Arsenal are seeking their first win of the season today against Watford. Having kept a clean sheet last weekend, we’ll be looking to do the same again today and add some goals at the other end.
Here are the official line-ups.
Watford: Gomes (GK); Kaboul, Prödl, Kabasele; Amrabat, Guedioura, Capoue, Behrami, Holebas; Deeney (c), Ighalo.
Subs: Pantilimon (GK), Janmaat, Zuniga, Watson, Success, Sinclair, Pereyra
Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Holding, Koscielny, Monreal, Xhaka, Cazorla, Ozil, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Alexis
Subs: Ospina, Gibbs, Chambers, Wilshere, Elneny, Coquelin, Giroud
Interesting midfield trio.
first choice trio for the season don’t you think?
Xhaka and Coq last week was also a good combo
Depending on the opposition
Very interesting. Shouldn’t be short of creativity …
I’m a big fan of Elneny, but you can’t argue with Santi playing deeper. He gives us a great threat on the counter with the 1st pass out of midfield.
Walcott. Sigh. I wish my boss was more like Wenger, get paid fuck loads of money for doing fuck all week in week out. Then once in a while, do one thing good, get a raise, and go back to doing nothing.
Is Akpom injured? Had a great pre-season then just gets tossed aside.
He played yesterday with the U23s.
The wings are absolute shite.
No point crying now.. COYG !!
3-0 up… O think Wenger’s tactics were spot on for once!#COYG!!!
Have a hundred ticks dude.
This completely baffles me also.
Where is my handsome french bloke!!!!!!! ?
On the bench to replace Walcott (hopefully before 70 mins).
Walcott will score today
That’s a good team and a good bench!
First chance to see how defensively Xhaka fits in our line up.
COYG
Should be strong enough to win at Watford. If not, we’re really in trouble this season.
COYG
Yes, we are good enough. 3-0 at HT. Nice.
3-1 and Cech making a few good saves. I’m less confident suddenly…
Get in. 3 points. Never in doubt.
*breathes heavily*
Just don’t get the faith in Walcott – couple of good games every 30 and that’s it. Coq unfortunate to be benched.
I think this is indicative of the manager’s thinking in midfield. Cazorla/Xhaka/Ozil is very attack minded as Wenger expects Watford to defend and counter. Against higher table opposition I suspect you’ll see a more defensive approach that includes Coq. I like to see the plan tailored to the opponent.
Gnabry where you at?
Just played the Olympics…
Probably resting after the Olympics
I’m guessing he might need some rest following the Olympics..
Fast speedy front 3.. just 1 through ball after a corner..
Elneny should’ve started instead of santi. Defensively, that pivot isn’t the strongest. Don’t know what Wenger thinks he’s doing.
Santi plays well in that midfield position as seen in last season ( before the injury) and the one before that where he partnered Rambo, he is good at getting out of tight spaces and spreading the ball up to forward 3 or Ozil
Isn’t that what we bought Xhaka for?? Get the ball to our forwards while being decent defensively?? Ramsey/elneny/Wilshere are better partners than santi. You need an all action cm next to Xhaka. We’ve seen this in BMB and Switzerland.
Seems a strange decision to me. Xhaka is NOT a defensive midfielder as far as I can see – I think Coquelin or Elneny would give the cover needed when we have to defend (which we will – we shouldn’t be taking Watford for granted).
Uhm, he’s way more of a defensive midfielder than Elneny. Ever watch these guys play or just read what other ppl said about them?
He plays better alongside an energetic box to box midfielder i.e Dahoud back in monchegladbach and behrami in the Swiss national team. You need to watch him better.
“Success”, we’ve got to sign him up.
It would be hilarious if his first name was Hugh
I can’t see walcott in the team.. sell this guy when we still can.. hoping for the first win of the season.. come on gunners..
Trying to scores goals against a team who will probably sit back and defend and try to hit us on the break or do us at set pieces. We have Ozil for final ball. We have Cazorla for ball retention. Xhaka for ball retention and ball over the top to three quick forwards.
Xhaka, Santi and Mesut is actually making me so wet.
Loving that midfield 3..but Walcott uggghhh! COYG lets fucking win this!
I hope Theo scores and shut the hater up .
…no haters mate. He just ain’t up to it. And the world sees that.
Anyone got any links for match / sites pls
Anyone got any links for match /links/ sites pls
Because f*ck defense amirite?
Blogs?! Where is the live blog today?!
What the heck are we saving Giroud for?
With an interlul coming up he hardly needs rest. Is he going to play Alexis at striker again or is that experiment over?
Honestly it seems like.Alexis could be a striker like Aguero or Suarez if he was disciplined enough but he doesn’t seem to be able to control himself from dropping back or drifting wide.
The boys are looking good. Only managed to catch the last 10 minutes of the first half but I liked what I saw.
Holding seems to be holding up pretty well so far…
This is good.
That was an incredible half of football
This whole Alexis as a striker thing sure looks more promising with Ozil and Xhaka playing. Wow.
Walcot seems to be playing decent this match for me. Get behind the team people.
When I look at our bench and then think about Welbeck, Ramsey, Iwobi, Gnabry, Mertesacker, Gabriel, Debuchy & Jenko I have to admit we really have quite a decent squad. let’s hope this win today will kickstart our season and we can properly compete for the title.