Mikel Arteta has used the same starting line-up in all three of Arsenal’s League games so far, but with an away game coming up at Villa Park on Wednesday, it must be time for him to start utilising some of his very large squad back into the spotlight. Surely that is the whole point of having two good players in each position, so they can be rotated like for like without an obvious drop in quality of the collective.
But which would be the obvious changes that he should make to still ensure we win our fourth game in a row?
The first move for me would to bring back Tomiyasu and Tierney to the starting XI, as they have been brought back gently from their long injury lay-offs and should now be ready to start.
It will a very tough choice to drop either Jesus or Martinelli from starting, but maybe Arteta could start subbing them earlier in games when we have built up a lead, to try and keep them fresh.
Saka looks in need of a rest so maybe Marquinhos, Vieira or Smith-Rowe could step up. My money would be on the young Brazilian after playing two full U21 matches and scoring in both.
I’m not sure Arteta would risk playing Lokonga instead of Partey or Xhaka, but neither can play every single game so something will have to give at some point, or will the boss wait until he is forced to make the change?
Well this is going to bem my tentative choice for today…..
Ramsdale
Tomiyasu….Gabriel…Saliba….Tierney
Partey…Xhaka
Martinelli…Odegaard…Marquinhos
Jesus
But, knowing Arteta’s usual take, he will probably go with the same starting line up as last week, but he must surely make full use of our five substitutes to give some fresh legs a run out ahead of Wednesday’s game against Aston Villa…
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If I were Arteta, I’d keep the winning line-up and only play the squad-rotation players if the best ones are unfit. We could use five substitutions, so we could always replace our best players after leading by two goals in the second half of the game
If they’d like to compete in UCL, they’ve got to be ready for fixture crunch. Liverpool generally play their best players in major competitions and play their squad-rotation players in the early stages of the minor competitions
Do we rotate?
Generally speaking, I prefer to see the ‘first choice/best available’ players start who hopefully play well enough to then ring the changes. I loathe seeing a weakened team struggling which then puts pressure on the subs and gives the supporters palpitations
@I agree Sue, but there is danger of a bit of tiredness on Weds in a more difficult game..
An interesting point AdPat
I expected more from Steve Gerrard and Villa are not exactly firing so far. I’m hoping for a win then as well
With the 5 sub rule no need to rotate this early in the season. We do need to make some subs early to enable the bench players to gain match fitness and keep the whole squad involved.
FAR TOO EARLY TO THINK SERIOUSLY ABOUT ROTATION. Same team as last week will almost certainly start and so it should. We are still in August, in case the article writer has not noticed.
We shouldn’t play favorites but rather the best according to their position. That is all we need.
Keep a winning team then.
** party’s seems out of this fixture 😩
Start the same team if alls going well by the 60 minute mark bring on subs ,especially now that we can use five ,be good to get Tierney and tomi back on for at least 30 mins ,I cannot see Fulham being a problem seeing we are at hoMe .
Fix not which is not broken, very early days to be trying to be too clever.
Half time talk should be to let all players know the team is subjected to five changes after the first fifty five minutes
Am desperate to see more of Marquinhos though.