Arsene Wenger says it’s easier for him to rotate his squad these days because the overall quality of player he has at his disposal is better than ever.
For example, if Arsenal lose a player as important as Per Mertesacker, there’s now Gabriel to take his place. Hector Bellerin is left behind, and we can call on hugely experienced French international Mathieu Debuchy.
And that, according to the Arsenal manager, enables him to make changes more confidently than in the past to keep his squad fresh.
“I have a squad of 20 players, all experienced and every decision I make is very difficult,” he said.
“It is quite easy to change two or three players, more than it was in years before because they are all at a very good level.
“I know the same team cannot play every single game over the next three weeks. I try to keep the balance right and give a little breather to players who need it.”
Kieran Gibbs, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Mikel Arteta and Olivier Giroud could all come into the side for tomorrow night’s Champions League opener against Dinamo Zagreb.
Arsenal will be looking to avoid the terrible start made by both Manchester clubs who lost this evening – City going down 2-1 at home to Juventus while in Holland PSV came out winners over United by the same scoreline.
I don’t care about the Manchester clubs, but I do want English clubs to win group stage games in the Champions League for the UEFA coefficients ranking, which benefits us in the big picture. Let’s win this opener, gunners!
The only times you want the Manchester clubs to win, they dont..
I don’t normally what United to win. But when I do, they don’t.
want*, damn fat fingers
I only really care if they win if it’s going to affect my multi!
Start wanting them to win every game. Then they will be relegated.
I like the way you think. Upper management material.
You are living in the past mate, we no longer fight for the 4th place trophy.
It’s for teams like United, Tots and Liverpool to worry about.
Any time United loose it’s fun to watch!
I’m a Dutchman and a boyhood Ajax fan and besides, as an arsenal fan you should know that is somewhat short sighted!
Personally I only ever want Arsenal to win and couldn’t care less about any other English team. If they don’t play in red and white and are called Arsenal I don’t give a shit.
You misspelled that last word. It’s spelled T-O-T-T-E-N-H-A-M.
If we win the league the co-efficient is irrelevant to us and it might mean that Manure or Chelsea play Europa league.
Simple, let’s win the league title then and make Manure watch Champions football on TV next season so that they can go bust
GOYG!
Just win, nothing else, coyg!!!!
This is the first time since we got to the champions league final that we have a really strong squad.
Since then, if we lost one of Rambo or Jack or Theo or Kosc we were in total disarray. At last we can cope.
Shaw’s loss, for example, is massive I’m delighted to say.
COYG!!!
what a truly terrible and needless thing to say…
I”m not delighted about Shaw’s injury obviously Andy.
But I truly Hate Man.U.
I get what your saying about Shaw (as in important rival team player being injured), but the injury he got was terrible, and I would not wish that upon any other player from any team. Espcially with our history of horrendous leg/ankle breaks…
I didn’t mean Shaw”s injury, I truly hate Man U
Given what Ramsey and Eduardo had to go through, I don’t think that’s a very good thing to say.
Your comment is in very poor taste.
I’m delighted to say you’re a horrible human being
Come on now. That’s not nice. We’ve had our share of breaks.
Seeing a young guy break his leg is never a nice thing regardless of who he plays for. Id be disgusted if anyone felt that way when ramsey did the same. We are better than that.
sorry dude, I was watching that game and it made my stomach turn. We’ve been on the bad side more than enough. If you’re in any way happy that a rival player gets taken out that way, then you’re not
right in the head. I’d much rather beat the Man scUm without any excuses let alone feeling gutted for one of their more likeable players.
Funny would be to watch you fall into an open sewer ando die
And your trying to take the moral high ground with a reply like that.
It was a terrible injury, nothing you should wish upon any player. However I’m actually glad United scums had to go through this, having seen Arsenal being kicked off the park to 3 major leg breaks, all starting from that fucking cunt Alex Ferguson introducing the coward tactic, forcing the refs and media to buy into it and all we ever hear from United fans then was “Arsenal are a soft touch.” I bet they’re singing a different tune now, and rightly so as bad challenges deserve absolutely no place in the game.
There was absolutely nothing delightful about Shaw’s injury. People like you give football fans a bad name.
I think he meant to say that he is shocked and saddened by the bad injury that Shaw has suffered, and that is never something to celebrate, but having said that, it weakens United and a weaker United is always something to celebrate.
You wouldn’t wish food poisoning on anybody, especially from eating lasagne, but seriously folks, who was pleased that Sp*rs were weakened at a crucial time? Admit it, we all were.
should be
cech
debuchy-gab-kos-gibbs
arteta-santi
ox-oz-alexis
olly
Not a bad line-up at all, but I’d just love to see both Walcott and Giroud on the pitch at the same time at some point. With Giroud holding the ball up and drawing players to him, that frees up a lot of space for Walcott to utilize. I think the two of them playing together is a recipe for goals.
Where’s Rosicky?
injured
You wouldn’t rest “Action Man” Alexis???
No, he actually experiences more stress when he’s not playing than when he is.
This ↑
yeah, i say give campbell a game and let alexis come off the bench.
Chambers has been talking to the official site on how important a win is. Maybe arsene will give him a start?
I’d probably go with that line-up but swap out Giroud for Walcott because their manager has already told us that they will set up to attack us. That will leave gaps for Walcott to get in where he can do damage. However, we might also need to swap out Arteta for Le Coq in order to stiffen the defence so that we don’t lose at the back any advantage we gain up front. If Wenger does decide to go with Giroud then the list as given should be OK as a starting line-up, with le Coq coming in if we… Read more »
Come on you Gunners!!
After some of the terrible injuries some of our players have suffered I wish Shaw well. A horrible injury.
Remind me again; how much did Starvling, De Boring, Martial (or is that Partial) and Paedro cost?
Arsene is like Obi Wan.
Try the Daily Mail comments section. You’d fit in well there.
It’s very comforting knowing we have the squad depth that allows us to better cope with injuries and allows for a little squad rotation! On the topic of injuries I do hope that Shaw has a speedy recovery. Was a real nasty one that.
Wilshere out again. W T actual F! I think it’s time to get him fit and get rid and trade up for Gotze or Reus.
Another comment in poor taste.
I’m truly sorry that I gave the impression that I was delighted about the injury.
It was purely hatred of his team.
Gooner til I die.
The issue I have with that is the word “hatred”. Maybe its because I became a football fan in my early twenties, rather than being indoctrinated from childhood, but to “hate” a football team, or a player because they play for that team, is something I really struggle with. At the first Arsenal game I ever attended there was a chant of “Stand Up If You Hate Tottenham”, and everyone around me stood up, completely ignoring the game and just uniting in their hatred. We were playing Aston Villa. So, I don’t “hate” United, or Spurs, or Chelsea, or Stoke,… Read more »
‘Maybe its because I became a football fan in my early twenties,’
well thats the catch, you are a fan of football, we are fans of The Arsenal and whoever stands in our way is a cunt to be hated mocked and ridiculed.
especially those who need 1 billion of investment to beat our denilsons and almunias
The true determination of whether you mean “football fan” hate or “utter cunt who I would be ashamed to have as a fellow Gooner” hate is whether that hatred would turn to violence or intimidation when face to face with one of the “hated” enemy. Would you smack John Terry in the mouth just because he was John Terry? Would you beat up a Sp*rs fan if you met him in a dark alley? If the answer to either question is “Yes” then you are an utter plonker and don’t deserve to call yourself a Gooner. 99.99% of Gooners that… Read more »
I agree. Except maybe for Mourinho. And Terry. And Nasri. And van Persie’s inner little girl. “Hate” here has to mean “in the context of sport.” That’s what gets forgotten sometimes, so hate becomes “in the context of humanity.” So Terry falling over is simply delightful; a terrible leg break stretches beyond sport and back into humanity.
I agree it’d interesting with both big G and Theo up top. Maybe have Theo based on the right wing but with a little Ibra-Cavani type of free movement. Theo could really take advantage of Ollies hold up play.
agree, I think they could really complement each other
It is great to see that we have some quality in the squad depth. With our injury luck and already having Jack and Welbz out long term is certainly going to test our depth.
Best squad in many years.
Considering we have a ridiculous amount of games in these next few weeks, I dont get how peoples wanting to have both our strikers to play together in games.. They’ll burned out at the same time. We dont have Welbeck yet, and our other striker is seemingly not giving out his LW slot.
…because we finally have quality and experience in all areas of the squad. Not just quality bought and brought in but also quality developed. It has taken Arsene 5 seasons to restructure. Arguably he started working on redeveloping the squad when he added Arteta. He realise the Arsenal future base on the youth team alone was not going to happen. But he had to await the stadium debt to stabilise plus new sponsorship deals to come through. Also his work was hampered by the annual departure of two key players per season starting with Fabregas (Arguably maybe as long ago… Read more »
shut up meg.
Sounds like Arsène has mastered football manager ?
“He realise the Arsenal future base on the youth team alone was not going to happen.” – No, this is wrong. He went into the whole stadium thing with eyes wide open knowing beforehand that he might need to rely on young and relatively inexperienced players, buy them young a develop them internally, until the stadium and ‘necessary’ sponsorship deals were stabilised/updated. The only thing he could not plan for was the influx of oil money to upset the existing status quo. That made it harder but didn’t change his long-term plans, and he was always working to a timetable.… Read more »
Maybe Wenger wants us to KNOW that he has 2 Strikers in the squad already so he doesn’t want both of them on the field at once. I have wished for Theo and HFB to start together. . .that puts more pressure on the opposition. HFB’s presence will give Theo and Alexis much needed room
…and maybe he’s worried that as they haven’t played together very much that he shouldn’t change that now when there is no senior backup for them.
Worst case scenario: He plays them both. Through not playing together often enough they both runfor a cross into the same bit of space at the near post, crash into each other, and both get broken legs. Season Screwed.
Certainly a tough ask to travel to Croatia for a Weds match and return to play at Chelsea for an early Saturday match so hopefully can rotate a great deal, though of course that has risks in itself of getting too many players out there that haven’t had much time lately. Fortunately Chelsea plays today as well, though they are at home so do not have to travel like we do. It is important for us to start strong in the group stages as this is a road match we need to get three points from knowing that it will… Read more »
Good to see Jenko on this list:
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/9992435/who-is-the-fastest-premier-league-player-tracking-data-tells-us
Suprised Bellarin isn’t even in the top 20
These are just in-match, this season. It might be a good thing he’s not meaning he isn’t having to chase back in trouble!
What I get from looking at that, is that with one obvious exception, ugly players learn to run faster younger.
I know what I’m talking about. I’m an ugly and I spent my first 18 years running away from nasty handsome bastards.
Anyone here fancy ospina?
he’s not really my type to be honest.
Apparently not.