Arsene Wenger has revealed the latest team news ahead of tomorrow’s FA Cup clash with Sp*rs.
As expected Nicklas Bendtner is out after an ankle sprain against Cardiff on Wednesday, and while Olivier Giroud’s ankle is better the Frenchman is ill and looks likely to miss the game.
German international Mesut Ozil will face a fitness test on his shoulder, while Kieran Gibbs and Aaron Ramsey remain sidelined. Other than that there appears to a clean bill of health and a decent group for the manager to choose from.
However, he did hint that some players are carrying potential injuries which may impact on his team selection. “We want to win the next game, that is vital for us and I would only rest players who could get injured.”
The boss called on his team to perform against a Sp*rs side buoyed by recent results.
“You want to keep your focus and get into the competition with full power,” he said. “We haven’t drawn a small team. Tottenham got a good result at Manchester, their confidence will be up.”
—
Quotes via @arsenal
we have to be the most frequently sick team in europe drink some goddamn orange juice
It’s a shame Arsenal haven’t got the benefit of your medical expertise. 😉
Is it possible that flu has no cure?
Because if orange juice is the answer then you should be protected by the government or something.
I think this is someway related to Diaby
Diaby is clearly a fomite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fomite
I have a couple of spare neurofen in my cupboard if he wants them!
I am naked if he wants me
ok,lets see how it goes but better stil we nees to reinforce d team by injecting or bringin in a fresh bloodded-striker that can help the team stay focused. Think about it Mr. Wenger
“the” not “d”
I think Jack should get another run out through the middle. Rosicky too should start. If need be bring in Gnabry. I’m pretty sure we got this!
I think we are cursed or something. We need to please the god of diseases. We should have sacrificed and offered Nasri and Van Persie to the gods instead of letting them go.
We are cursed by the God of Illness (although we managed to get him on-side on Lasagna Day)!
We also seem to have an eternal enmity with the God of broken legs.
And the God of Good Refereeing Decisions doesn’t even seem to be aware of our existence!
But..
We’re still top of the league.
And we’re still gonna knock the spuds out of the cup!
COME ON ARSENAL!!
Liking your post just because it had 8 likes and 2 dislikes
What is up with this “virus” or “bug” or “ill” problem? Why only Arsenal?
i don’t think the players in other teams have so much of this? Is it something the players ate? Did they have lack of sleep? Or training methods?
Strange.
Time to stop serving that lasagne at London Colney!
The fact that the other 10% of the HFB is still available for selection shows once again just how committed he is to the cause.
10% of him just point black refused to get sick.
No wonder, everytime I look at the opposition’s name I get sick too.
The question is who will play upfront.
Wenger: “We’ve not drawn a small team”.
Says a lot. 😀
Hey hey hey. Why worry? 11 ill arsenal players can bury the spuds on the pitch any day. This is Sparta!! err..Emirates. COYG.
Time for me to sneak into the spurs dressingroom, I got work to do.
poor giroud…his handsomeness will be missed at the pitch. And i hope ozil will be fit against the sp*ds, we need our king of assists. COYG!
So Basically they’re all FIT.
This is Theo’s time to shine. Actually, would be nice to see some goals from theo, cazorla and podolski. Up
The Arse!
Have to disagree with Wenger here
“we’ve not drawn a small team”
Were we watching the same draw Arsene coz Sp*rs came up in mine.
Am I the only Gooner who doesn’t really care too much about tomorrow’s game? Ok, it’s always great putting one over the Scum; but let’s be honest: the FA Cup just doesn’t mean that much any more, does it? In the old days winning it used to be really special, but nowadays it comes a long, distant third behind the Premier League and Champions’ League in terms of prestige. Slag me off if you want to, but I would prefer to lose to Spurs tomorrow but beat Aston Villa Monday week. The Premier League title is what’s really important now.… Read more »
I’d most certainly echo your sentiments if the opponent wasn’t The spuds, as you’ve mentioned. I do feel as you do though that supreme focus should be put on the premiership. Obviously well have to bring our A game to Munich but we can fret that when the time comes, for now lets just win whatever games next on the fixture list. All we should be concerned about as supporters. Love the boss, but I prefer to let him sweat over these kind of decisions, and trust.
I dunno, there’s still the same arguments for it as the last few years despite us being in a good position in the league i.e. it’s a trophy and winning begets winning, plus it stops the bloody annoying ‘8 years since a trophy’ thing.
I’d rather win the league but it’s still the FA cup, and the change of momentum in NLD can often help the winner beyond the match.
How about we win sp*ds nd then go to the villa game with an “unill” squad filled with confidence to return the favour they did us at the beginning of the season….COYG
I agree. For years I thought the domestic cups, especially the FA cup with its demoralising, energy-sapping replays, should be left to the kids. The first-team players clearly loathe these comps, as shown by their inability to manage better than a draw against the likes of Orient and Leeds. There’s no prestige in the domestic cups any more – who cares that we’re out of the Capital One? – and, let’s face it, our chances of winning are zero. We’re more likely to beat Bayern than someone like Bolton – remember Birmingham, Bradford and Blackburn. Lower-league sides love a cup… Read more »
Not to reject history, and due to the fact I live in the states, I’ve never felt that connection towards the FA Cup…I’m sure in England it’s very similar to the intensity of college basketballs march madness. Which we hold near, and dear. I would never disrespect such a long standing competitive competition that garners the utmost respect from the football world. With that being said, a trophy is a trophy, and the word settle just didn’t sound right coming out of a passionate fans mouth. But I would most definitely not complain if we have the opportunity to raise… Read more »
Yep, a great English tradition, but take a look at the rhetoric which tells you all you need to know about what the FA Cup is about. ‘Giant-killing’, ‘plucky underdog’, ‘fantastic family day out’. Giant killing = crap team wins by kicking skilful team off its ploughed field. Fantastic family day out = people who don’t watch football or like it. It’s a celebration of anti-football, all about blood and guts and desire, which may be why our kids have always done better than the first team in these comps. They’re more up for it, a big asset in a… Read more »
The cunt packs
sczney,
jenko,tv5,mertsacker,monreal
Gnabry,flamini,rosikcy,zelalam,walshott
podolski
should be enough to do a job
What’s with you and Walshott? Is this like how every conservative in America has their own play on Obama’s name?
“I call him Walshott because he takes shots that I don’t like.” Is that it? Is the answer that boring?
He’s mispelled half of the team.
Tottenham the chicken will want to get a point @ emirates.I also wonder every after one Arsenal player get back from injury another joins the injury list its a circulation thing at Arsenal every jim and jack joins the injury list maybe its part of the contract these people sign who ones.
you don’t get points in FA cup games.
We definateley need a new striker, as we did before the season started, yes Giroud is good but he needs help, Bendtner not good enough and Podolski brilliant but not as an out and out striker as is Walcott, with all the injuries mounting is shows that our squad is not deep enough , we are only a couple of injuries away from disaster
Being drawn against the Spuds is a blessing in disguise… Although we beat them at the Emirates in September, we didn’t get a chance to do it 5-2! Hopefully we can make it a hattrick of 5-2s tomorrow!
Scz
Bac
Kos
TV5
Monreal
Flamini
Jack
Walcott
Santi
Ros
Pod
@fatgooner, tomorrows game is important, the FA cup is prob our best chance of a trophy, and a trophy puts to bed all the negativaty of having not won a trophy in 8 or so years that the media loves to spout. Yes the league is more important but can you honestly see us winning it with our squad? without 2 massive January signings? Man City will win the league, we need the Fa cup
I really cannot fathom this attitude, it’s a loser’s attitude. Of course we can win the league!
After playing every team once already (Cardiff twice) we are still top of the fucking league! How pessimistic and sad can you be for still thinking we can’t win it? Have some faith, for fuck’s sake.. Worse than the MOTD pundits.
Not forgetting the fact that we’ve done it largely without Theo, Podolski and the Ox. Theo is now back to his scoring at will attitude he had last year. Podolski will start thumping them in on the left hand side. Wilshere is also taking the reigns in Ramsey’s absence. We have a very very strong determination to winning the games against teams outside the top 4. Man City are still shaky as hell away from home. We’re over half way there, before Cardiff, we had 42 points on the board, if we do the same again, that’s 84 points on… Read more »
And I get called negative! Let me see: 1. After over half way through the season we are top of the League. 2. Our biggest rivals, Man City, still have to come to Ashburton Grove. 3. In the calendar year of 2013 we won more points than any other side. 4. We have the best away record in the League. That sounds pretty promising to me. Yes, I agree that Man City are probably still favourites to win the title, but we are well in the mix. Away at Swansea on Wednesday City were luck to win it. A couple… Read more »
When Fatgooner tells you that you are negative, you know something is wrong.
Bang on FG, City are tremendous at home, but they really struggle at away games. I guess they don’t like the crowds watching them, seeing as they are used to their odd lot looking away from the pitch.
Even we can play chuba akpom as our main striker, he is still better than our opponents £30m striker who can score goals only in penalties :p
Hey, you make Chuba Akpom looks bad with your comment
Scz 1
Bac 3 Mert 4 Kos 6 Monreal
Flames 20
Jack 10 Cazorla 19 Rosicky 7
Walcott 14
Podolski 9
I think we might be wise to stick Theo up top for this game. Imagine him pitched up on the shoulder of Michael Dawson. The spud wouldn’t stand a chance. We could stick Gnabry in on the right too. With Spurs being weak at left back I think we could fashion a fair number of chances from there.
Spurs are also often playing a very high line, should be an opportunity for someone with Walcott’s pace. Mind you, he could do that from the right as well.
(Haven’t seen much of Sp*rs since AVB left, so I don’t know if the high line is something they’ve changed since)
Should be an interesting game tomorrow. Since it´s a derby it won´t matter as much as usal who plays, it will be a nice little war for 90+minutes.
Hopefully we will get an ugly, undeserved goal in the last minute so we can all laugh at Spurs 🙂
We do not need another striker we need a new medical staff.period.this injury stuff is be going on for years now.
someone said in a post that we are the number team in Europe for injury. Sad but true.
I don’t think that they are injured, they are being rested. Ozil and Giroud needed a long rest to return to their form.
our next game isn’t until the 13th! We go in full tilt, strongest squad, tell them to batter those fuckers till the final whistle. then they all get a few days off. a week to prepare for villa. priorities doesn’t need to come into it.
I cant say I know much about Chuba apart from he scored few goals pre season and looked like a good prospect with perhaps some experience from going out on loan. Does anyone think he is good enough to play at least on the bench? I think that sometimes young players can surprise when thrown into the deep end and I hear he is very good prospect.
By the way after his last comnents im getting “fat gunner” tattooed on my arse. Love the optimism and totally agree we xan do it but lets fuck the spuds on the way.
There’s no reason not to take this match very seriously – the FA Cup is an important competition and an important trophy. We should put our absolutely best available XI out there and kick jack shit out of the Scum. Another 5-2 would be nice. 8-0 would be even better. I cannot describe how much I want us not just to win this match, but to beat down, humiliate, and piss on Spurms. I’d like to see Podolski on the left and Walcott up front. Dawson won’t stand a chance. Szczesny Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal Flamini, Wilshere Rosicky, Cazorla, Podolski… Read more »
You sound little over obsessive and although I like to piss on the scum like to assess the game with more reality than we are going to fook these cunts. I recommend a good wank gets things into better perspective.
The sort of ‘adventurous’ game Sherwood has Spurs playing at the moment may suit Podolski and Walcott on the break. The trick will be to hold solid defensively against their two strikers (should they elect to do so) and be able to hit quickly on the break. Rosicky, Santi and Jack (+Arteta) will have to transition us as quickly as possible and find BOTH Podolski or Walcott as outlets working in tandem (closer to a 4-4-2 for us in that respect) Spurs will likely try and pack in the middle with their surfeit of ‘tall bruising DMs’ (orcs) Thereby our… Read more »
Though I don’t think that missing a match due to illness can be counted as “rest,” I’m somewhat glad that Giroud will sit this one out. Hopefully the time will sort out any lingering knocks that he’s been carrying. Will the Ox be on the bench at least?