Arsenal may have won their first two games with an unchanged starting line-up, it appears that Mikel Arteta could still have to think about making changes for today’s game against Bournemouth, as he now has more players returning to the squad with Fabio Vieira and Emile Smith-Rowe having a run out in midweek with the U21’s. In fct, I believe Reiss Nelson is the only player left that is not available for selection through injury.
Our new young Brazilian Marquinhos had already played two excellent games for the U21s before that game, and Arteta explained: “Marquinhos has been playing with the U21s, and we didn’t believe that it was necessary for him to play again. Fabio and Emile – they have been injured, they haven’t had any minutes, they needed that exposure.”
We also have Tomiyasu and Tierney returned to fitness, and both played the last 15 minutes against Leicester last week so will be vying for inclusion this week. I have a feeling that both will be playing this evening, or at least Tomi as Ben White was looking a bit tired last week towards the end.
I believe Arteta will give Vieira a couple more weeks of settling in time before he will be considered to be used, and Marquinhos could be a surprise wildcard on the subs bench, alongside Smith-Rowe who could resume his role as supersub.
I can’t see Xhaka and Partey being replaced, or captain Odegaard for that matter.
And as for the front line, who would you change when you have Martinelli, Saka and Jesus leading the line?
So this is my expected line up this afternoon to start the game at Bournemouth….
Ramsdale
Tomiyasu….Gabriel…Saliba…Zinchenko
Partey…Xhaka
Martinelli…Odegaard…Saka
Jesus
Which team do you think Arteta will choose today?
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Arteta’s dilemma is he will feel uncomfortable leaving out his 50M signing and playing Saliba. So Tomiyasu will be the scape goat unless Arteta plays a back 5 sacrificing a midfielder.
For team progress, he should just accept the reality and leave Ben White on the sub bench.
I agree with you…
Either Tomiyasu or Saliba could be scapegoat…
No chance we are playing as Back 3 or 5 because if we play back 3 or 5 then either Xhaka or Partey needs to be dropped as Odegaard is Captain so he will be in team…
I think Arteta will same line up..
more unnecessary Ben White hate. Such a mystery. White will start because Tomi is injury prone and hasn’t completed even close to 90 minutes in ages. He already got re-injured coming back too early before.
@Atangana
He should leave out Xhaka and push White up into the DM spot…Just sayin.
Fair lineup hard to disagree. Zinchenko is better offensively, but I still think Tierney is clearly the better defender.
Xhaka playing better than I have seen in years, and hopefully Odegaard and Saka will step up after having quiet appearances so far this season.
tiernay left back … zinchenko left midfield clearly better than xhaka … play your best players is a basic rule of good management
@Atangana, does it matter who plays or don’t? the style of play and strategy is Arteta’s ideas; therefore, Either Tomi, White or Saliba; the manager will decide. What we should worry about as fans, is 3point and a good football.
💯 agree
As usual, Arteta would likely field the winning team and the formation would likely be 4-3-3 on paper/ when defending
They’d likely change it to Barcelona’s 3-2-3-2 or 2-3-5 when attacking:
……………………… Ramsdale
…….. White …… Saliba ….. Magalhaes
……………. Partey ……… Zinchenko
Odegaard …………………………………… Xhaka
………. Saka ……. Jesus … Martinelli
I believe that we will start with an unchanged team.it is still too early in the season to rush players back.i agree, it’ll be a while before we see Vieira.also depending on the score,we should see both Tomi and KT more minutes probably 40/45 minutes.
You don’t fix that which is not broken, so the same starting line up is expected.
We shouldn’t expect any major changes until atleast a good half a dozen games in and preferably at home maybe to freshen up a bit.
👍
Interesting how these days we don’t hear Zaha and that guy debates. He was criticized so much for low stats but how funny that as season as he gets an attacking manager he goes and scores 14 goals which is the highest he’s had at Palace. He played only 30 games and didn’t even start them all too. Peeps didn’t consider that he played under a defensive manager. They just lumped stats with zero context behind them. I guess this ship has sailed but here we are once again.
The article and your comment are in opposite directions kev
IF WE CAN, WE NEED 2 MORE SIGNINGS: DM AND WF. COYG.
White is actually better at RB than Tomi for the facts that he is quicker and more nimble.
Tierney will also continue to be benched by Zinchenko until he ups his fitness and defensive positional plays like Zinchenko.
Let’s hope that Smith Rowe would mature his game and become more comfortable as an 8/6 where he’s likely to be much more fulfilled and successful, else he’ll only continued to be used as a backup 10/winger. Same with Fabio.
Good good good news that Pepe is leaving, so so relieving and mentally soothing to the fans, coaches, his team mates and himself. Now, Nelson and Maquinhos can blossom like Saka and Martinelli. Albeit we need one more established winger.
Elsewhere, even if we don’t do the one last DM big signing, these guys should be able to hold forth the Mid Anchor role till January window: Partey, Xhaka, Lokonga, Elneny and White.
So the team is complete and ready for silverware this season. I’m super confident.
GK – Ramsdale, Turner
CB – Saliba, Mangalese, Holding, Tomi, Tierney, White, Xhaka
SB – White, Cedric, Tierney, Zinchenko, Tomi, Ainsley, Saka, Xhaka
DM – Partey, **Big Signing**, Elneny, Lokonga, Xhaka, White
AM – Odegaard, Fabio, Emile, Ainsley, Xhaka, Lokonga
WF – Saka, Martinelli, Nelson, Maquinhos, Emile, Fabio, Ainsley
CF – Jesus, Eddie, **Big Signing**, Martinelli, Maquinhos
unfortunately I’m not so confident we are going to get another DM in. But I agree that two more singings completes this squad.