Arsene Wenger has provided the latest team news update ahead of tomorrow’s Premier League clash with Middlesbrough.
After the 6-0 win over Ludogorets during the week, there’s an uncertainty over Santi Cazorla who took a kick to his Achilles. The Spaniard will be assessed today and a decision made then.
There’s nobody coming back, although there was another update on Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud.
“Ramsey and Giroud are progressing well,” said Wenger. “Giroud could maybe involved on Tuesday [against Reading in the EFL Cup].
“Ramsey needs another week. He could possibly come back sooner, but we want to make sure he’s fully sharp.
“Fitness-wise he’s 90% there. He could return for Sunderland.”
Granit Xhaka misses out, serving the first game of his three match ban following his red card against Swansea.
Sounds (mostly) good, especially as we need lots of energy in November when we have a tougher run of matches. Winning the next two PL matches would be great, the next 4 matches would be superb.
Coquelneny time
I hope Elneny have a chance to play in this game. We have to take care of Santi’s fitness. And I’d love to see Elneny start too.
I agree that Elneny deserves to play more, as whenever he’s played for us he’s been pretty good. The team is playing so, so well right now though that I don’t think it’d be wise to make changes unless there’s fitness/injury concerns. If Santi is fully fit to play, he should play. He can be rested against Reading.
Santi have a long break and was brought off early mid week. If there was no issue to the knock, he should start. Let’s storm to a lead then we can brought in elneny, lucas and ox/Gibbs in the 60 mins.
We’ll need a storming start with early goals to stop Blind Mike Dean screwing us over in his game.
No No No…not mike Dean…NO! Fuck. shit. arse. Dean = Vomit
Santi should play only if he is 100% fully fit. Otherwise, he should rest until the Sunderland match. We have loads of depth and Elneny is a more than adequate replacement. We’re no longer in a position of being forced to play someone who’s not quite recovered from a knock, and we should take full advantage of our superior squad.
Mertesacker?
Welbeck!
SUPER SUPER TOMAS ROSI… oh, wait… 🙁
i wonder if it’s a deliberately red card by xhaka so that he could make way for other player who has less playing time
It wasn’t a ‘red card’ at all, so it couldn’t be planned.
why Wenger didn’t play Xhaka on Wednesday knowing that he’ll serve a ban in the Premier League anyways? was this some kind of a punishment? 15 years following the club and I still don’t always understand Le Proffeseur
Maybe because the balance and coq was brilliant ? an 100% right choice to start coq.
He’s done it before. I cant remember which player it was. But this time I was mostly sure Xhaka wont play as Arsene has done this before.
Don’t risk Santi. It’s Elneny time.
Well said. We were poor last season once Santi got injured. He makes us tick and I’m worried he is already playing too many games. It’s great that we’re winning games now and playing relatively well, and it is looking like we are going to be well involved in the title race, but if you don’t have your best players fit at the business end you probably won’t win the league. Arsene needs to manage this squad so that we are ready for the run-in.
Santi wasn’t in Spain’s squad for the interlull so shouldn’t need a rest unless it’s a definite injury. Elneny and Coq seems a very limited midfield pair creatively for a home game against ‘boro
I didn’t realise that about the interlull, fair point. But he is 31, had a serious injury last season, and I think may have played all our games bar Liverpool and Forest.
As much as I love Elneny, I wonder if Arsene would start the Ox. To me Elneny and Coquelin are too defensive. Starting the Ox against a Boro team low on confidence could be risky, but I thought it’s worth a try.
Elneny can be reasonably effective linking up play further up the field but we will lack that incisive passing between the lines that you get with a Santi or Xhaka.
Then again.. you have got Mesut to shoulder the creative burden which he seemed pretty happy to do last season.
Great as the ox was midweek, if it was a straight choice between him and Elneny, I would go with the Egyptian. We have enough firepower upfront to create chances and I would prefer the stability, because there have been times we’ve looked a bit ropey at the back this season. And the ox is a great option off the bench.
Does the Reading game count as a second missed game for Xhaka for his red card? It would be great to have him available for the Sp-*s match.
yep, it counts.
So no Cazaka……..bring in Coqeny……..no issues!
Ramsey, Ramsey, Ramsey……………wherefore art thou Ramsey?
Mike Dean will award three penalties in this match. The team should work on avoiding conceding corners.
Yeh a solid Base of Coquelin and Elneny tomorrow with Ozil ahead would be interesting. Elneny keeps us ticking over really effectively in midfield, different to Santi but moves the ball quickly and is always available, more conservative but with our front four able to play higher it should not stop us from playing exciting quick football. He needs game time too..