Wojciech Szczesny has been ‘rested’ for tomorrow night’s Champions League tie with Bayern Munich.
The Polish keeper will stay in London as Lukas Fabianski comes back into the squad for the first time this season. Although Vito Mannone has played 13 times it’s believed that Fabianski will start the game.
It’s something of a gamble for Arsene Wenger but perhaps he feels Szczesny could do with some competition, and unless he plays other keepers he’s existing in something of a comfort zone.
Although he’s made a few mistakes this season – most notably in the recent win over Aston Villa – he did put in a match winning performance against Sunderland just a couple of weeks previously.
The reality is, however, that neither Fabianski, who has spoken of his desire to leave, or Mannone, provide genuine competition to the Arsenal number 1.
Meanwhile, Lukas Podolski has been confirmed as an injury absentee while Abou Diaby has travelled to Munich.
Full squad: Fabianski, Mannone, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Koscielny, Gibbs, Arteta, Coquelin, Ramsey, Diaby, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Rosicky, Cazorla, Walcott, Giroud, Gervinho, Arshavin
Everything is coming together for Arshavin to score 4. All assists coming from Gervinho of course.
Too bad Squallici is not in the squad to be on hand to make an 89th minute goal line clearance that gives Arsenal the win!
I think squid is so fond of own goals. He probably doesn’t what a goal line clearance is anymore….may even just guide the ball in.
Wow!!You totally got the humor
Your joke and a black hole have one thing in common you know?
THEY BOTH SUCK!
If we play Squid up front, he might confuse the opponent’s goal with ours and score a few
Fucks sake. Could’ve announced this yesterday. My £100 on Arsenal to qualify looks like a joke now, not to mention I would’ve got better odds if I still felt brave/stupid. Hoping Flappy-handski has the game of his life now.
Agunner- sorry to say but your £100 bet looked a joke before this news. 🙂
He meant £1.00
Still a waste if you ask me!!!
Lol I know but after what we almost did to Milan last year, you never know. Besides, if it were to come through, £5k don’t sound bad!
If my Auntie had balls…………..
It’s a shame Sylvestre isn’t still with us. I bet we could disguise him as one of the Munich players and get him to score the first own-goal hat-trick in the history of the Champion’s league
Not sure why arshavin hasn’t been playing more often
Because he is fat and was deemed surplus even last season. AW would have played him and Rosicky every minute of the season if they were remotely useful. We are crying out for some end product which these players were once known for bringing to the team.
Fabianski to score the winner completely by accident from a goal kick.
I wonder what the odds are on that?
Still, who’s to say Fabianski won’t put in a good performance? He has to convince potential buyers of his quality.
Weird turn of events. Podolski is a mighty blow.
Please, Super Tom, turn on some magic and write your name in our history.
Should rest the starting 11
Arsenal fans are advised to watch the match under influence of drugs.
* A public service message brought to you by Arsenal Football Club.
That’s our very good full squad. Yes, some toke for me please. Haha
Is booze ok?
Ox/Arshavin-Giroud-Walcott
Rosicky-Cazorla-Arteta
Anyone? Surprise them, and go for it.
However, expecting Ramsey or Diaby to fit in somewhere in there sadly.
Whatever happens, just hope Rosicky plays tbh!
The way you’ve got it set up we have no one to help Arteta out in defensive mid. Ramsey should start, and neither Ox or Arshavin should. Ramsey has been playing great football since January, putting in shift after shift. Watch the Sunderland, Tottenham or West Ham games and take note. Ox has not. Watch the Blackburn game and take note. Arshavin has not even seen the football pitch save for his 15 minute stint against Chelsea where he was fairly useless anyway. How do you base your judgements on who to field?
Okay, Arshavin definitely won’t start, but here’s why I don’t think Ramsey should this one. Here’s why: 1. We need to go all out attack. Ramsey and Arteta both offer zero attacking threat and for me, basically do the same thing. Also, if you didn’t see it, it didn’t quite work last time around against Bayern at home, why do you think it’ll work away? Let’s try something different. 2. No one to help out Arteta? Let me remind you, isn’t our first choice mid combo Wilshere-Cazorla-Arteta? Wilshere is more lightweight and hardly defensive. 3. Rosicky is NOT bad defensively.… Read more »
Santi – wilshere – arterta did not work and i dont expect it to ever work. Wilshere’s game is such that he always tends to go forward and attack. This leaves a hole behind and also exposes arterta who I should remind you starts most our attacks. Now if some team wants to stifle us, they simply have to press arterta (or put a man on him). That is why we have been playing a double pivot. The only other solution to this is to play an even higher defensive line(like barca do). Obviously with mertesacker occupying one of the… Read more »
It’s going to be Cazorla- Giroud- Walcott; Rosicky- Arteta- Ramsey. Ramsey is in for the defense to help Jenkinson and Arteta.
Arteta should take all free kicks, by the way. Step aside, Theo.
As poor as Szczesny has been he is still capable of winning/saving a match on his own like a did against Sundlerand. Without him and especially Jack we have absolutely NO chance.Might as well rest Cazorla for this one.
Fabianski ‘something of a gamble’? You’re a master of understatement. Suicide – the lunatic self-destruction of a team, of a club, not to mention of the manager himself, before a global audience of millions would be nearer the mark. Wenger is doing a good impression of a lemming tearing full tilt towards a cliff.
I don’t think Mannone’s too bad.
Fabianski isn’t always that bad either to be fair. The problem with our goalkeepers is that they ALL seem capable of playing well for a while, then just doing something absolutely retarded completely out of the blue – usually when we least need it as well. I reckon its something the younger lads picked up from Almunia personally!
Fabianski is excellent, undeniably so – just so long as no one is watching. Unfortunately when he’s on TV, like in Carling Cup semis v. Spurs, or the CL v. Porto, or any game with an audience of more than one person, as you say, his retarded side comes to the fore. The solution is for everyone to look the other way and talk among themselves as soon as the ball seems to be heading in his direction. This tactic may be necessary quite often tomorrow.
He’s like the invisible boy in the Mystery Men movie who can only turn invisible if no one is watching.
Lets just get this game out of the way and concentrate on over taking the spuds.
Was it Flapianski who gave the ball back to the Porto player for him to roll the ball into an open goal, I can look back and laugh at the sheer stupidity of his actions now. Possibly it can only be bettered by Manones ‘Kung fu’ missed clearance when he could have simply caught the ball. Do we actually have a goal keeping coach?
I believe it was yes. Never has the term epic fail been more appropriate!
So unfair. He had a terrible start to his Arsenal career, but when he was called upon at the beginning of the 10/11 season, he was excellent. I thought he looked the part, but then he got a long-term injury.
He was playing well, I remember going Wolves for a midweek game in the November, it was bitter cold. Fabianski was MOTM and made 5or 6 great saves. But there was still the danger of the ball lofted into the box at that time, I think Newcastle scored to beat us at home with their only attack by hoofing it to Carroll and Lucas came out and punched the air.
What’s sad is that I think our last exceptional performance by a keeper was after Szczeny got hurt in the return leg at Barca in the CL a couple of years back. With the side at 10-men (cough*bullshit card*cough), Almunia was outstanding. Gave us chance…
Too bad it was Drinky Pink Boots on the end of that ball.
Rested, eh? Probably the only player in the regular 1st team that doesn’t need resting, not the most believable official reason lol.
Wonder how long Diaby will last this time? I’m going to go with 30 minutes tops. Looking like an even more genius move not bothering to replace Song now that Jack’s injured again. God help us if Arteta or even worse, Santi get injured now.
Tell me again how Song and Jack are related in anyway? Song was a massive loss for us but he was the DM that we lack now. Jack is nothing close to a DM and will never be. So how are the two related again?
Because if we had brought in a decent replacement for Song it would have given us an extra midfielder to call on? Even just freeing up Arteta from having to start in a holding role so much would automatically give us a bit more of a chance to rotate midfielders, and possibly less chance of Jack seemingly being overplayed again, and consequently injured. As it stands now, the only real viable options to step in are the 2 most injury prone players in the squad – Diaby and Rosicky. Not a even case of having to replace like for absolute… Read more »
Quite. Do you have a theory about what’s going on, both in general and particularly about the ‘resting’ of Szczesny? I have. I’ve had one since last summer but have been trying to repress it. It was actually the sale of the Song that first aroused my suspicions. As you suggest, a very strange move when coupled with the failure to replace him or even to give Coquelin a chance to make the position his own. Have to laugh, though. Laughing seems the only appropriate response to this quite awesome act of self-destruction by Wenger. It’s Arsenal self-combusting in a… Read more »
You are forgetting about Ramsey. Our best midfielder as of late and has been let down by the form of those around him.
Its probably as good a theory as any lol. Truthfully I’ve given up trying to second guess a lot of the things that Arsene does, or rather the reasons for them. There are just far too many instances where he does something that appears to have absolutely no rhyme or reason behind it – it quite possibly means something logical in his world but it has the rest of the planet completely baffled.
Elly, I haven’t told you what my theory is! On Szczesny’s need to rest, Wenger says he’s had a long season and is mentally fatigued. Long season? When we’re only at the beginning of March? Besides Szczesny was injured in the summer/autumn so he’s in fact played less than six months. I can believe in the mental fatigue, though. Can’t imagine anything more fatiguing than watching the team’s bewildered labours and being powerless to help. Something tells me Wenger doesn’t appreciate feedback or suggestions from players. I woudn’t be astonished if Szczesny hadn’t got so frustrated he offered some; ditto… Read more »
Ahh ok, thought the theory was just that Arsene had utterly lost the plot and decided to go out in a blaze of glory kinda thing lol! But yes, its possible that something like that has occured, thinking about it. Would tie in with some of the rumours that were flying around at the time of the RVP saga as well – there was some talk of him having had a change of heart after seeing Santi + Poldi signed but Arsene basically told him too bad we’ve already factored in selling you, or something to that effect. Which would… Read more »
I like a conspiracy theory Miranda. If Szez is out of favour it makes it more annoying that Arsene turned down Lloris as he’d promised Szez 3 yrs as first team no 1.
One week before the 8-2 OT mauling I just knew in bones we were going to get a royal butt-fucking.
Here comes that same old feeling again.
I see a team full of guys with something to prove. The goalkeepers. Ox. Rosicky. Jenks. Vermaelen, Koscielny, Gibbs, Coquelin and . All have either played poorly, played infrequently or not played at all recently. Surely tonight’s the chance to prove they can play, should play and will play.
Given the available squad, I would love to see some tactical tinkering with the following 4-4-2 formation:
Mannone
Jenks, mert, kos, Gibbs
Ox, arteta, diaby, cazorla
Theo
Hfb
Take Diaby out and play Rosicky…he simply needs to start this match. Diaby is redundant if you have either Coq or Ramsey on the field, both of whom deserve to start way way before Diaby.
Quite agree, but unfortunately I doubt if Arsene will. I’ll be amazed if he doesn’t start Diaby, provided he’s actually fit and doesn’t manage to re-injure himself on the trip over there. Diaby’s seemingly one of Arsene’s ‘can do no wrong’ players, like Denilson was back in the day, he virtually always seems to start if he’s fit. I think a lot of people don’t necessarily pick up on that because he’s only fit once in a blue moon though! Not that he’s a bad player, in fact he can be absolutely devastating in the right circumstances, but I quite… Read more »
If there was one acquisition we know will happen this summer, its a GK. Flapianski out of contract & Vito wants out. As a sidenote, I fail to see the point of Cazorla playing on Wednesday. Was brilliantly ineffective in 1st leg & top 4 has to be the priority surely. Get TR7 & Chambo running at them & make them nervous, stranger things have happened
Fabianski
Jenkinson,Mertesacker,Koscielny,Gibbs
Arteta,Rosicky,Chamberlain/Ramsey
Walcott,Giroud,Cazorla
?
Great plan to get disqualified.
“?” Is my hero!
So Scsz gets rested for playing like a young ‘keeper does. What punishment does AW get for failing to coach the defence for neigh on 5 years?
Horse?
Darn.. open goal.
Gervinho would still have missed it. Nice finish, Blogs.
Or we stick to our regular formation, put cazorla out wife with Rosicky in the attacking midfield role
Ah! Autocorrect at its best
Haha I’m going to assume you meant ‘wide’ and weren’t actually suggesting starting Cazorla’s wife – I know we’re picking up a few injuries now but surely we’re not quite at that stage of desperateness! 😉
I think Twitchy’s missus is available. Better than Defoe apparently…
She must have bags of “Mental Strength” being able to live with those 2 bellends!
Fabianski? Don’t like this one bit.
Rosicky will slip in nicely on the left, he looked quite sharp the other day. Maybe start with Giroud up top, if he decides to play wank then let Theo have a go and get the Ox on right wing. Arshavin may make an appearance in second half, hopes he’s had a haircut and pulls out a champs league performance reminiscent of win against Barça… Can dream.
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha very funny
I’d go with John Terry for worlds biggest cunt all day long.
No 1 keeper rested for potentially the biggest game of the season….has wenger given up the ghost on tomorrow night already…..sir chesney must have been a naughty boy for this to happen….when did they fly out?
You know why Fabianski’s been out for so long?
Wenger has trained him to become an ultimate striker.
Bayern is finished!
Hahaha all the more funny because its actually almost believable… nothing would surprise me any more with Arsene!
Wenger’s tactics, lightyears ahead of the rest of the competition. Perhaps they sent him to a North Korean type ‘re-education camp’ for the past year.
Anyone know why he got the nick name Flappy handski?
Stay tuned to find out tonight!
Is that an offer? Because I think we play tomorrow night!!
Whoops.
Time-travel is a bitch. My apologies.
Or tomorrow night
F5 F5 F5!!!
Tomorrow
You need to change your name to THICKO!!!
I really hope Coquelin starts and Arteta’s pushed forward. But who am i kidding, we’ll play Tomas Rosicky, who for all his movement isn’t the most accurate of passers right now.
I think we really need to just go for this now. In my honest opinion if Gibbs is not 100% we should change things to a 3-2-3-2 formation and I would line up with:
Fabianski (WTF?)
Konscielny-Mertesacker-Vermalen
Arteta-Ramsey
Ox-Rosicky-Cazorla
Theo-Giroud
With Robben and Ribery out they will play a lot more narrow, so why bother with full backs, 3 centre backs with the mobile 2 of the 3 on the sides should keep us solid enough. We’ll have the upper hand in midfield and with Giroud taking knocks and flicking on for Theo, anything is possible.
Someone tell Wenger!
As lighting fast as Mertesacker is, I don’t think he is quite quick enough to hold the centre of a back 3.
I think you’ll find that Robben is playing. Either way, they still have Shaqiri and Mueller on the flanks.
Well at least we know that Wenger was talking shite when stating the impossible could be possible.
This team is being fielded with the expectation that nothing can be gained from this game.
I agree with this approach as Swansea is a much more improtant game than tomorrow’s (what a sad thing to say these days, but the truth).
On top of that it is mor ethan likely it will be many of the player’s last UCL game, for a year and a half at least (with fingers crossed).
3-1 Bayern (6-2 aggregate)…
The irony is we’ll probably still drop points against Swansea! 🙁
All AW does is talk shite. It’s really frustrating when you’re trying to get a handle on what’s going on with your club and he continually spouts absolute rubbish in every conference.
We r doomed.
Doing anything for paddys day?
I was planning a BBQ but after 2 days of Antarctic weather and unable to prize my testicles from my intestines I have decided to just go to the pub.
why is everyone so dissiponted with shezney and jack not playing ? NEWSFLaSH ! we wernt gona win it with our current squad ! what th point of being in the comp if we have no realistic chance of winning it !
There is a very fine line between genius and madness!!!
Sczcesny hasn’t been himself lately so if Fabs does screw up then its nothing short of what we have been seeing recently.
One thing that maybe for certain is Fabianski being massively up for this game. So much so that his head may explode.
After all why not take a gamble, we have already lost, haven’t we?????????
Love the optimism 🙁
this is unbelievable news. szczesny does need competition and has been inconsistent – but still our best keeper by a long way. fabianski’s contributions in europe have been diabolical.
i am hoping this is just a brilliant piece of pre-match spin…
Rested,he must be tired from taking the ball out of the net.He was so poor against 5pur2,very slow of his line for both goals it’s about time he got the boot.
Not sure you can lay the blame with szcz for those two. Not much he can do when our “defence” evaporates.
So diabolical that he is the reason we stayed alive in the group stages when we were staring down an away defeat to Partizan and he saved a penalty. People are sure quick to forget the good things our players have done.
so your idea of giving our number competition is aganist Swansea? We have a chance with to four, no chance in Munich. Give Fabianski a chance there
[…] 来源:[Arsenal News] […]
I thought everybody agreed we have no chance against Bayern after the debacle at the Emirates, so why not some massive squad rotation? After all, our second string was good enough to lose to Blackburn in the FA Cup; surely they must be good enough to lose to Bayern, so that we can exclusively concentrate on Top 4 and avoiding financial armageddon.
Diaby-Ramsey-Rosicky-Cazorla with Ramsey and Diaby rotating like Song and Arteta did. Or Ox can start in place of Diaby, he’s more combative and that will be required, his pace can create space, but, and this is why he should start, he can shoot from distance.
That being said Le Coq deserves a start. So he can take Diaby’s place.
I want over 20 shots in this game. I want us to trouble the keeper. I would love for us to win. COYG!!!! (I can dream)
If we are to have any chance of winning, we need Arshavin to have one of his “wonder” games (remember Liverpool?) mind you he was about four stone lighter then, who is our fitness coach ffs?
@Dial Square
One of his wonder games??????
I only remember the Liverpool game!
The rest looked like a chubby guy getting the odd good goal
Lets go thumbs down please
Let’s be fair now… The way I see it, since the trophy drought began Arsenal has had only two patches where we truly looked like ending it–the year Eduardo had his leg broken, and the month we whipped Chelsea and beat Barca at the Emirates… Who scored the second goal in the latter game? I’ll give you a hint–it wasn’t fucking Bendtner.
Not to say I think Arshavin will ever do anything again in an Arsenal shirt, I just think we should be fair. Shava was a great player who suddenly stopped being one. It happens.
We have two top class players in every position in fact this is the best Arsenal squad Wenger has had.
We will play with spirit and effort. We will win tomorrow by five goals and clinch the tie easily. The Arsenal Premiership – Champions league double is alive and well.
Anyone see the Linfield and Shamrock rovers game yesterday?
Thank god no one supports Northern Irish football except Linfield supporters.
Cazorla as LW, Rosicky as AMF! Ramsey and Arteta to be our midfield duo. COYG, at least put on a show!
All the evidence one needs to show that even Wonga knows there’s no chance for us on Wednesday.
This decision just underlines that Wenger is well and truly bonkers.
Yes, I know that it’s unlikely we’ll turn this around. But we have to give it a real go and at least try to get a morale-boosting draw. So Chez has looked a bit dogey recently – but we know that Flappyhandski is useless. What if we come close tomorrow? What if we lose out because of a typical Flappyhandski cock-up?
Wenger is mad.
Read between the lines i havent been impressed with him in goals this season and neither has many neutrals I have spoken to hes clearly getting the boot for a game if fabrianki does very well dont be suprised to see fabrianki play the rest of the games this season.
Id be amazed if we won tommorow. Last year we was playing better and we have RVP now this year we are playing a side that can easily sit back and defend their lead with np.
Lets be honest our defense this year has been shocking and we can easily get picked off tommorow i really hope im wrong but it looks impossible.
Final proof that Arsene Wenger has lost it. Another 8-2 result tomorrow and we’ll be rid of him at last.
I hope AW cements the utter mentalness of this season by starting the following (regardless of squad announcements):
GK- John Lukic
RB- Orville the Duck
LB- Zippy from Rainbow
CB- Geri Halliwell
CB- Squidachi
RM- Compare the Meerkat
CM- arshavin
LM- Jean Claude van Damme
RF- Pat Butcher
CF- Gervinho
LF- Geordie kick a ball
Yes this makes no sense. I am equal parts boredom and despair
Barca are shit bags
Don’t know why I hate these cunts but I do
Where is are Fabergas ?
AC Milan are fucking idiots. How hard is it with a 2 goal lead to just sit back and defend like Chelsea did last year its not diffucult.
Why did messi get all that room.
Barcelona didnt play well Milan just played terrible you want the truth they choked thats all there is to it.
When i think of Barca and Ac Milan,shit sandwich and glass of vomit come to mind.Vile cunts.
Seems AcMilian have mastered the art of bending over in 2nd legs knock out stages. Can’t believe they put 4 past us last year, were we high? Any team that doesnt stand up to cuntelona are cocks.
Can anyone else feel like the whole of Europe will be laughing when the champions league anthem comes on and we parade Flappyhandski, Gershitino, Arseshavin etc facepalm
I think we need a barca formation.
Vito
Jenki kos verma gibbs
arteta/coq/ramsey
Rosicky cazorla
Ox Giroud Walcott
please no Giroud, TV, Diaby…then we may have a slight chance.
fabianski / manone (not much difference)
jenk kos per gibbs
arterta coq ramsey
ox rosicky carzola
walcott
this lineup at the start will be able to giv a good attacking fight that we need!!
Surely a “Barca formation” would have Messi in it?
Which is sort of the point. With their squad they could deploy in a ring around the centre circle and still win.
if w can get 2 goals within the first half & not concede any…we will be in for a good fight til the end.
important is the players AW line up…as i suggested earlier.
please no TV, Diaby or gGiroud at the start…and of course Arshavin & Gervinho might as well dont even change to their gears!!
I’d give anything to be playing for Arsenal every week yet he needs to be “Mentally Rested”, I see this as a bigger sign, a new keeper in the summer to make him fight for his place?
Being the optimist I remind myself of how good Fabianski was for that brief period before Szczesny established himself. Come on Arsenal!
Finally! Hope this means Woijech Schechzny will learn NOT to give STUPID interviews before a match. I think what really p-eed Wenger off was his interview before the 1st-leg at the Emirates saying “I wouldn’t bet my money on Bayern Munich to beat Arsenal”… which pretty much guaranteed we’d get slaughtered. Can’t believe Spuds got Lloris. Can’t believe QPR got Cesar. Hope we can nip Michelle Vorm from Swansea in the Summer. Why couldn’t WE beat AC Milan 4-0 in the 2nd-leg at home last season? For the first time this season, I will be watching our team on TV… Read more »