Arsene Wenger has ruled out Mesut Ozil, Olivier Giroud and Laurent Koscielny from Arsenal’s opening Premier League game against Liverpool next Sunday.
The German was a defeated semi-finalist at the European Championships last month, while the French duo suffered the heartbreak of a final loss against Portugal. Having been given extended holidays, none of them are in contention for the season curtain raiser against the Mugsmashers.
“Liverpool would come too early,” he said after last night’s 8-0 win over Viking FK. Aaron Ramsey and Alexis Sanchez are on the Scandinavian tour but played no part in last night’s game.
However, they are expected to feature to some extent against Man City in Gothenburg on Sunday, and their participation next week will be assessed after that and a full week’s training back at London Colney.
The manager had words of praise for Alex Iwobi after his two goals against Viking FK last night (see all the goals here).
“He has worked very hard in pre-season,” he said. “Now he wants to stay in the team, and it’s always difficult to leave players out who deserve to play.”
With the Arsenal manager set to let his striker search continue right until the end of the window, the pre-season goals from the likes of Iwobi, Campbell and Akpom are a positive.
The new we all expected, but although I fully appreciate I am likely a lone voice in this I feel we just have to get behind what we DO have on the day of the game rather than keep focusing on what we DONT have, the centre of defence is a worry, but the rest of that squad is good enough to beat Liverpool imo, keep up the great work Blogs!
It’s easy to understand why people get so pissed off but it’s not helping the team is it.
We are very lucky to have the players we have.
Yeah I agree with what you’re saying Kris, but people are so bored of it of the inevitability every season to how we will perform, myself included. And every season we bite our nose off to spite our face, by not getting the team what it needs and nothing is changing. We just don’t have any ambition to actually be a football club and win things anymore. All we care about is money, and profit margins. Its getting tougher and tougher to bury that disappointment and frustration, put it to one side and really back the lads on the pitch,… Read more »
Agreed! Let’s rally behind Theo, Miyachi and Gervinho.
But seriously, maybe if Campbell is lucky his work-rate and pre-season goals might, just might get him a place…on the bench.
But really seriously, COYG! Always love and support my team, sarcasm notwithstanding
I know we need a striker and central defender but our squad looks excitingly strong and experienced to me!
Just like the last season. And the season before that. And the one before..
I know this may be hard for you to understand, but young players grow and develop over a year. OUR SQUAD DOES LOOK GOOD. If you want to focus on what we lack rather than what we have then be my guest. We lack a striker and a CB, Wenger has come out and shown that hes working on getting the player. We know for sure that he bid for Vardy, Lacazette, Draxler and some others. All the gooners saying the club lack ambiton should take a look at themselves and see if theyre any more ambitious or do they… Read more »
I meant what cost us last season**, not this summer
A front three of Iwobi(LW), Alexis(ST) and The Ox(RW).
Should try against City before the curtain raiser on 14/08/2016.
I for one, fully expect Beryl the tea lady to do a fantastic job up front against Liverpool
Im betting on Alexis starting there, which will likely result in him falling apart. Of course, he’ll still want to play, so we’ll play Alexis in the centre, Alexis’ ankle on the left and Alexis’ left pectoral as an inverted winger on the right, solving all our forward issues.
That’s funny, but the worst part is it may happen.
I’m not convinced Wenger will say no to sAnchez. It’s probably too early for Sanchez to even get 20 minutes
He’s had a long enough holiday and he had a lot of time out last season with injuries so fingers crossed he’ll stay fit this season.
I hope its a long enough holiday, but don’t think we would’ve played Alexis for the first 2 games if we had a striker and a winger in place of theo.
Agreed Locksley, it’s seems insane to me that Alexis is in contention for Liverpool.
After what happened last season, a full-on Copa America, his ankle, flying back from South America late, without a full pre-season, it’s insane. We need him rested and ready for a marathon season, not rushed out to cover up our attacking deficiencies.
True but last season when he got injured he had played a crazy number of games the season before
Alexis has not played football for a few weeks, I think that seems to be about a year to him, in his world?
He will need to be chained to the bench if he doesn’t start! 🙂
Sorry just thumbed you down by accident
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Giroud on the bench
I really hope we don’t start off with a loss at home to Liverpool. I feel for the wraith that Wenger will be on the receiving end of if that happens. And it’s not the tone you want to start the season off with. Hopefully the squad players can get the business done for us in the first few games until our big guns come back, here’s hoping.
‘Big Guns’ this is where we always get it wrong. The players missing are Ozil, Kos and Giroud. Without these three the squad should be good enough for the title push let alone hold down a few games. There are no guarantees that these 3 or any 3 ‘Big Guns’ will be available for the entire season. We need players that are good enough to be referred to as Big Guns and not squad players.
I agree. In hindsight I wouldn’t class Giroud as one of the “big guns”. But starting the season without your most creative player, and your best defender is a bit poor (as like you said we have nobody else if similar calibre, sad).
Question
What is going to be our starting XI against the mugsmashers?
I would like to see an attacking front five like in the good old days where goals can and did come from anywhere
My best guess would be basically what we saw from the start of the friendly last night as far as attack:
Cech
Bellerin Gabriel Chambers/New CB Monreal
Xhaka Elneny
Cazorla
Ox Walcott Campbell
This is assuming he doesn’t start either Ramsey or Alexis.
But the friendly against City tomorrow might offer new clues.
“Ox Walcott Campbell”……….that’s not ideal?
Tough game to kick off the campaign but you gotta feel that we’ve got the beating of anybody at the Emirates if the team turns up.
Who do you think will be better at CB for that game? Holdings or Chambers?
Would love for them to play together – the Liverpool strikers were kept in Arsenal’s Holding Chambers for the whole game 😀
Okay I’ll get my coat.
Epic ?
Please sir put ur coat back on
We have lost quite a few opening games in the past season……west ham, Aston Villa…..truth to be told, it is not half as bad to lose to Liverpool. It serve as a warning to wenger and the team. And it should only get better from there onward.
Oh we’ll smash the Mugshmashers alright… it’s the depth required for the end of the season that demands 2 more signings
With Koscielny and Mertesacher out I think it would be a good idea to have two defensive minded players in the central trio. Two of Xhaka, Coq and Elneny to play it safe for me. Now we truely have the option of playing a midfield with steel we should take it.
Well since Ozil isn’t playing I think a counter-attacking 4-3-3 would be appropriate, considering our defensive issues with Koscielny missing. Flood the midfield with Xhaka/Coquelin/Ramsey and cut off their supply lines. Since Liverpool play aggressive pressing, I think 2 in the central midfield won’t cut it. Coquelin to be the defensive midfielder as usual Ramsey to be box-box with more license than usual to roam forward And Xhaka to sit deep, make clearances and interceptions, and ping those laser guided passes. Campbell on the left or right and his defensive contribution will be necessary. Sanchez on the left or right… Read more »
El-Neny isn’t really a defensive midfielder. Sure he can do a job there but he holds back. For me, he’s much better as a centre box-to-box midfielder who runs all day, shows up in attack and in defence and everywhere, quite like Ramsey. But that’s just my opinion
Great photo!
Should’ve posted the one of him grinning maniacally when presented with the pre-game sword against vikings last night.
LANS! (Loves a nice sword)
That sounds kind of rude
We got this.
Mark my words, that’s gonna be another game gone without a goal from Giroud :S
Unacceptable
Do you think Arsene talks to his senior players about his junior players? Do you think he’s got a process such that he talks to Alexis and Ramsey and Mertesacker and Cazorla in detail as to what they think about the newer recruits? Must be interesting, to factor in the points of view of more integral players on the newer guys while making his decisions on who should play, stay, loan or go.
So, Vic Akers playin up front against Liverpool?
One of the youngsters will surprise us #optimism.
Walcott will in due fashion start scoring too when we want to selling him
I think that’s the secret, threaten to sell Walcott and he’ll start banging them in.
I think even that is past him. 🙁
I think this squad flatters to deceive at this early stage of the season. Once all the teams are at 100% during the mid season when injuries and fatigue factor in, the need for a second striker and CB becomes glaring. Hopefully monsieur wenger realizes this going by his claim that money is not a problem.
Did he say anything about joel? Did he acknowledge his existence at all? 🙂
Man i love me some Joel Campbell! If it was me that RW spot is his! But then most here would say “well goid thing you’re not the manager, mate”.
The boys works hard, got skill, consistency and vision accompanied with the guts to actually execute deadly (reverse) trough passes. Oh yeah, and he scores goals! Not a bad footballer you know this Joel Campbell.
I disagree and always have with loads a people here sayin he wont be Arsenal first XI material.
But this all imho ofcourse.
COYG!