We have spent most of this season talking about Arteta and Edu’s rebuilding project at Arsenal, so I thought I would do a comparison on the Arsenal starting XI at West Ham’s London Stadium in March 3031, just over a year ago.
I will just remind you that it was a crazy old game on that day, with West Ham shooting into a 3-0 in just over half an hour, with Lingard, Bowen and Soucek getting on the scoresheet.
Before half time we had pulled one back through a Soucek own goal, on the hour mark another OG, this time from Dawson made it 3-2, and thankfully Alex Lacazette got us an equaliser in the 82nd minute.
Lacazette is one of the very few survivors from last year’s team (if he even plays today) and the only other three returning players could be Xhaka, Odegaard and Bukayo Saka. We could probably have added Kieran Tierney and Thomas Partey to that list if they were fit enough to play today.
The rest of the team was made up of Leno, Luiz, Mari, Chambers and Aubameyang.
So today, we will have a completely different defence, with Ramsdale, Gabriel, White, plus two of Tomiyasu Tavares or Cedric, and hopefully won’t concede three goals in the first half!
Here is last years line-up……
Do you think our line-up is a lot more improved since last year even without Tierney and Partey, or not much of a muchness?
Sam P