It’s Arsenal’s second game in 48 hours and we face Bournemouth away from home.
Here’s the team Arsene Wenger has chosen to do the job tonight.
Bournemouth: Boruc, Francis, Cook, Ake, Daniels, Arter, Gosling, Stanislas, Fraser, King, Wilson
Subs: Federici, Mings, Smith, Smith, Surman, Ibe, Mousset
Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Xhaka, Ramsey, Iwobi, Alexis, Giroud
Subs: Ospina, Holding, Gabriel, Maitland-Niles, The Jeff, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lucas
Gabriel did everything almost right… Sad he’s back to the bench…. It’s hard to keep Mustafi off the pitch when fit….
Exactly I agree Gabriel should’ve started. But I AM SOOOOO ANGRY AT GIROUD CELEBRATING THAT 3rd GOAL AND WASTED TIME. HE’s SO VAIN and STUPID SOMETIMES
Why take Lucas out?
Wenger needs to get Ramsey some game time to get him fit and ready for action when called upon again. Having played two days ago he’s rotating as he can, but unfortunately without Ozil and Gibbs there is not much more rotation he can do other than maybe starting Ox wide, Sanchez up top and rest Giroud, but of course hard to take out Giroud at the moment.
Ramsey does not deserve to start an Arsenal game. He does not fit into our system and tends to be more of a liability.
Because this is an away game and Ramsey is better at defending. It’s a sensible decision. And with Ox and Lucas on the bench, we have players on the bench who can make an impact, if needed. #COYG
I’m pretty sure last season Ramsey was the most dribbled past player in the league last season, not exactly a great defensive quality, especially for someone on the wing
Probably cause he wants lucas to start in the F.A cup.
So who gets the number 10 role?
Iwobi, I guess after his impressive showing vs Palace.
Could be Ramsey or Iwobi
coyg! 3 points no matter how.
Where Is Mesut then ? Injured ?
Ill
On Holiday!
I’d love to see this line up as 4-3-3 with Xhaka at the base of midfield and Coq and Ramsey hunting the ball down in front of him, with Alexis and Iwobi playing off Giroud. I suspect however Ramsey will probably be shoehorned in on the right in a 4-2-3-1 and we’ll look lopsided and ponderous.
Let’s see, i’d love Wenger to do something unexpected like that.
COYG!! Ramsey at #10 i assume, but i’d actually prefer to see Iwobi there. Also, our bench is starting to look a little thinner with Mesut sick and Elneny on way to African Nations. Bring your best game boys and get us the three points!
Interesting lineup. This will be a game played on the ground. Cannot envision too many crosses but with Alexis Iwobi and Ramsey a definite shoot on sight routine is in order.
Nice line up. Welcome back to Mustafi. Some interedting switches to come on the right wing between Alex and Aaron ? COYG, bring us 3 points back.
*interesting
Slightly worried about the lack of width… got to assume Iwobi is #10 with Ramsey and Alexis wide; meaning that they will both be wanting to drift inside. Guess playing Ramsey rather than Lucas does mean that we strengthen central midfield a bit. Hopefully that will negate Bournemouth’s strength there.
No rest for Alexis?! The man needs to be tranquilised to keep him out. Fingers crosses there are no injuries.
AW: listen Alexis we have played a busy schedule so I’m goin g to give you a rest and put you on the bench.
AS: I ain’t sitting on no damn bench fool!
AW: fine you can play but before you do, why don’t you just drink this nice glass of milk?
Are we expecting Ramsey in the middle or out right? I guess I missed Gibbs having a knock?
My prediction is a win, a HFB assist to Alixis and a goal from an unlikely contributor.
Let’s have some fun and remain positive.
im concerned for the team now. we should rotate more often. we rotated coqueline and in the right wing and tried to rotate in left back position. but some players are being overplayed. xhaka has only missed one match in last 10 games and has played for whole 90 minutes in other 9 matches including all of the harsh winter games. i dont know if koscielny has missed a match at all apart from some matches at the beginning similar to sanchez
In an ideal world we’d like to be able to rotate our strongest players (though Alexis could, and should have been rested on Sunday), but Xhaka’s pretty much un-droppable at the moment. He’s quickly reaching Santi levels of importance as far as building attacks from deep. Take him out of the team and we’re pretty much back to a midfield of the same quality as the Flamini-Ramsey partnership last year. Preston at the weekend will be the best time to rest a couple of players. This is an absolute must win tonight
Fair concern, but as Blogs pointed out in his preview for this match, we have an FA Cup game against Preston this Sunday. I would be highly surprised if Alexis and Kos played in that match. So they will get some rest then. Xhaka has not played much this season until the last couple of months. He should be relatively fresh when compared to players within our squad and in other teams’ squads. This is a pretty important match in the context of our season given that Chelsea play Tottenham tomorrow. We must get 3 points today so I think… Read more »
The Xhaka-Coq-Ram Combo.
I would not want to be on the recieving end of that!
As much rotation as we can do at the moment without offering too much quality. Not a big fan of the Xhaka-Coq duo in away games as teams have learned to press them and expose coquelin’s limited passing, as seen against Everton and city. Ox to com in at 60 minutes for Iwobi and Lucas for Giroud
A bigger mountain than Everest…..
we are outplayed in all departments !that midfiedl with ramsey is not working at all. we should revert to alexis up front.
I agree. Ramsey does not fit the current system and should be sold this transfer window. Chaimberlain should have started instead.
It’s our formation and ***** tactics that are letting us down, Xhaka can’t handle the press as a DLP and playing Coq in a box-to-box role?? FFS. A copy of the Everton and City matches, we are just so easy to press.
Xhaka hasn’t had a sniff of the ball. We definitely haven’t figured out a way to play when the other team is pressing us hard. A good pressing game seems to be the blueprint to beat us.
Exactly, one would expect to react to this somehow but Wenger continues to play these two in the away matches third time in a row with the same result. Xhaka/Elneny has worked well as both can receive and pass the ball which makes them harder to press. Take one out and we won’t get the ball to the front 3.
Same thing year in year out.
Why do people expect a different outcome?
Man to man they are out playing us Using fitness and desire. Basic football is beating us.
I thought the squad that started our last match was good… Wenger thought otherwise. He decided to make us stronger by replacing Perez with Ramsey. Well it’s half time at the time of this comment, hope we score 3 and concede none during second half. COYG(faint voice)… ?
Seen more movement in a comatose tortoise than from Girould.
What the hell is going on???à Our midfield is all over the place!!! With Coq out, we have to make do with Ramsey… his time to shine, I hope!
Coq out could be a blessing in disguise. Can’t think of one good game Coq and Xhaka have had together. This formation is not working for them at all.
I more think the attacking players are not pulling their weight. Coq continuously breaks up play and Xhaka getting the passes into players quick and firm, but our attack don’t put people to the sword as they should. Look at Mane Harzard Willian Mata just putting pressure whether on their own or in combination offensively.
Big 2nd half please lads
Without the injury we wouldn’t have made a change until 65+ minutes. Dosent seem to matter though, bournemouth are beating us because they put in the effort. Fing hate these games where we seem half asleep waiting to concede the first goal
Wow. Can’t watch anymore. Never seen us this poor.
We were as bad against city and Everton. We have matches like this every season. When we have a bad spell we’re utterly shit.
We have an outdated manager long past his prime, and this isn’t shocking it’s standard in an arsenal season
Jesus we’re shit. No top four for us this year. Might actually make the club do something. Wankers.
It’s time for Ospina to take over. Check has been poor.
What a load of bollicks
Ramsey no words for him so selfish should go model football isn’t a game for narcissists
I can’t believe that on current form we didn’t start either Ox or Perez over Ramsey. Both of them looked so sharp and focused.
Finally some guts….now need to push on from this. The team needed that.