Arsene Wenger has provided the latest team news update ahead of Sunday’s Premier League encounter with Manchester United.
The Gunners will be looking to bounce back from last weekend’s abysmal derby defeat at White Hart Lane, and it looks as if we’ll be without Granit Xhaka who picked up an ankle knock in the 2-0 defeat to Sp*rs.
“Granit Xhaka is out from the kick he got in the game,” said Wenger. “It’s a swollen ankle.”
“Mustafi is back in full training, and that’s about it.”
Although when pressed later he said there was a ‘little chance’ that the Swiss international could make it in time.
Asked about Lucas Perez, he confirmed the Spaniard had returned to the fold, but may well miss out because of a knock on the training ground.
“Lucas Perez is back in the training as well but he’ll miss the next two days, he got a little problem in training yesterday,” he said.”
And after the derby defeat, the Arsenal manager is looking for his team to show more when they face Jose Mourinho’s side at the Emirates on Sunday.
“The best way is to respond because we come out of a good spell, we want to bounce back,” he said.
“Sometimes it’s good to have a big game.”
Why is wenger the only premier league manager that does his press conference on a Thursday?
He rotates between Thurs & Friday. It’s usually Thursday if we have an away game on the Saturday, but given we’re at home on Sunday this weekend, I don’t know why the presser was today.
I’m sure Mourinho’s spent the last few weeks working on a new jab at Wenger. So maybe AW took an early one to avoid the shit-stirring.
There were 9 Premier League conferences today…
fully expecting a drab 0-0 here lads
True. They will come looking for a draw and most probably will get it too.
Nah, they’ll spunk a few goals into our yawning mouths.
fully expecting us to get beat, then for walcott to be rolled out infront of the cameras to say something along the lines of “they wanted it more” or “they were fresher than us”
They have the disadvantage of Thursday night football
We have the disadvantage of being shit. Not fair.
Not even looking forward to the match. Arsenal Man Utd used to be the highlight of the season. Now it’s seeing what patched-up side will this clueless manager will put out… 3 at the back again with rusty Gibbs wingback ? Coq in for the better Elneny? The hapless Giroud lumbering around up top like the fucking Ent he is (*blogs), no-touch Theo coming on ? It’s fucking depressing this team, more depressing the manager can’t actually pick the best 11 players we have to win a game of football
The only player currently providing any sort of structure :'( Thank fuck it’s for a game against a manager with no intention of exploiting it. Might as well go all out and just partner Ox with Elneny. No need for Coq in this one.
This is wenger we are taking about….he will start coquelin for sure
Remember though, Coq was playing holding mid when we went 19 games undefeated at back end of 2016. Just saying….
Remember some of us still wanted him out
remember when senderos , alex song flamini all looked worldbeaters at some point
In our run to the champs final we set a record for consecutive clean sheets with senderous as cb and flamini as emergency rb.
Never have I wanted a season to end so badly. Haven’t been excited for a game for a very long time, just get it over with, press the reset button and start again.
Cue sarcastic comment about bouncing back and and managing the team properly, were gonna get smashed again blah blah blah
Rinse and repeat
I think those c*nts are worst than we are. We win it sharply.
Time to flop out our Coq.
:/
3-4-1-2
Cech
Gabriel
Koscielny
Holding
Bellerin
Ox
Elneny
Monreal
Özil
Alexis
Welbeck
Can’t think of much better…
That looks like an ideal line up, but I’m sorry to say that we will most likely see Coq, Gibbs and Walcott in there because Wenger is a stubborn mule.
Iwobi—–Sanchez—–Perez
Monreal—–OX—–Elneny—-Welbeck
Holding—–Kos——Gabriel
Cech
I wouldn’t mind seeing that team have a run out before this shit fest season is over, a late sub bringing Ainsley-Maitland Niles on for Elneny would be interesting as well, he’s played that box to box role incredibly well at U23 level.
And giroud
I think that going with 3 defenders is unnecessary against a side that will probably park the bus.
My choice in that situation would be 4-2-3-1, with Elneny replacing Xhaka and Mustafi back in the squad. The other option is to use Ox as a replacement for Xhaka and play Walcott on the wing. Upfront I would wish to see Iwobi and his cutting through the lines, but I guess it is not going to happen.
So I predict
Cech
Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielni, Monreal
Elneny,Ramsey
Ozil
Alexis,Welbeck,Chamberlain
you do remember the way we were playing with four at the back (in particular with Mustafi doing his best keystone cops impression) that made Wenger switch to a three at the back right? Give Mourinho a taste of his own medicine and remain defensive and three at the back at home and try to break and get a goal, fuck knows he’s done it to us time and time again over the years. Playing an attacking 4-2-3-1 with a light trio of Elneny, Ramsey and Ozil in midfield against a Mourinho side just seems a little like history repeating… Read more »
“We come out of a good spell ”
When was this 2004 ?
This club is the height of f*ckery at the moment. Perez shouldn’t be in a position to be re injured in training, the irresponsibility of the coaching staff sometimes is astounding. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Gabriel being Gabriel. Definitely a game for a fast front 3. Hopefully Fellani is banned and Ozil has a stormer…
Perez’s season is well and truly over. I doubt we’ll ever see him play for Arsenal again.
Is he being deliberately kept out of the line-up? Has he pissed of Arsene that much?
He was clearly purchased for one reason only, and that was to appease the fans who rightly saw the need for a new striker. Arsene obviously never intended for him to be anything more than that.
Saddens me, but seems to be true.
He comes on and scores a 89th minute winner in Cup Final…….. sorry guys, momentary mental lapse of false optimism on my part.
Ohh well, just when I thought our midfield can’t do any worse, I have to watch the Coq and Ramsey “run” our midfield. Sigh, another match where we huff and puff, but to little avail.And then in the 55th minute of the match, our team nicely divides itself into two parts on either side of the pitch, providing Herrera or some other twat acres of space in the middle to shoot. On a more positive note, there wouldn’t be a better time than this for Wenger to break his hoodoo against Maureen. Wenger down and struggling while Mourinho is on… Read more »
Am I the only one who thinks this as the team now
3-4-3
Cech
Mustafi (since he’s back) kos holding
Bellerin ox elneny monreal
Ozil iwobi
Alexis
I personally think iwobi will hugely improve our team in this formation.
No Elneny. Mediocre player. Gets beat so easily. Short side way passes. But Coquelin-Ramsey hasn’t been entirely convincing either. Symptomatic of the poor choices we have in deep midfield at the moment. I don’t think we should be tinkering too much. The 3-4-3 may suit Coquelin somewhat better and in truth, Ramsey was decent against Spurs. What we need is IMO Ox on the left wingback role and Bellerin on the right. We are not balanced at the moment in terms of offensive/defensive side of things and threat from both flanks. I think Monreal tucked in at left of back… Read more »
Ox at left wingback…
your fuckwittery just reached new heights.
I don’t know what’s worse.. Arsenal, or your analyses.
Interestingly enough on the official website the team news article from that press conference did not even mention that bit about Perez.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20170504/team-news-mustafi-xhaka-and-ospina
Here is why Arsenal is losing out. Lack of consistency. Lack of confidence. They do not consider any more a team that can beat any team in the world. They think if things work out if Ozil or Sanchez perform well pass the ball, on a good day they can win. Perhaps other teams have realized this. All you have to do is suffocate Arsenal passing. If Maurinho can stop Hazard, he will definitely have plans for Sanchez too. I hope Arsenal is thinking how to use this as advantage.
Is Perez actually hurt? Or is he “hurt” because he was a Gazidis signing (per reports) and AW has frozen him out. Disappointed if that is the case as he’s been pretty good when given a chance. Genuinely interested if someone knows