Arsene Wenger has provided the latest team news update ahead of tomorrow’s Champions League clash with Ludogorets.
Speaking at his press conference on arrival in Sofia, the Arsenal manager revealed that Hector Bellerin, Theo Walcott, Nacho Monreal and Santi Cazorla have not made the trip to Bulgaria.
Carl Jenkinson and Kieran Gibbs look set to deputise in the full back positions, and there’s no further detail regarding the absences.
It does look as if the manager is keeping some legs fresh for the North London derby on Sunday, as Bellerin was in training this morning. While Cazorla remains sidelined with the Achilles problem he picked up in the first game against tomorrow night’s opposition.
Wenger will also decide if Olivier Giroud and Aaron Ramsey, who made comebacks against Sunderland at the weekend, are in place to start. Granit Xhaka is also available.
wasn’t there photographs from the official twitter feed this morning showing cazorla in training?
Hopefully, he’s been rested for NLD
that’s what i am hoping as well.
Without any inside knowledge, I’d bet that since all three of these guys were training, but banged up, that they are just being rested for the big game this weekend.
In the past, Wenger will risk all four.
If all 4 had played on Saturday then he may have risked them, especially if we where on a bad run, but not when 3 of them didn’t play and we won without too much problem.
please god leave sanchez and ozil at home – let them sleep for 36 straight hours
Sanchez doesn’t ever sleep. Ozil is so skillful he can actually sleep whilst scoring
Scoring while snoring 😉
Heading in his bedding?
He never sleeps. His eye lids ate not long enogh to cover those eyes 😀
He can though find sanchez’s small toe from over 40 meters with his passing.
Ozil sleeps while still nicking a living…
Sensible from the Boss. My team would be
Ospina
Jenko Koscielny Mustafi Gibbs
Xhaka Elneny
Özil
Ox Alexis Iwobi
With Ramsey for Özil and Giroud for Alexis afound the 60 minute Mark
It would be even be good to start with Giroud and Ramsey and sub them with Sanchez and Ozil.
Can’t wait for tomorrow’s game, a win in that without any injuries will set up nicely for the NLD.
what about starting Giroud with Sanchez or Iwobi out left? Too soon for the big man?
rest Kos
Risky yet. PSG hanging too close
Any news is news. I’ll take it
If any news is news and no news is good news, what is bad news?
The bad News is that MaureenO still alive
Fat Boab stealing yer Dungarees Willie! Maybe going round the visit The Brooms! How is Wee Eck? ? ? ?
Well then any news is bad news.
Which if you ask the twitter community is certainly true.
Hopefully just resting Bellerin, although we have a good replacent in Jenko. Want the beast Walcott to be back against the scum. #COYG
YES! Theo does have the tendency to score against the sp*rs 😀
Giroud has a tendency to score against any opponent.
Please do not refer to them as “the sp*rs”. The definite article should only be used for us, “The Arsenal”. If you must use “the”, it is “the scum”, but otherwise just “sp*rs” or “tottingham”. Lower case fine for them, always upper case for The Arsenal. Thank you for your cooperation.
Stutteringham
Thanks for the information, Jack. Hope things are going well at Bournemouth.
“spurms” will also do.
Im worried about the kostaffi partnership gettinf injured, theyve been playing serious amounts of football
Not feelin’ the November vibes 🙁
Just do enough to win, I know we won the first game 6-0 but that first game was nervy in the first half
OTOH, goal difference may be vital if we draw 1-1 with PSG at the Emirates…
nice to see the Ox getting some game time.
I wouldn’t play many of our our big hitters or any at all if I’m honest . Don’t think we wud need to . Why risk Sanchez or Ozil or kos even when we have some important games coming up ?
We still have to win this match and they showed in the first 20-30 minutes at the Emirates that they aren’t that bad.
Having said that, this might be a good game to give Gabriel a run out.
Because we want to win this group. Don’t rotate the team too much until we’ve clinched the group.
Although, with our luck, if we win the group, then Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, and Juventus will all contrive to finish second in theirs.
Then we will draw somebody crap, and get knocked out anyway
Fuck winning the group. The Champions League is the most overrated pile of shit that ever there was. It’s a cup competition, and not even a good one, because the league stage and two-legged ko rounds are there to ensure the big teams progress. We get ridiculed for going out at the last 16 stage every year, but I personally couldn’t care less, ever since Chelsea and Liverpool won it with mediocre teams. 3 points against the scum is a must. Rotate the shit out of this one I say. It’s all about 38 games and being Champions.
It’d be nice to win it though and put an end to criticism that we never have
Interesting we’re rotating goalkeepers between major competitions but never the centre halves. I’d really love to give our hard-working captain a tiny breather, and surely Holding’s done well enough so far to deserve a run out against such inferior opposition?
Having said that we shouldn’t get too cocky after that 6-0 result and I’d also be ok with starting the usual Kostafi. That team has some quality and isn’t going to break as easily on their own turf, and we need to make sure we win this one.
Second half after we are 3-0 up 😉 lol
Bellerin had “a little incident in training” – doesn’t sound like anything to worry about.
Yep, he’ll be back in 6-8 weeks or 68 weeks.
We are good to go. A win takes us to the last 16. COYG!
Not QUITE there. If we win tomorrow and Basel beat PSG, but then we lose our remaining two games and PSG and Basel both win their remaining two, and Basel beat us by three or more on the last day, then we will finish third. To qualify tomorrow, we need to get a better result than Basel.
What happened to Walcott? Last update was tight hamstring. If he is available for the NLD, he wouldn’t have played for 2 weeks.
I wud rotate the squad big time for 2moro. We will have to play a pretty strong team against PSG regardless so this is the onlybreal opportunity to rest some legs. Ozil and Alexis can warm the bench for me..and Kos and Iwobi
The squad need some rotation as we have a rather punishing November ahead. While we all want to win the Champions League I think it’s safe to say the league is a more attainable goal. Plus we need to beat the shit out of the Scum and put the cunts back in their little box.
Sensible choices as there are a lot of games ahead, this being one of the easier beforehand (though they are tougher to beat at home). Would have liked to see one of Ozil, Sanchez rested too as they have played quite a lot the last few months.. You can’t rotate too much though and this is a must-win match if we want to win the group. Can’t wait to see Jenko back in action again.
Yeah, if we draw with PSG again, the group may come down to goal difference so we have to try and smash Ludo again.
I’d rotate the center halves for this one as well. Got to do what we can to protect Koscielny especially, so important for the run ahead.
Much as I’d love to say rest Alexis and Ozil, I reckon they’d be ropeable to miss a CL game and the chance to build their CL stats in this games the way Messi and co do.
For once I’m going to be able to watch a game at home but will have to stream. Anyone got any good links for doing so on a mac?
Ronaldo 7 is a good site that I use on Mac.
Just Google: “Ronaldo 7, Arsenal v Ludogorets”
try Mobdro – always works for me.
Check reddit.com/r/soccerstreams close to gametime, always a link there
Dont know about Macs but try KODI…..