For a good few years, I think it is safe to say, one of the things that Arsenal fans have been crying out for more than any other, at least in terms of playing personnel, is more fire power up front. I suppose you could say that the jury is still out in some respects on Alexandre Lacazette, as he has not been at the club long enough to cement his place in our hearts, but it is hard to argue that the Gunners have not made strides in this part of the team.
Alexis Sanchez has been a marvel and even the most negative Arsenal fan must have warmed to Olivier Giroud after his regular contributions and the very high quality of some of them. Walcott and Iwobi are down the pecking order but most clubs outside the top six would start them every week, and Arsene Wenger now has great options with Welbeck, Lacazette and Ozil playing well in a forward position.
The upshot of this, from a fan’s point of view at least, is the strong competition for the Arsenal front line and that is usually good news for the team in general. It makes the players not in the first team try harder and the players in there are kept on their toes because of the players beating down their necks.
That is why I think Wenger should go for it in Cologne. Tell the strikers who start, probably Giroud and Welbeck, that they are playing for a Premier League place and the chances are that they will reward us with goals.
Then the likes of Lacazette and Alexis Sanchez will know that a bad game could see them benched and is that not the sort od squad struggle that Arsenal needs?
Sam P.
Arsenal are one of the favourites to not only top the group,but go all the way in the europa league league this season. So of course we as the fans can expect teams like koln to be blown away completely. But let us not forget that the team we play in the europa is not the strongest we can put out there plus the other teams play their strongest XI’S all the time. As we saw against red star in the 0-0 game it is not that easy to win these kind of tricky games. Although I won’t be surprised if we hit 4 or 5 past a koln team extremely short on confidence,it will not be shameful at all if we win 2-0 or even 1-0. I would take 1-0 at turf moor too all day long……
For me a win is win. What matters and most important to me at this stage and period of the club is winning…..whether ugly and beautiful.
We have already qualified for the next round and should play our B team and rest our key players
We do not want any of the key players to be burned out and get injured…
The jury is not out on Laca as far as I’m concerned. To me he’s the new Ian Wright, makes fantastic runs in behind the defence and scores great goals. Yes I too think Welbz will play tonight and he should score. Good to get through this group but Dortmund are entering the next phase with some other CL failures which could include Man U. I’m looking forward to our early kick off this evening against Koln.
Sam P, So then, your suggestion is that our strikers/ players generally are MOTIVATED by making them fight for a PL starting place…. Now many of us would think that’s a great idea BUT it is a bit modern and revolutionary to ever occur to Wenger, based on the evidence of the last decade. Motivation and its usefulness has never occurred to Wenger. And never will! Which is why he is unfit to manage. One further point, if I may; does anyone actually think that the 100% motivation the whole team showed against the Spuds, came from Wenger OR from the social media campaign that shamed them by forecasting the Spuds to walk all over us. I believe I know what caused the motivation and I rather suspect the vast majority of us do too. And it was NOT Wenger! If ever he had the slightest idea that motivated players were more likely to win matches and even titles, don’t you think he might have used it on them by now?