Arsene Wenger says he’s yet to decide between Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud with regard to who will start up front against Chelsea tomorrow.
Walcott has two goals in his last two games, including the consolation in midweek, while Giroud has two so far in the Premier League this season. However, the French international appears to be in the doldrums, evidenced by his daft sending off against Dinamo Zagreb on Wednesday.
Having rested Walcott for that game, it seems he’s the man in the pole position, but at his press conference today the Arsenal manager says he hasn’t yet made up his mind.
“At the moment I must say that is a decision I still have to make tomorrow morning,” he said. “I try to use the best solution that gives us the most efficiency offensively.
“Every game is different and that is why I don’t deny at all the quality of Walcott. I am very happy that he scored so many goals in so many starts.
“He shows as well that when he comes on, he can score as well, which he did in Zagreb.”
Typically the press tried to stoke the fires between Wenger and Mourinho, but the Frenchman gave short shrift to those efforts.
“All I worry about is our performance tomorrow. All the rest honestly does not concern me much.
“People come to watch football and all the rest is a little bit secondary. What is important is the quality of what we will see tomorrow morning at 12.45 and you want people to focus on that.”
Asked if there would be a handshake, he said, “I don’t want to talk about that. I have nothing more to say about this situation.”
Of course, Wenger didn’t say who he was deciding between. I reckon it’s a close call between Walcott and Mertesacker.
What is there to decide? I think giroud have made the decision easy for everybody. Also who would resist the temptation of seeing cunty slow terry against walcott’s blistery pacy?
The only downside is if they park the bus and walcott has no space to run into,just have to catch them on the break.
Then you chuck Giroud on.
I still want to see BOTH of them on. I think Giroud in the middle with Walcott on the right is a licence to score goals.
Help me Alex Iwobi, you’re my only hope.
I’m pretty sure he has fully decided and doesn’t want to give his hand away. I don’t know why journalist ask these questions sometimes.
Maybe Wenger thought they were asking about his Fantasy Football team.
I’d start Walcott personally. We won in the Community Shield because we loaded our side with pace and took the game to them. Mourinho moaned after that our football was negative but we were tactically smart and he hated it.
This Chelsea team are struggling and ageing. They will struggle with Walcott and Sanchez facing them, particularly Ivanovic who’s looking woeful this year.
I say play the Ox at number 9. Further away from our goal he is, the better.. ?
Cards close to chest but the decision is made, it’s Theo 100%..Giroud could have a big impact from the bench though, we will see him at some point..
At this point, I would take Giroud off the firing line. Love him, but he needs to fix his attitude. Walcott by default.
Well put Rohith, couldn’t have said better myself…
The only way to stoke the fire between Wenger and Mourinho is to actually set fire to Stoke
Don’t we all wish!
Pariah, that is hilarious…..
Go with Walcott, he is on a scoring run at the moment and to keep it going he needs to start every game.
Giroud would be a good option coming from the bench, and not starting him may give Giroud a little kick in the backside!
COME ON YOU GUNNERS!
“tomorrow morning at 12.45”!! BT Sport and Sky are really fucking about with viewing times.
On the plus side, though, if that were true I could watch it at 4:45 this afternoon instead of 4:45 tomorrow morning …
Theo Theo the man has speed pace and will give Chelsea had time
Walcott has the offensive advantage; Giroud has the defensive advantage – corners especially.
I think the manager’s dillema is real.
I think he will start with Walcott in the hope that we get a goal or two and then Giroud to see off the gamem
I can understand it’s a difficult decision to make when you have 9 Central Strikers to choose from…
Walcott to play the full 90 mins for once. Chelsea are in desperate need of a win and therefore wont park the bus at their home hopefully, perfect for Theo to stretch.
Of course he’s decided, and of course it will be Walcott. I’m working under the assumption that Arsene has seen John Terry try to run this season; playing Giroud would just make it easy for them.
by God! i pray arsenal don’t go all out on chelsea . it will just play into mourinho’s hands. We should be compact and measured . they need a win more than we do. ….let’s let them come at us then we pick them off on the counter. ….
If Theo, Alexis and Rambo are not wasteful, we will run over them. This to Ozil: If you can pass the ball with such accuracy, you can target the top corners and inside the bars as well.
Please park the bus, at least for the first 15-20 min.
There’s some crazy stat like Arsenal have won 9 of the 10 lowest possession games in Wenger’s Arsenal career.
Giroud has a point to prove. He is more dangerous and the team plays better. In this game good defence is good offence. Giroud has scored two so it’s not like he’s useless and before the sending off he played well. They will setup to counter as always. Joses pragmatic. Let’s take our chances boys!
If Giroud does play, I hope he scores a hat-trick just to shut all of the haters up.
Arsenal 3 Chelsea 0 (Giroud, Walcott and Own Goal)
It’s time Ozil stepped up in a big game!
Giroud should be converted to a CB!
lol that’s a football manager tip…
On a random note on fm arsene wenger is natural cam and accomplished cb is this true??
How about go any buy a world class striker and there would be no need to be choosing between two average finishers