Arsenal are looking for their third win in a row, but Chelsea at Stamford Bridge will certainly prove more challenging than either Bournemouth or Cologne.
Here are today’s official line-ups.
Chelsea: Courtois, Azpilicueta, Luiz, Cahill, Moses, Kante, Cesc, Alonso, Willian, Pedro, Morata
Subs: Caballero, Christensen, Rudiger, Zappacosta, Bakayoko, Hazard, Batshuayi
Arsenal: Cech, Koscielny, Mustafi, Monreal, Bellerin, Xhaka, Ramsey, Kolasinac, Iwobi, Welbeck, Lacazette.
Subs: Ospina, Mertesacker, Alexis, Elneny, Maitland-Niles, Walcott, Giroud
Iwobi??
big game for iwobi!!come on lad show us you are ozil’s heir!!!!
What happened to Ozil?
Injured
Always goes missing in the big games
44% of Arsenal goals against the best 6 PL teams were goaled or assisted by Özil.
Thanks, it was a joke
Yes, the one that needs to be killed.
Preferably, by fire.
Paraplegic thumbs downing this, despite it just being a fact.
Of how many goals?
Ahhhahahahaha
Don’t say that on here son. Really not cricket. You need to really watch closely, sometimes twice to see the impact Ozil has away from home against teams in the top half of the table.
Is Ozil injured or what?
What happened to ozil?
Muscle injury
5-1
They have Kante and Cesc in middle, we have Ramsey xhaka. Need a miracle today. Other than koscielny and possibly lacazette, no other player would get in their team. Tough to say. Here’s praying ??
Kolasinac definitely would and I’d take Bellerin over Moses all day long.
We had Ramsey Xhaka in the FA Cup too. You mean another miracle?
Xhaka, seriously? Kante will run rings round a player who has zero pace or mobility.
Did we turn down £60 million for Alexis so he could cover in the Europa League?
Leaving out Alexis and putting on Iwobi is ludicrous.
In it to win it boys
Yes, he will be beat coming in late. I don’t think he is fully up to speed.
Hopefully, both will have learnt and Wenger has given them different instructions.
I still think Wenger is going to attack!
He scored a lovely goal but other than that didn’t look particularly up to speed on Thursday.
Same midfield as against Liverpool. Yikes!
Wing backs playing in their correct positions though!!
I am very confused. Is it a 3-5-2 maybe with Iwobi making a three man midfield? Thats the only possible explanation?
Chelsea are in for a shocker today. Watch out for iwobi.
tbh I think we could give them a pasting. no hazard and fabregas in midfield? that didn’t end up well for conte the last couple of times.
Cesc is in.
Maybe not a pasting, but we can beat Chelsea. It just depends on which Arsenal turn up.
Haha! A pasting? With Xhaka in midfield? He looks like he’s running through treacle when he’s on the pitch. We will never dominate a game against any team with a mobile midfield.
I think CESC and Fabregas are the same person
Bizarre selection again from Arsene. Iwobi completely out of favour & then suddenly back in for the biggest game we’ve had so far.
The question is : “who will be made guilty if Mister Ramsey wants to play ahead of Lacazette ? who will be made guilty for Xhaka’s and Sanchez’s failures? Who?”
Strong bench
Fabregas IS starting according to BBC.
cesc !
Blogs calling him ‘Cesc’ against The Arsenal?
Blogs does love him some Cesc.
Who said he wasn’t?
@Alex and possibly Bloggs before changing it?
I have had a bet at 3-1 to the Arsenal.
Would have like a place for Wilshere on the bench.
Hopefully Iwobi can get stuck in today
Benching Alexis for Iwobi…
What an idiot.
No Ozil means we’re gonna look for another culprit to blame if we loose the match(I don’t see us loosing anyways)…its good to know that the OX haven’t won a match yet.I’d like to take a wee at Stanford brigde after the match
Iwobi. Mark it down.
WTF? Why is Alexis on the bench?
It is not even like he hasn’t been putting in an effort for us.. ever since we turned down a move away for him!
This is bullshit!
And why is Wilshere not even on the bench? Is it because of his red card in a game against some street kids?
I really dont understand either. Leave your best player on the bench when you pretty much have to get atleast one point out of the game. And put Iwobi in. Sigh.
Why on earth so many thumbs down for an excellent point.
It might seem crazy not to start sanchez, but i kinda have to agree with Wenger on this one. Aside from his goal against Cologne, which was insanely good, I thought Sanchez was pretty poor.
And Iwobi is certainly a good alternative, although nowhere near as good, for Ozil’s technical ability and creative movement.
Hope Iwobi performs a bit better today. He had a good pre-season but didn’t look great on Thursday. He’s got it in him though. I’m sure we’ll see Alexis pretty early in the 2nd half.
Sure they are quaking at that line up. Christ. Iwobi was crappie on Thursday but still ahead of dance
Glad no ozil
really don’t understand picking Iwobi over Alexis
So there’ll be a big hole in midfield again, great!!
I don’t see anything spectacular with Chelsea’s starting lineup. If we’re disciplined enough today, and if we take our chances which will surely come, we can beat them! COYG!!!
3 at the back again ffs
iwobi?? I like him but not for this game I would played elneny.
Putting Iwobi in the squad instead of Alexis makes absolutely no sense. He played against Cologne, so it’s not like he’s much fresher.
I believe Wenger has transcended football and has moved into the territory of Art.
The Liverpool game was his Eraserhead.
So, it seems Iwobi has overtaken Theo in the pecking order. Good luck, Gunners!
Valiant loss written all over this.
Could have started with giroud. Im glad ozil not playing the lazy bugger. Now he needs to sold in January, ggm please buy him
Is Ozil injured or ‘injured’…
Chelsea are quite beatable and this iteration have something akin to a phobia for Arsenal. If we do the basics right and take our chances, the least we get here is a point.
Wenger being Wenger again.
I had a dream that we lost 2-1 against Chelsea. And at the end, a very happy Sanchez was doing front flips in front of our fans on that side of the stadium seatings. And the Arsenal fans were happy and cheering him on. And closeby, Chamberlain was standing on the side and watching silently.
What does it all mean? Will find out soon…
Rambo!
Chaotic game, but this is the good kind of chaos
to bad we didnt score
Dare I say it, we are better without Sanchez and Ozil! Great first half COYG!
Anyone else see Alexis laughing when Lacca missed the chance? Giroud holding his head in disappointment as well as Ospina and Aexis laughing.
No. Nobody else saw it. What I actually saw was Alexis up on his feet and holding Giroud in a show of disappointment.
Sorry.
He was holding Ospina not Giroud (who had his head in his hands) laughing and Ospina was not impressed. I saw it twice you are mistaken. imo. Sorry….
Okay, I was wrong. The selection was alright. Good performance.
The substitutions, on the other hand…