerin…Koscielny…Mertsacker…Monreal
Coquelin…Cazorla
Ox….Ozil…..Iwobi/Campbell
Giroud
Hope Ramseys baby please comes back soon
Kos and Giroud aren’t 100% guaranteed to play. Wenger has said he is going to speak to them to make sure they are completely focused and ready to play after what those scum sucking pieces of sh!t did in Paris on Friday.
I would go for:
Giroud
Ozil——–Cazorla———–Campbell
Coquelin—–Arteta
Monreal—–Gabriel—Mert—-Bellerin
Cech
Bench: Sanchez, Kos, Iwobi, Chambers, Gibbs, Debuchy
This is a strong bench to scare Westbrom, allow Sanchez recharge his battery, allow Kos deeply affected regain psychologically.
1000 appologies, I forgot Macey on the bench