Wojciech Szczesny will continue in goal this weekend in the absence of Lukasz Fabianski as Arsene Wenger admits he hasn’t yet decided who will play up front.
Fabianski injured his ribs against Norwich but the younger of the two Poles has come in and kept two clean sheets after some indifferent form this season.
Replacing Olivier Giroud is the biggest issue Wenger faces ahead of the visit of the champions on Sunday, but the boss ruled out a formation change as a solution.
Asked what he would do to cover for Giroud’s suspension, he said, “That’s not decided. We will keep the same structure of the team, but we’ll be less strong in air that’s for sure.”
Giroud’s absence has implications at the top end of the pitch, but also defensively where his height and aerial ability see him make an average of two defensive actions per game. Facing a team who have scored more goals from corners than any other and his presence may well be missed.
Wenger is confident, however, saying, “What we know is that we will need a great performance to beat Manchester United. That’s what we will focus on. We need total desire, commitment and focus to achieve what we want to achieve.”
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Updates via @arsenal and @johncrossmirror
Podolski to the rescue!!
Gerv to spank two past De Gea and finally earn the crowds adulation, as he finally figures out where the goal is!
There was a time wenger did sth and we were all like “wth he thinkin?!” but then it turned out using that french kid as a centr forward was the best thing he had ever done; so we always trusted him, but recently I just cant understand him anymore.. Its like he doesnt see the obvious sometimes 🙁 Poldi being our 4th choice for his fave position (after giroud, theo, gerv) is just one, forgeting the lovely russian, leavng subs till the very end, transfer policy… I really think he needs some new assistance, maybe he can pick a young… Read more »
Crafty Arsene, keeping his one tactical change a surprise.
i bet he already had made the decision within an hour of the sending-off of giroud and has been training the player all week to get the best out of him on sunday…….
No need to fear, I am here!
no you aren’t
All we are saying is ‘play podolsky up front ‘
Hopefully he’s more Podolski than Podolsky
Less strong in the air, I smell Walcott. Damn.
Everyone is less strong in the air than Giroud. Including our center halfs.
We’ll be sending goal kicks off to Sagna on the right, methinks. He’s the only player who can be relied on to win them.
Not the boss Koscielny! He’s immense in the air.
Walcott can be useful as C.F plus he wont have to let sagna suffer all alone in the wings as ox/gerv; more defensive minded players will help. Its a win win…i hope!
Win win.
by this logic. why not just take walcott entirely out of the game to keep sagna from suffering
Wow, take a step back to understand the gravity of this situation: 1) We’re about to play the biggest game of the season on Sunday, against the EPL champions, who happened to steal our captain last summer. 2) During this campaign we surrendered to Theo’s contract demands and made him our highest-paid player. 3) Despite being our highest-paid player, somebody comments that Theo is better off not on the pitch for such a massive game. 4) This comment receives 21 ‘thumbs up’ vs. only 1 ‘thumbs down’ 5) Unfortunately, I have no choice but to agree with the comment, contributing… Read more »
4-4-2 Pod and Walcott up front please!
If only we played 4-4-2, Ox and Santi on the wings with them 2 up front would be quite an impressive forward line.
I’m hoping next season it’s something Arsene starts exploring, then again I’ve been saying that for years….
I’m afraid 4-4-2 is dead.
Depends how you play it, a more creative striker who drops a little deeper isn’t much different to an attacking midfielder who gets forward.
Manure use it all the time, fergie is obsessed with wide players. Like fat Rooney lol.
My guess would be Walcott. Gervinho hasn’t featured since his awful performances, and Podolski doesn’t seem to be fit.
where have you been?
Fact: Arsenal was the last team to beat both dortmund and bayern in the champions league, we’re pretty special us gunners.
Its ramsey for C.F isn’t it arsene?
Btw if ramsey and walcott ever switched roles, wally would die by the 60th minute; I mean all that basic defending and hasslin, such a tough task!!!
Have to agree with Arseblog today. This game is not about Robin van Persie – personally, I couldn’t give a shit about him right now. Sunday’s match is all about the three points which we need to ensure we finish fourth. Hopefully, the United squad have all spent the last three days on the piss and won’t be up for a battle with a side who need it more than they do. By the way: I wouldn’t be surprised if the Dutch Skunk doesn’t start against us: I’m sure that he’s asked Old Red Face if he can miss this… Read more »
Fatgooner, let me tell you a little story. When I was at University last year I had a friend from Newcastle and he was always telling me how much of a cunt he thought Van Persie was. Naturally, I defended our top scorer and captain. However, after his antics this summer I am now very much inclined to agree that Van Persie is indeed a massive cunt. I now think he is one of the biggest cunts ever. The point of the story, (if I ever get to it) is that I have no doubt in my mind that instead… Read more »
hey x, i hear you’re a bit of a cunt too yourself these days.
x, are you trying to say that Van Persie is the cuntiest of cunts? That he is the acme of cuntishness? That no other cunt can even come close to him in terms of sheer cuntery?
I see you’ve read between the lines, I was afraid I wasn’t clear enough.
For me, as a gooner, yes.
BFG leading the line?
Mertestriker!!!
Play gevinho up front. He would run them crazy.
Gervinho against Phil Jones, I would actually love to see that.
if I see podolski in the left wing and walcott in the middle again, I am going nuts!!
[…] 来源：[Arseblog News] […]
Szczesny or Fabianski, Podolski or Giroud. Does it make any difference? In the summer of 2009 Adebayor and Toure left for City. Gloom and doom was predicted. Yet we went from fourth to 3rd that season. In the summer of 2011 we lost Cliche, Nasri and Fabregas yet by seasons end we improved from fourth to 3rd again. This summer we lost RVP and Song, and people have moaned endlessly about our whole season having been ruined. Yet we are on course to maintain 3rd and equal or better last seasons 70 points. The more things change the more they… Read more »
I like this logic. If we keep things the same this summer, we’ll change from 3rd to 2nd, maybe a cheeky 1st.
A very pragmatic yet correct opinion. 1st next season then
And we all know that the aim of Arsenal FC is to qualify for the Champions League, nothing more, nothing less, if you’re happy with that, fine.
So I guess you would be saying that Wenger has a lot to do with that then obviously?
I believe the ox has to start!
I think this game will be one of the best this season, because of how important it is to us champs wise and also I reckon the crowd and quite a few of the players will be extremely fired up from the pregame guard bollocks. If we can beat Bayern Munich away 2-0, we can give United a thrashing, so I hope we perform on the day – COYG!!!
Gervinho to take the first step in becoming an Arsenal legend by hitting a hat-trick and us beating the Title holders 3-0
Have they come out with the time machine yet? I want some of my earlier players… Y’know, like Patrick, Robert, Dennis and Thierry. Mental strength of gladiators right there.
Rambo, Arteta and Per have plenty of mental strength methinks.
I think we’re getting better at the zonal marking thing.
I think with Man Utd you need patience. We play the pressure game and we will win. No red cards please.
Everything is a problem for us,replacing a defensive striker is now an issue.
At least we wouldn’t see a big man on floor crying like those barca cheats,are we going to miss Giroud? No,those flick ons re,if not completely useless,COYG
but what of the CAM? do we use mozart or jack?
It’s gotta be Jack. He’s gonna be so up for this one.
Being “up for it” makes little difference you see. It’s about who is the better fit for the team and in form and in both of those ways Rosicky seems more apt for this game. Besides we all know the kind of things Wilshere sometimes does when he is a little too “up for it”, we really need 11 men on the field to do win me thinks 🙂
Gotta love Jack’s passion.
But he’s still young and when he’s “really up for it” he tends to underperform like he did against Bayern Munich.
Jack does a lot better when he’s “cool as a cucumber” like during the England friendly against Brazil. Plus, his ankle is not 100%.
For me, it’s Mozart all the way for this one. Experience counts in these “must fucking win or the fans suffer the most humilitating moment in Arsenal’s history AND a loss” situations.
Personally, I’d go for Podolski LW, Walcott ST, The OX RW
This is going to sound bizarre, but Arsene is in need of the mythical “Hail Mary” here. Why not Vermaelen? Before people laugh, he can hit the back of the net (13 goals in his first 2 seasons as a defender), he has strength, and can Defensively help out. Is it likley… Probably not. But if he can play Ramsey out wide, and Arshavin up top, and Eboue wherever he wanted, it does not seem too far out of the realm of reality.
…. what?
I’d be interested to see it but CB to Cf is very different from AM to CF or CM to RM, or Eboue to wherever for that matter.
Brilliant idea, and why not play “where’s Wally” at centre half while your at it!!
I was thinking something similar Welsh, but maybe for last 20mins if we take off Pod and Grev.
Vermalen would cause utter chaos to their defence.
Like he did to ours.
Podolski down the middle. The Ox and Theo out wide central midfield Arteta, Ramsey and Santi. Defence only decision to make Nacho or Gibbs. Jack TR7 and Gerv to come off the bench if needed.
Personally I’d have Giggs on the left, Michael Jordan at the front and Buzz Aldrin covering both right flanks.
Now for some tea
Don’t care how you manage to do it, just win the fucking game! (pretty please with sugar on top)
I hate to say it cause he’s been utter shit lately, but with the BFG not being 100% the only option is to play Wallcott as a striker, on the plus side it will mean Utd will defend deep and we can boss the midfield, on the down side – Theo will have to score a couple of goals…
Personally, I’d like Walcott down the middle. His last good run of form was there, and we racked up goals, although it helped that the opponents were Reading and Newcastle.
Unfortunately, that highlights my fear with Walcott. He led the team in scoring by running riot on teams like reading and Newcastle. He’s fairly easily neutralized by quality teams.
Spend 60 million on cavani, arsene i know you wish you had him.