Aaron Ramsey has not made the trip to Germany as Arsene Wenger prepares his Arsenal side for a tough Champions League clash with Schalke.
Ramsey, who was subbed at Old Trafford after 50 minutes, is understood to have picked up a groin problem, while Theo Walcott, who replaced the Welshman, has travelled but is thought to be suffering from illness.
The possible double absence further stretches a squad already struggling to cope without the likes of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Gervinho, Abou Diaby, Kieran Gibbs, Tomas Rosicky and Polish keepers Wojciech Szczesny and Lukasz Fabianski.
At the back Laurent Koscielny will no doubt be chomping at the bit for first team action having watched from the bench at Old Trafford as Thomas Vermaelen and Andre Santos put in error-riddled performances.
It’s possible the Brazilian could be replaced at left-back by his Belgian captain with Koscielny partnering Per Mertesacker in the centre of defence.
Full squad for match vs Schalke
Vito Mannone
James Shea
Bacary Sagna
Thomas Vermaelen
Mikel Arteta
Johan Djourou
Per Mertesacker
Laurent Koscielny
Jack Wilshere
Olivier Giroud
Santi Cazorla
Andre Santos
Lukas Podolski
Theo Walcott
Andrey Arshavin
Carl Jenkinson
Francis Coquelin
Marouane Chamakh
Oh thank god. It’s not that I don’t like Ramsey as a player, I believe he is currently a decent central mid with plenty of time to improve, I simply don’t like how Wenger has used him.
Walcott is a blow, anyone know a timeline for the Ox?
”two weeks”.
Any chance that our physios are currently in a limbo?
watch us start winning for two week for only Mr Wenger brings him back!!!. Playing with Ramsey is like playing with a man short. After he left at Old Toilet and Jack got sent off, it didn’t make any different we carried on playing with 10 min. How strange, last year 7 games unbeaten was while Ramsey was out injured, he was back and we won one game at Everton 0-1 which should have been 0-4 in the first 15 mins but for him missing 3 open goals. Then he started again and we lost to QPR, Wigan and when… Read more »
Timeline for the Ox? Eight years, give or take a week.
why is walcott a blow?
“Sign De Ting” Do you ever heard that song, my fellow Gunner?
Vito do not get injured or sent off please
I was here when petit left, when gio left, when flamini left, when hleb left, then henry left, na$ri left, clichy, cesc, & then R.V.FEE left. What’s left. Arsenal is left cos class is permanent. Arsenal for life. We’ll be back
I was here when Gio, Henry and errrr Hlep won the CL, I was here when Le Cunt put £10.000 bet that City will win a trophy before The Arsenal and WON. I was here when Clichy said we are to soft and training and won the EPL. I was here when RVP scored against us and Manu you humiliated us AND I was here when Ca$hly Hole put 10 trophies to 0 in his Twister humiliation us. I was here when good footballers that love this club and spit blood to win for this club to only be let… Read more »
He could be the problem we are not winning stuff , or he could be the guy that atleast keeps us closer to winning stuff.
something tells me players will still fuck off even in Arsene’s absence . unless you think he auctions them to other club for no fucking reason
Fuck Injuries.
Here is a table we always seem to be on top of:
http://www.physioroom.com/news/english_premier_league/epl_injury_table.php
???
We are so one paced now its frightening.
play a winger who can service Giroud with crosses.
or
play a CM out wide who can play in Walcott (CF) with defence splitting passes
Le Coq could service Giroud.
‘Gets Coat’
Why all of a sudden Martinez is not even in the squad,And please,if this Santos guy starts the match I am not watching.
Because he was not named in the Champions League squad.
He wasn’t named because Fabianski, who has been injured for the best part of three years stupidly and irresponsibly was, thus leaving no place on the A list for Martinez. Dunno why Martinez is inelligible for the B list; it can’t be on grounds of his age so must be something to do with not being home-grown. Anyway, Shea (as I’ve mentioned before) went on loan to Dagenham and Redbridge last season but was so bad they used him for only a couple of games. Tell me this: What other top European club would go into the Champions League with… Read more »
Mannone’s done fine, leave him out of this.
Our goalkeeper situation IS pure idiocy, though… Because if Mannone goes out, we’re completely screwed. (And because I don’t think our normal #1 keeper is all that much better than Mannone.)
I agree about Mannone not having done too badly and Szczesny also having been prone to a few horrors (the Euros being an example). My comment was more a response to the Shea inclusion and the years of Almunia and Fabianski. It seems bizarre that we haven’t had a really good keeper since Lehmann (since Seaman, some would say); and when you compare us to United who bought an extremely expensive highly rated young keeper and promptly benched him in favour of their decent reserve when he screwed up, you see the difference between a team that wins stuff and… Read more »
Maybe Santos should get a run as a winger, he did put in a decent shift against City in pre season. I know he ain’t really the favorite now but he is a decent attacker.
No sorry but Santos should be shipped out in Januari and until then he should train on his own. His piss poor attitude shouldn’t be anywhere near the first team.
Agreed. Ramsey gets abuse for trying his heart out and we never hear a peep from him. Santos goes out all the time, eats shit food, is fat, never looks focussed on or off the pitch and gets a fucking huge speeding ticket. The result?? The fans love him! Ridiculous.
Can’t be any worse than that immobile fake German on the left wing can he?!
I’ve never been a fan of Podolski; my heart sank when we signed him, but I’m hoping to proved wrong; and in fairness to him he’s loads better when he’s got Gibbs playing with him. Playing him with Santos is just asking for trouble. I’d put Sagna at left back for now and Jenkinson at right. With Walcott ill – not that we were using him even when he was fit, which is possibly why he’s now succombing to illnesses: out of depression – and there’s no Ox or Gervinho or practically anyone, I haven’t a clue who should play… Read more »
We have the worst physio/training staff. I’m sure we spend all kinds of money and have great facilities, but every week when I go look at the physioroom EPL injury table we are at or near the top of it. Five years or so running, this is no accident.
wow, you surely are a loyal follower of the physioroom EPL injury table..
Comes in handy when setting a fantasy lineup. Some people like to start people that are actually playing.
Is there a trophy for the physio room league?
Finally!
Silverware!
Ouch…funny and hurt like hell at the same time
Due to the fact that most EPL teams use a deliberate policy of rotational fouling when playing Arsenal? The sort of stuff that boneheads like Hansen and Shearer drool over on MOTD – the old “don’t like it up em” bollocks.
Anyone notice our bad form can be traced back to Gibbs injury? We did awesome against West Ham, AT UPTON PARK! But then..it all went downhill.
Gibbs represents the total left back culture we had in years at Arsenal. He is quick, and can beat players, knows how to position himself and above alk he is a good defender. We have stalled in his absence and please rather play Sagna at left and Jenks at right back. He is one of the best ball crossers at the moment.
Gibbs really stretches their defense by going so far down(giving Podolski more room), dont think there is a coincidence with Pods lack of form since Gibbs got out.
Exactly! Podolski is nothing without Gibbs
Also, Gibbs has the ability to feed Giroud with the crosses he needs!
His partnership with Podolski is fantastic. Not only have we started to play shitter in his absence, but so has Podolski. I don’t know about anyone else here but I think Gibbs is a far better LB than Clichy. Clichy was only ever good in the middle third, and was a liability both defensively and offensively.
what is maddening is that nobody at Arsenal, Wenger, Podolski or anyone else has been able to address this problem.
Does Santos-Podolski work well in training and then fall apart during games
Ramsey out? Well, it’s a start.
don’t be daft. Rambo is the new Pires
Yes, he s our greates talent… new fabregas.. new bergkamp, new everybody…. great player
Typical, so called ‘fans’ of this great club bashing a young player in Aaron Ramsey. If anything Wenger should be questioned for playing him out of position, lets not forget that we were all behind Rambo following his injury, he’s a special talent and needs time. So please stop using him as a scapegoat following poor results, the team in general is struggling and singling out players won’t do any wonders for confidence. Yes, some criticism is warranted but to cheer when a player is injured is just ridiculous!
[…] 来源：[Arseblog News] […]
this whole situation is very frustrating
4-3-1-2… with Podolski and Theo striking upfront with Giroud behind them. Get Santos out of the starting 11 and we’ll win in Veltin’s…Up The Arsenal
You’re putting a target man behind other strikers? Very odd decision as you need him for knock downs and to work the defence (which he’s been doing well but hasn’t had the service). If anything, Giroud and Walcott up front with Podolski behind.
we need him to flick the balls so as to get Theo and Pod pace to full use.We signed Podolski to score goals for us,so we need a tweak in the tactical
But he’ll be flicking them towards the opposition defenders if he’s sat behind and then we need Podolski and Walcott to beat the defenders to the ball while also making space to score. The whole point of a target man is the knock the ball down and slightly backwards while taking out a defender to allow more space for the other attacking players.
As I said; Giroud and Walcott/Podolski up top with the other one behind would work if you want to exploit pace, space and technique.
You kids should play against each other on FIFA when you get home from school.
Vermaelen at left back is a definite solution. Santos has looked so shaky at left back, I’m shaking every time a winger runs down his side. And if Vermaelen coughs up a ball out wide, it’s not a death-knell.
Well, I don’t trust Vermaelen. Might even prefer to see Djourou, Kos, Per and Sagna.
(Don’t hit me!)
vermaelen at left back last season was definitely just as questionable as djourou at right back. has to be sagna and jenks imao.
I don’t want to see vermaelin anywhere at this point. He needs to be benched. Sagna at lb, jenkinson at rb. Per and kosc in the middle, djourou and coq the subs.
The side lacks so much pace thats why we getting squeezed so high up the pitch and end up passing backwards, buy some real pace like jovetic and loic remy and i gaurantee we will start to creative alot more than one shot on target a game
Any chance Arsene will throw 2 strikers upfront (HFB and Chamakh/Poldi)? No?
Ah well, it’s nice to dream.
Great now who do we blame when the game doesn’t go our way? Well I guess there is always the Ref or Santos.
Hopefully Jenks will play at RB and Sagna will play at LB. We have done that previously. Or Verm at left and Kos and Mert in the middle. Santos has to be dropped though. The message should be clear. Poor performances will not be tolerated. Arsene has been too nice and loyal to these players. Time to get ruthless
If that’s the message, why would you start Vermaelen… he’s been responsible for many of our dropped points this season.
The problem is that Kos has been crap too.
Really can’t understand how Wenger is willing to play everyone out of position, but not willing to give Jenkinson a try at LB?
I think he may be trying to court Sagna’s loyalty and prevent him from leaving by letting him play in his favourite position regardless of the cost to the team. It’s daft, imo, as the main thing that’s making Sagna consider leaving is our needless cock-ups and fragility. If we were playing well, there’s no way Sagna would be running down his contract, but he’s one of the best right backs in the world, so who can blame him for feeling depressed and wondering whether it’s not time to move to better-organised team?
Ramsey out why not Eisfield in instead of a defender. He is differrent to all our midfielders. This Team has no pace and maybe 4 4 2 would work or play 3 5 2 santos as a left winger something differrent. Sagna Vermalaen and Per at the back
Agreed, don’t understand why Eisfeld wasn’t included in the CL squad at the start of the season. He had a good pre-season.
Schalke will be schitting themselves when they realise they’ve not taken the arsenal seriously
we hope
God bless the day ramsey and santos leaves arsenal along with djourou
Santi on left wing and wilshere can play on the right?
Kristoffer olsson is way better than ramsey.
Yep, and Theo as the playmaker , Giroud as the goalie and bam! crisis over.
I have been complaining since day one…Ramsey is costing us results/points. The moment Diaby got that Injury, I knew we are in for Ramsey. And that was the case…we have had no progress since! He’s not injured, Wenger just realised his mistake! He thinks by resting him he will improve. But that’s not the case. We suffered last season because of the manager insisting with him in the starting line-up. He later dropped him and replaced him with the OX again…it was a champs League game and we went back to winning ways. Rosicky became a catalyst. As soon as… Read more »
Agreed, but I don’t fault him. As a sub — or last-ditch replacement — he’s OK, but it’s Wenger’s over-reliance on him that’s killing us. Poor tactics.
my starting lineup will be; vito mannone, bacary sagna, lourent coscielny, per metesacker, thomas vermaelen, wallcot jack wilshere, mikel arteta, santi cazolla, andrey asharvin. lukas podolski. its beter to pray vermaelen on right defender than santos also better to start podolski up frant than giroud, keep giroud for second half.
How quickly the mood changes around here. For ages, if you called Santos a “cuddly maverick,” or “great gay,” you were awarded with precious internet approval. First, I don’t think Santos has become a shit football player. If you remember last season, he took four or five games to really find his rhythm, and then he was very good indeed. (His numbers from two games ago suggest he was much better than we gave him credit for.) Second, he’s human and makes mistakes, and it was his former teammate and captain, a person who was likely instrumental in helping him… Read more »
His wife should under no circumstances be abused or in any way harassed by morons. But I cant defend Santos. He made a fool of both the club and himself and I lost all respect for the player after the shirtstunt.
He took his captain’s role so seriously he jumped ship the moment someone waved money at his face.
Yeah I think I’d rather believe Jack’s omission of RVP when listing influential captains for him.
Sorry, but I just can’t take this quite so preciously as you lot. I mean, seriously? It was one PR mistake for crying out loud, and it will be long forgotten in very little time…that is, unless we choose to make it a bigger deal than it is and hold grudges. If you’re worried about players making a “fool of the club,” look at how they perform on in the pitch, not some one-off ill-advised shirt swap. (And Hall, yes, he did take it seriously while he was at Arsenal. According to the players, both he and his wife took… Read more »
I’d also like to point out that the shirt swap would have mattered very little had we won the game. Some might have even considered it clever mind games from the “cuddly maverick.” “Clever gay,” we would have said after the game, winning generous approval from our internet peers.
This is precisely why all that matters is how we perform on the pitch. A win turns a temporary error of judgment into a humorous sideshow. A loss turns it into an unforgivable sin, according to many on here…
I think people would have reacted even if we won the game. I would.
Totally agree with BURNBURYIST about how quickly we turn in to an angry mob, chasing players like they’re Frankenstein’s monster. For shame.
Would be interesting to see how he uses JW10. It’s only been 4 days since his last “60 minutes” but since he’s suspended from domestic action in the weekend, he may be used in Germany to keep his recovery on track, no?
I would definitely give Arshavin a start..
I believe Santos is out with 1st degree burns after he was mistaken for the dummy and stuck on top of the bonfire at the clubs firework display last night. Rumour has it Arsene hasn’t even noticed the mistake yet, although he was heard to comment that ‘Santos’ looks to have lost a couple of pounds and is now more positionally aware.
We suck, dont we?
🙁
Can’t wait for that double substitution and Schalke shit themselves when they see Chamakh and Arshavin comin’ on to terrorize the final third.
As long as he doesn’t stubbornly wait until the 80th minute… so we can talk about how the players are all looking tired when we play next weekend…
Arsenal should have broken Santos contract after the man utd game….
I would give Chamakh a chance against -04. He fought really hard against Reading and scored twice, he had a good game. Why not give him a run and see if he can find the form he had when he came here.
wasnt he so much more effective when giroud came on?
i mentioned 4-4-2 with giroud and chamakh up front to my mate, should have seen the look of horror!! thing is, when we had 2 up front we scored several goals, both of chamakhs were quality strikes, and he looked very able as the confidence flooded back. we looked dangerous offensively with our fringe players, which is something our first team havent managed for a while.
Mannone
Sagna, Mertersacker, Koscielny, Jenkinson
Coquelin
Walcott, Arteta, Cazorla, Arshavin
Podolski
If Theo can’t play:
Coquelin
Cazorla, Arteta, Podolski, Arshavin
Giroud
Cazorla has mostly played wide pre-Arsenal, so it wouldn’t be uncomfortable for him. And it’ll break predictability somewhat, first half would be a complete mix up for the opposition and marking/expectancy.
Honest question:
When was the last time that Arsenal played with their strongest first XI?
Well the team that just lost to Utd were almost the exact same team that beat Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield and drew 1-1 with City but deserved to win.
Not trying to defend our performance against Manure. Just curious since I’ve never watched us play with a full strength squad since I started supporting about a year and a half ago.
With the exception of the two in form full backs and the on form Diaby. I think missing those three has buggered up the balance of the side immeasurably, but Arsene has to take responsibility for relying on two of those players who have a poor injury record.
I also have a honest follow up question.
Assuming Diaby, Rosicky and everyone else is fit, what is our strongest starrting XI?
Mannone/Szcz (really not sure who I’d pick ATM)
Sagna, Per, Kos, Gibbs
Arteta, Cazorla, Wilshere
Pod, Walcott, Giroud
(Really trying to find a place for Rosicky, because I love the way he played last season. Also might sub the Ox on instead of Walcott, but think we desperately need Walcott’s pace… ON THE WING, not down the center.)
With the way the injuries are going, we may need to call back Ryo, and work a deal with Notts for Lansbury again.
This injury situation is ridiculous, like last year when our defence were thinner than Paris Hillton’s arse cheeks.
It’s a shame as our first squad has lethal potential, and some of these second teamers cant seem to cope consistantly with the games. There’s issues with injury and what feels like counter strategies against our pretty obvious plays.
We can be more.
It seems most of our injuries are strains etc. I wonder if training on pitches that are as hard as the emirates pitch is actually good for the players. It can’t be just bad luck that we have these injuries consistently.
Some physios think a high proportion of plastic grass (which we have) causes injuries – there’s no give in it, it won’t tear like the real stuff. I guess most of us are agreed that with Gibbs and Diaby, maybe even Rosicky, we’re a much better team. Snag is, history tells us that not one of those players is ever going to manage more than a handful of games on the trot. Wenger must know this even better than we do but, since he can’t do anything about it, he has to do keep on with the cheerleading LANS act.… Read more »
Its a good point, we are paying regular long term injured players big salaries, but won’t pay the extra to keep Walcott, who for his money will still give you 10+ goals and the same assists despite his inconsistency.
Finally got the balls to drop Ramsey eh Wenger? Shame you have to pretend he’s injured to save face – but that’s you all over.
Why not play Santos as a winger? I know we bought him as a left back but he’s obviously not confident in that position at present. Play him left wing where he can provide defensive cover, where he only has the responsibility to defend when we’re not attacking and move Podolski in to a more central position.
I’m not one to bash our own players or manager. However i think it has been pretty clear that Ramsey has been struggling since the beggining of the year. I don’t think his injury can be used as an excuse as he’s been back 18 months and has shown no progress, if anything his form is declining. Take a look at Wilshere out for a whole season and in his first two games back he’s a bit rusty but you can see his class straight away. For me Wenger has to take more of the blame than Ramsey, he should… Read more »
Watch us have another amazing run which Wenger will f**k up by forcing Ramsey on a great team once he’s back from injury. I watched the Season 1 last year, queue the Season 2. We, Wenger, just never learn.
Ramsey is an average player who makes thewong decision more than he makes the right one. He has sagnateds a playr with a string of average performances for a considerable mount of time.
The longer he is out of th eam the better for us. Hopefully Theo can sneeze on Santos and he will be out too.
For me, Ramsey can be blamed on Wenger. Play Ramsey as a sub, don’t use the lad as a starter. Decent sub, but not good enough (right now) to start for the Arsenal.
(And I don’t get what he’s supposedly offering up front on the wing, completely out of position.)
This squad is thin… Vito Mannone, James Shea, Bacary Sagna, Thomas Vermaelen, Mikel Arteta, Johan Djourou, Per Mertesacker, Laurent Koscielny, Jack Wilshere, Olivier Giroud, Santi Cazorla, Andre Santos, Lukas Podolski, Theo Walcott, Andrey Arshavin, Carl Jenkinson, Francis Coquelin, Marouane Chamakh. I’d try Jenks, Per, Kos, Sagna Arteta, Coq Wilshere Santi, Giroud, Arshavin We need width, badly. Verm, Poldi, and Santos should be dropped. Poldi could make an impact as a sub. Walcott if fit, should come on at 60min. How did we end up here? Team seems so weak up front. I thought losing Gervinho might be a blessing in… Read more »
Might be best, as Santi could throw some crosses up for Giroud, who hasn’t gotten decent service for most of the season thus far. I like Podolski, but he’s not at his best with Santos. Hoping we can get some of our injured players back!
With a bit of luck Walcott could be OK for tomorrow. When Wenger said he was ‘sick’ I thought he was using the word in the US sense of ‘ill’, probably with something like flu, but the press conference (German version on uefa dot com) makes it clear that he’s been ‘sick’ as in puking. Shouldn’t take more than 24 hours to recover, then?
Santos, Santos, Santos, blah, blah, shirt, Santos. Gibbs is clearly missed, but Santos is not the reason we pass the ball back to Mertesacker every other pass. Why do we do that?
Hate to say this but this could be a blessing in disguise.
Rambo’s form like many others has been shit on a stick stuff since the International break.
The Ramsey from the Man City game is no where to be seen.
Maybe Arshavin will get a run out now or Santi can go out wide as well.
I think these two are the only two on the team that can make a decent cross!
The fact still remains we have players that can play much better than what they are doing now regardless of the opposition. Mr Wenger isn’t getting it right tactically and that beats me. Also playing too many players out of position is worrisome while not willing to try quality players out of position is also mind-buggling. What happens to trying Carzola on either wings(now that Wilshere is back),Sagna on the left and Poldi as CF? These guys aren’t serious the way we want this club to move forward,profit is the name of their game while fans pay thru their noses… Read more »