It’s FA Cup action today as we face Sunderland in the third round at home. As expected there are a number of changes from the team that beat Newcastle in our last Premier League game.
Here are the official line-ups:
Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscielny, Gibbs, Chambers, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Iwobi, Campbell, Walcott, Giroud
Subs: Macey, Debuchy, Arteta, Ramsey, Monreal, Willock, The Jeff
Sunderland: Pickford, van Aanholt, Cattermole, O’Shea (c), Lens, Graham, Toivonen, Coates, Fletcher, Yedlin, Watmore
Subs: Mannone, Jones, Borini, Defoe, M’Vila, Mavrias, Beadling.
Ospina injured?
“Slight groin problem.”
Could be a euphemism.
No chance he’s being sold?
Macey hasn’t had a start for us yet, would be crazy to let Ospina go.
Definetly never seen this bunch play together. Dunno what to make of it. Coyg
Good back line. Enough firepower up front. JRA on the bench.
Ozil on a sabbatical – which is exactly as it should be for this match.
Who’s playing no 10 do you think?
Most likely, Campbell.
Ox in the middle, brave…
442? leaky combo of chambers and ox in mc ?
I really don’t understand our kindness towards Debuchy. I mean yes, he was unlucky with inruries but he is long enough in the business to know how it works. If we let him go in January it’s generous enough but I don’t understand why he isn’t able to play for us as long as we pay his wages in a game where a break for Hector wouldn’t be a bad Thing at all. Apart from Hector I would have only rested one of Giroud or Walcott. To play them both with the upcoming fixtures is quite risky but we will… Read more »
Debuchy is already a GO my friend. So unfortunate.
maybe the boss feels DeBuchy is too much of a risk…
Pretty strong 11, better than I thought.
Personally id of rested giroud played walcott as striker moved campbel and ox to the flanks played arteta and chambers from the start and subbed arteta for flamini when he needed it depending on what we needed at the time and brought on iwobi when walcott got tired. jeff taking ozils place from the start. debuchy is more difficult, because knowing hes going likely effects his desire to perform, anybody can have a bad game so its not like his future career depends on this game.
Bellarin could do with a bit of rest!
AW tends to be a man of his word. If he said to Debuchy he’d let him go if he wasn’t getting games by January I’d expect that he let the right back go. It could leave us a little short it’s true but with Bellerin, Chambers and Flamini we’ve probably got cover there. I think AW sees that behind the footballer there’s a human and he isn’t in the business of fucking people over, and this is a critical year for Debuchy. All the more respect for Wenger if we go on to win the PL, while loaning out… Read more »
That is a curious line up. Who is playing next to Chambers in midfield, is it Chamberlain or Iwobi, who is said to be playing U21 games in central midfield? Who is playing No. 10, is it Chamberlain, who played there before, Campbell, or even Walcott? So strange.
When you look at it, this is lineup of all attackers and defenders (Chambers coming from a RB), and to think people were accusing Wenger of trying to squeeze too many midfielders in a lineup lol
I’m not happy with the line-up I really hope to be rested Giroud,Bellerin and kos, with already the players that are not included we have a really thin squad and these players are playing week in and week out for months, and we need them completely rested before Wednesday game against Liverpool which is vital game for us especially that this is perfect time to play them with so many injuries they have and I would be really disappointing not to win at anfiled, as klop rested full sqaud and played with the reserves.
See? Ozil not even on the bench. I always knew that he was lazy, overated and doesn’t participate in the team. Mind you? He even gets others to score on his behalf. We need Sanogo
Never in this season would I have thought Wenger would field such a side! 🙂 I even don’t have a concrete opinion of it! But am curious to see Ox’s season debut in that position. His dynamism is just exciting when he can roam anywhere across the field. Am guessing, he’ll be the one to do the attacking bit as Chambers assumes the higher share of defensive responsibilities. Very confident of Iwobi’s capabilities as well. Though Gibbs will have to limit his urges to go forward since Iwobi is still gaining valuable experience. He’ll need to be covered. Up the… Read more »
That Sunderland line-up doesn’t look particularly weakened to my eyes, it still has plenty of experience in the eleven.
I suspect that their manager was definitely playing mind games, and will hope to pull off a smash and grab operation.
Let’s hope Sunderland fail miserably.
If Graham is Danny Graham it looks very weak.
Adioooooooooooooooooooos.
That’s a pretty strong line up. He’s not taking it too lightly.
Can’t really understand why Giroud is not given a rest, sure it would be great to win the cup (again) but how would we feel if he picked up a long term injury, cause make no mistake about it, faults or not, we won’t win the league without him..
If he gets a long-term injury then, as long as it’s still January, we buy someone. If he gets an injury and it’s no longer January, then we’ll have Welbeck back or Walcott moves to his early-season role. Second-to-worst-case-scenario Alexis goes up front. Worst-case-scenario we use Iwobi or get Akpom back or use Willock.
If you’re really fretful about Giroud picking up an injury then this match is as good as any for him to do it. Fingers crossed either way.
I guess it’s because Walcott and Giroud tandem is still work in progress. They need more play time together. Also winning the third cup in a row is WOW! Plus we have realistic chance of a double this season. And Wenger want to consolidate his record of winning it. Also we really need to smash em, can’t take risks. Giroud injured? God forbid but we will have good reason to put banners up with ‘BRING AUBEMAYANG OR WE KILL THE CAT’ on it. So it all good mate COYG
I don’t see why we’d want to give Walcott and Giroud play time together at all. I’d much prefer for them to go back to competing for the same spot as soon as Alexis gets back, as that really seemed to get the best out of them at the start of the season.
I’m looking forward to seeing how the fringe players do.
Fuck, Mannone’s on the bench too. What’s Wenger playing at..,
A goal down despite having a strong defensive line-up and generally strong team line-up!!!!
I really like this match. Probably a good fitness test for lot of players. Wenger probably wants to stretch the squad to push players to their physical limits. If they come through unscathed then it means we have enough depth in the squad. If we get unlucky then he can dip into market to add more numbers. COYG.
Excellent substitutions by Wenger, it seems. I was surprised to see two players we likely won’t use against Liverpool come off, but playing a couple of first teamers for 25 minutes extra is much preferable to having to fit a replay in our schedule.
Regarding Ospina. People sometimes mention the natinal team as one reason why he might want to leave. But how fierce is his competition there? We all know hoe Schezny’s situation was, with Fabiansky and Begovich ready to take over if he lost his place in Arsenal, but I am less sure the same is true for Ospina. If he were to be our cup keeper and play an eventual dead-rubber CL game, thats will give him around 10 games pr. year + whatever injury, suspension and fattigue for Cech allows for. In some national teams that would be enough if… Read more »