Arsene Wenger has provided the latest team news ahead of our game against Swansea City this weekend.
After an international break, the Premier League returns, and the Gunners face opposition who have won three of the last four games at the Emirates. The other was drawn, and you have to go back to 2011 for the last league win at home when Andrei Arshavin’s somewhat fortunate goal gave us a 1-0 win.
Speaking at his press conference this morning, the manager said that Olivier Giroud and Aaron Ramsey remain sidelined, while Francis Coquelin is back after picking up a knee injury.
“Giroud will not be available,” he said. “Aaron Ramsey will not be available. They have been out. Francis Coquelin is back, and he is available for Saturday.”
“Apparently we had quite good news, everybody is coming back from internationals, we have good news there.”
And asked about Carl Jenkinson, making his way back from a cruciate knee injury, he said, “He will be playing tonight in the U23, after that he is available again to compete.”
What’s actually going on with Giroud?
Wenger said a while ago it was his ‘big toe’. It didn’t make a difference in the end, but you do have to wonder how much that red card against PSG infuriated Wenger, because the first yellow was fucking stupid and he did something similar last season in the CL. Maybe he really has been injured, but we know how resilient he normally is.
Don’t particularly think Wenger is that angry with him for the red card. All players get silly yellows, but the second yellow he picked up in that game wasn’t even his fault.
Think Wenger is just happy with the way the current XI is performing, so is happy to let Giroud slowly recover and work his way back in.
i think its just injury and not wenger being angry with him . he hasnt trained with the squad due to that. but that doesnt make a difference ,i think wenger has made up his mind over giroud a long time ago . wenger know that giroud cant continue being our striker if we want to win anything . thats the entire reason sanchez is playing as a striker and we bought perez . this injury and red card is like the worst thing that could happen to giroud right now , now he is out of the picture making… Read more »
There must be something there.
He didn’t play for France either.
It’s not the first time he has got himself 2 stupid yellow cards in a Champions League game. What made this worse is that he was subbed in!
What does a sending off at Arsenal have to do with the French team? Besides, Wenger defended him for the red in Paris
Xhaka back to the bench then. :/
If he’s fit, I hope Xhaka starts. He really deserves a run in the team. I think he can make the difference we need to get the 3 points against Swansea!
I share James’ view from the arsecast a couple weeks back. Pretty sure the reason Coqzorla were starting all those games at the start of the season was because Wenger didn’t want to throw two new partnerships into the starting xi with Koscielny and Mustafi already trying to build an understanding (and especially when you consider we were trying out a brand new attack too). Hoping now that Mustafi is looking very settled and the front line’s firing then we can carry on getting Xhaka up to tempo with the rest of the team. I see little sense in him… Read more »
theres only one reason why coqueline is starting over xhaka and its because he is playing that good. i dont think thers any single game he has put a foot wrong. coq isnt xhaka , he doesnt spread passes , he is different and in his own way he is making a difference . and the team is playing well , then why change what is working so well
I noticed that Coquelin has been playing more in the final 3rd, closer to the penalty box…kinda worries me that we may be left exposed, as I don’t think that’s his best suit…
its a deliberate , coqueline tries to win the ball upfield and cazorla stays behind.
i think its due to the fact that ozil is bad at defending so we need to fill the space left by ozil so coquelin steps up from the midfield and fills it.
I’ve obviously missed this- but what is keeping Giroud out? He had that “toe injury” which I interpreted as “a thinly veiled fuck you for the PSG red card” but then he played against Chelsea for a bit, and suddenly he’s injured again? Is it the same toe injury? I wouldn’t put him straight back into the current starting XI, but he’s a decent enough option off the bench, surely?
Apparently he has a seriously bad bunion that keeps reoccurring. Might need an operation, but this has completely bamboozled our medical staff.
The medical staff have confirmed he’s got trotters instead of feet which explains why he falls over all the time
Okay, I’m starting to get worried by Ramsey’s injury now.
Does seem to be that typical type of Arsenal injury. A 3 week injury that suddenly turns into months.
I don’t agree, they’re taking time to be safe, the joys of a deeper squad! He’ll get his turn, it’ll be a lot hard season…
I do hope so! I guess I’m just being pessimistic.
Just speculating but perhaps there’s something going on behind closed doors with Giroud? Just weird that there’s no news regarding what type of injury he has that’s keeping him out of the team.
Actually, there IS news. It’s a toe injury. This has been stated many times.
Toe injuries, particularly big toe injuries, can be extremely painful and can take forever to heal. A friend of mine with whom I umpire baseball took a foul ball off his big toe and got a hairline fracture. That was three years ago – he still has chronic pain, and can’t umpire any more. Hopefully Giroud is getting better treatment than my friend did.
Instead of spinning conspiracy theories, why not just believe what the team says?
Aye, Arsenal Medical team seems to have ties with secret agencies that’s keeping players away from full recoveries, and also extending their injury time (3 weeks to months, Typical Arsenal over the years)
Ramsey was supposed to be back this week and looks like he still hasn’t made it to training yet. This is definitely worrying. We play 17 games til Dec starting this weekend and everybody in the squad needs to be fit. The same 11 cant play every single game and there will be injuries and lack of form in the 2 months where we cant afford to drop points.
Which is why I wonder why the clamour for Xhaka to play. Xhaka will play some, Coq will play some. That way, the chance of injury is minimized.
I saw somewhere that Rambo returned to training this week. Suspect he could have returned earlier but wenger didn’t want wales getting their hands on him yet and as the earlier mentioned depth this season we didn’t have rush him back.
Or, he wasn’t quite ready to train last week and Wales had nothing to do with it. No point in speculating about motives, it is what it is. We’re ticking along quite nicely even with some players out who would have been key for us as recently as last season. Instead of moaning about how long recoveries take, perhaps we should celebrate our incredible strength in depth.
No news on Perez? Wasn’t on the bench in our last game, some say he had a minor injury, some were saying he was just left out of the squad. Anyone shed any more light?
He is back in the squad. With Giroud not available and Sanchez coming late from the international break Perez might get a chance to play at least as a sub.
No need of Ramsey: we’ve got Xhaka, Mo, Francis and Santi! Looks like a more than competitive midfield!
Ramsey is unbalancing the team anyway…
Ramsey is needed. He backs up Ozil.
He is also a more influential player (attack-wise) than Elneny.
We are sufficiently covered for now but we can well do with Ramsey competing with Ozil and pushing the German a little. NO room for complacency.
The evidence of Ramsey playing in the ozil role shows he is not that good at it. Doesn’t create enough when he has played there for us. he was never as good as some thought years ago now and equally never as bad. Would be great addition to mid table club to build their team around. Squad player at best for us me thinks.
He played in the same spot, but took it differently then Ozil does. Similar to how Sanchez and Giroud play at top of our formation.. Remember back then when we started calling him the Welsh Jesus?
Now that Swansea don’t have Ashley Williams this fixture doesn’t seem so irritating. Williams always plays out of his skin against our lads and it fucks me right off.
See you in March, Rambo.
Why doesn’t one of the journalists ask about Giroud? I mean rather than speculating that pep is going to steal Hector, mustafi, Cech and Wenger himself, maybe they could do their job and ask the obvious question
i wonder whats the first eleven going to be. i think sanchez deserves rest keeping in mind that we need him fresh and injury free. also i think bellerin should be rested too sometime. i think he’s been playing too many games . i dont think anyone has played as much as bellerin for us. apart from an efl cup game he has played every game for us.and he playes every game for spain u21. and wenger never sub him too since we always prefer to sub our attacking players to see out the game. coq and santi should definitely… Read more »
Would be a good time to give Lucas another go.
“Apparently we had quite good news, everybody is coming back from internationals”.
Good news? Do they ever NOT come back? 🙂
Fit, he means
Swansea have been a bogey team for us as of late. We need to come out firing like the 3-0 win over Man U last year. Get them on the back foot and get that first goal!
Lineup should probably be:
Cech
Bellerin Mus Kos Monreal
Xhaka Cazorla
Walcott Ozil Iwobi
Sanchez
Hopefully Lucas subs on for Sanchez after we’re 3-0 up in the first half! I really feel sorry for Elneny because I think he deserves more playing time. He would walk right into most EPL team’s starting 11.
While I really like that line-up (no point in fixing what’s not broken), I have to feel that maybe Sanchez could do with a little rest. He’s just played two difficult internationals bookended by a brutal travel schedule. I’d start Perez with Sanchez on the bench, and have Sanchez refreshed for the CL game on Wednesday.
We will need Giroud at some point. Against Burnley with 10 men in the box, he would have been handy. IT isn’t even that he is ‘useful from the bench’ more that he can give us another option to break teams down, which we should use will be down to type of opposition we expect to face. Ditto with Coquelin and Granit. It isn’t a zero sum game. BOTH are good but different (much like Alexis or Giroud). If should we need pressing more aggressively higher up the pitch, we play Le Coq, if we need more solidity deeper (and… Read more »
Team will be:
Cech
Jenko mustafi kos Gibbs
Coq santi
Ox özil iwobi
Perez
Ospina, monreal, Xhaka, Walcott, Sanchez,
He didn’t mention any news about Lucas Perez did he?
Alexis does not need to rest, remember?