It’s Premier League action today as we face Hull City at the KC Stadium. We’re looking for our third league win in a row, so fingers crossed the lads can do that today.
Here are the official line-ups.
Hull City: TBC
Subs:
Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Cazorla, Ozil, Iwobi, Walcott, Alexis
Subs: Ospina, Gibbs, Holding, Xhaka, Elneny, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lucas
Seriously, what the fuck is going on? Alexis up front again? Xhaka on the bench again?
What if he is asking to play up there? It’s the only thing that makes any sense to me.
Why does ardent refuse to learn??
Guess he isn’t an arsene learner.
gold ?
This is retarded shit. The manager just wants to prove his point. Alexis to score and he would go “I told you say” with a wry smile.
*so
Surely more – well I mean looooooooook
Well if he scores and we won I’m happy.
The manager wants to convert Alexis into a striker. It has nothing to do with proving a point. It’s difficult to find a world class striker these days and it’s easy to find a quality winger. It’s my personal opinion that he’s looking to convert Alexis into a striker and then (if he’s here next Summer) to buy a wide forward.
Maybe Draxler? The kid lost his shit when we came knocking and Wolfsburg (without CL) refused. ?
Honestly, I think there’s discussions between Alexis and Wenger where Alexis is asking to play up top. Alexis has always played as a striker in his youth and in Serie A. Wenger probably is making sure to keep him happy so Alexis will extend his contract with Arsenal. Wenger did the same with Walcott.
Feels like getting a new toy for Christmas but having no batteries to play with it..
I don’t get it regards Xhaka. I was really hoping we’d get to see Lucas start today upfront.
Wenger is giving xhaka the joel treatment
Joel didn’t cost £30 mil
At least we wont get Ox from the start…
Einstein’s definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. And this is what Wenger does time and time again. We know he has a philosophy and is a total purist but what use is twenty years of Premier league and Champions league experience when we never seem to learn from our mistakes? This line up really worries me. Prove me wrong boys!
Spot on.. Although you’ll still get thumbed down by the rose tinted brigade
Definition that works for science as science is more predictable than sport. Pretty sure going by your einstein quote, every time a manager tries a new formation, or a new player and it doesn’t work. he’s to never try the same thing again. completely irrelevant
To go with Einstein theory as you suggest of playing same style repeatedly with same results season after season is in correct as that would be to keep playing a cf who holds the ball up back to goal Giroud, rvp, adebayor and try and win league this is not the case with Alexis, Wenger has tried this playing Alexis for four matches not twenty years. ! Alexis as a player is more similar to Henry , Nik Anekla, Wiltord, when we won the league!!!!!!!
His early experiment has not finished yet, cross your finger we gt 3 points. Hopefully this work, otherwise he will make new experiment after we lost too many points
Mers and Charlie slagging Arsenal off on Sky. Making all the points we can all see except Wenger. Highlighting strange team selection, poor and predictable play, playing at home as if they were away, getting mashed by PSG, being miles off the best clubs in terms of quality, maybe not making the top four this year etc etc etc.
We may well not be one of the Big Four any more.
If Merson thinks it’s a losing team then we’ll there’s a fair chance we’ll win 10-0.
He was a good player but a complete fuck-wit as a pundit.
Wenger trying to prove a point.
Xhaka benched because of the mythical pace of English football when Coquelin isn’t up to the pace of top division football anywhere in Europe, what a joke
Giroud facing the corner in the dressing room
Surely injured…
Yeah, knock* on his big toe. *cough cough. If you ask me I think AW is taking a no-nonsense approach to red cards, but internally. Giroud sent off, ok, bench. Xhaka picked up a stupid second yellow during the interlull. Bench.
*insert whingey comment here
LOL!!!! Some of the comments here are priceless! Everyone is an armchair manager nowadays 😀
What has Xhaka got to do to get a start?
Hahahaha, why the angst? He’s paid to do this – a lot. There must be a reason. Let’s see what this team is up to.
Oh well at least Ox has been binned for the time being
I’m just happy we have the bench to shake things up if it ain’t working….. COYG!!!
can we wait until the game is over before we moan?
Yes there will be plenty of time for that next time we lose
No that Einstein comment applies to these naysayers here too? Why spoil a good prejudice by appealing to reason?
Alexis up front must stop.. Benching Xhaka must stop…
The manager observes the players in training. We do not. Allow him to make his informed decisions re players. If unsuccessful,then we can put our proffered team in place,based on our personal observations of the game. Have patience!
COYGS.
And we can only observe how pony and disjointed we always look, with Sanchez up front.
Im pretty sure Sampaoli, who worked with Sanchez longer than us, didnt play him as a Striker
He’s played there for his country before, although usually in a 4-4-2 formation with Vargas who’s also a winger.
It will be amusing if he ends up being right and Alexis smashes in 30 goals as a CF this season.
WOW…Someone down-voted this. It’s like that person wants Alexis to NOT score 30 goals to prove he’s right. WTF is wrong with Arsenal fans – it’s almost embarrassing. Support your damn team ffs…..
A manager that fails yet again to learn from his mistakes. The players that he has picked to play together as a team this season have been pretty much useless. We’ve all already used a bucket load of luck to have got the results we have. The only people who can’t see it are Wenger himself and the blind faith supporters.
Where THE FUCK is Mick Bendtner???!!!! #WENGEROUT
Coqzorla has been so bad for so long now, if they can’t be dropped after as woeful a performance as last game, what hope do we even have have of ever playing good football again. Coq’s so bad on the ball he’s told to run forward, so can’t cover the defence and then pops up and loses it on the edge of their box/steps on ozil’s toes. Looking forward to conceding first and only coming back when xhaka comes on and alexis goes wide again.
Didnt coq and cazorla play most of the psg game?
Team cohesion concerns should go out the window when you need to rest players.
The only possible reason i can think of sanchez up front is that he is pulling a walcott and refusing to sign an extension until he plays more up front.Which seems outlandish to me.
Lucas Perez should play. No point pigeonholing sanchez into an ineffective position because Perez is not fully integrated.
I always wonder whether Arsene is a superb troll or incompetent when i read articles like these
Don’t understand why we are leaving Xhaka out again. Nothing wrong with Coqzorla but you would think we’d at least want to rotate a bit.
Agreed, but Wenger only really rotates due to injury. He won’t want anyone to point out that a new signing has improved the team, as we’ve all been saying for years. No, he still wants to show us that the team from last year is the best. Whatever, let’s hope for a win; it is a decent side.
When the team is confident an winning then he’ll rotate like he did with the invincibles (and got moaned at for doing it) but we’re not there yet.
About the best I can come up with is maybe Wenger wants to collect more data on Xhaka and Perez so he knows where their “red zones” are before he’s confident about using them without injuring them, while for the likes of Ozil and Kos he has this data already so feels he knows whether it’s safe to use them after their summer exertions.
Pretty weak theory, I realise.
Why the confusion. AW said he was introducing the news boys slowly. They were never going to start today.
I am worried Cazorla will be overplayed and get injured like Arteta. Would be such a shame, and unforgivable given the depth of options in midfield.
Exactly, if we want to see him at his best we have to pick and choose when to play him. And he can’t be played twice a week.
I mean his physicality was a weak point before his serious knee injury. Now, going on 32, and after 6 months out of the game after knee surgery he’s being played twice a week regardless of opposition. Come on Wenger man, engage your brain.
If he didn’t play Cazorla would the comments on here say that we have to pick him as he’s our best option there, like they did when Ospina played in paris?
He’s our most technically able midfielder, not our all round best. Personally I think he badly lacks in the physical side of the game. He can be very effective against the right opposition, but not game after game.
Whether you’re right or wrong, someone will moan about it 😀
The positive is that Ox is in the bench. Alexis and Theo have worked pretty well together in the previous matches, gives Ozil a chance to play them through. Expect Perez to come in at some point.
On 70 mins, no matter what the score is.
Xhaka getting a settling in period is hardly the worst thing ever, it says a lot about where we are now if we can put our big summer on the bench for a few games and as opposed to throwing him straight to the sharks and having to sit through brainless pundits tell us how hes not “world class” (whatever that means) everytime he has a bad touch or pass. Point is…we actually have a squad now, can’t we all just appreciate that! Plus we’ll always need a bit of coq in our midfield
True, that’s a more positive way of looking at it.
Well at least Ox isn’t starting…
Are we seeing anotherJoel Campbell? Something Arsene does not see in training so does not get the nod but plays well in when given a chance. Why is he always experimenting in the league. Fa or efl I understand.
Wenger doing his best impression of Guardiola.
Funny how all the people who complained about ospina starting at the PSG game went quiet after the game. We are at it again.
Didn’t Arsene say Theo is a striker not a winger. And yet he’ll likely play out wide again.
Maybe Theo is up front?
I wonder if Wenger is sending a “behave yourself” message to Granit after his latest sending off?
I think it’s theo up top with alexis and iwobi on either wings! This could work!
Wenger knows best right?? OK then.
Wenger is just trying to show us that you can succeed in pressuring him to buy players, but he is still the one picking the team! So, he just plays his perennial losers team and ignores your precious signings!
Maybe Xhaka is too direct with his long balls. Doesn’t play 100 useless passes every game.
Cant understand wenger’s choice.. why buy a midfield for 35 million and non play him.. anyway hope we win.. gonna be a difficult match..
Remember when Elneny joined us he played one game then spent next few weeks on the bench as well till he got used to our system, I am assuming the same is happening with Granit.
Give it a few weeks and he will be a definite starter.
What the actual fuck is going on?? Why spend $30m on a player and not play him? I know the coqzorla partnership was very effective last year but has been a shambles this season. Xhaka on the other hand has been superb in the few opportunities he’s had.
I will never be able to figure out AW’s decisions
To be fair this is the kind of game we’ll probably get away with this team, but considering we’ve looked disjointed for the best part of a season and a half you would think integrating the new signings and having a settled team is just what we need at the moment. You would think given the investment that Xhaka would be an improvement on anything we had last season, otherwise why buy him? Also with Sanchez’s record on the left meant that was a part of the team that didn’t need fixing. Iwobi (as good as a prospect that he… Read more »
Ha ha at he keyboard warriors, they get relegated on Fifa15 yet still think they know better than a manager of over 30 years, as for the definition of insanity being repeating themselves, well the Wenger out boys, repeat them selves endlessly and still never tire (every pregame,every loss,every transfer window,every post season and every preseason), oblivious to the fact that he takes no notice. Now that is insane.
COYG !!!!!
Reports that Giroud is out due to toe injury
So infuriating!
For the first time in years we’ve had genuine squad depth and we’re still trying to fit square pegs in round holes
The funny thing is, this is actually a game where we should be wearing our third kit (unlike Watford). No rhyme or reason to kit selection (or team selection.
The same team that started a champions league match on Tuesday, except Walcott (coming off an injury) in for Ox.
Why no rotation? I expect a tired team today with that lineup.
Say it quietly but I don’t think Arsene rates Lucas as highly as I had hoped.
Leave now Xhaka, while you still can!
Walcott is a real waste of jersey space. How many more opportunities will he be allowed to prove himself?
I’ll have to eat my own words. At least he’s scored with his first meaningful contribution.
Walcott 2-0. Nice one-two with Alex.
Why did Cazorla not take that penalty? He’s the best penalty taker we have in our current squad IMO.
Alexis upfront isn’t working. Everyone else watching can see this but Arsene. We are winning this, but only because it’s only Hull. Against an organised defence we’d struggle.
Again, where are all these naysayers? So we are winning by 2 goals and THIS is because Wenger picked the wrong team!
We are in a great position if we can afford to let Xhaka ease himself in. Pogba hasn’t exactly set the league alight and he cost a bomb. (imagine how much we would moan if we’d spent the money for pogba)
All gone home after the win MRUA ? all gone home for at least three days.
ROFLMAO!!
This is why Wenger is the manager and most of you guys here are whiners.