It’s back to Premier League action on Saturday as we face Bournemouth, hoping to bounce back from the 4-0 defeat to Liverpool in our last game.
The players have been away on international duty and Arsene Wenger provided the latest team news updates before the game this weekend.
The information at the moment is limited due to players arriving back late, but Wenger said, “Sanchez, Opsina, Ramsey, players are coming back today. We’ll check that all along the day.
“We have no injuries, everybody is looking to come back quite well. We have no big injury problems.”
Asked if Jack Wilshere might be included against the club he was on loan with last season, Wenger continued.
“Wilshere is looking stronger every day,” he said.
“I haven’t decided yet who will be in the squad. He still needs some fitness work, but he’s in a positive trend.”
There’s also a positive update about Santi Cazorla – keep an eye on the site for that inside the next hour.
Drop Ramsey and play elneny alongside xhaka
Elneny is so Mr Average, I’d rather have Wilshere or Coquelin in there.
Elneny isn’t average, he and Xhaka work really well, both big and Mo get’s about the pitch, I think he is vastly underrated. People said similar things about Gilberto when he first arrived. A run of games and this lad could be our new invisible wall. Fuck knows we need one!
The only game we’ve won this season is the one where Elneny played. Just saying.
He is pretty average to be fair……..the fact that he may well be our best option currently in midfield makes it even more astonishing that Arsene didn’t buy a midfielder in the summer. Then again, it’s been a weakness for so, so long now….personally, I’d play Coquelin on Saturday & tell him to just sit & do what he’s good at. Do not cross the halfway line – ever ! We need some sort of stability to get the season going.
I think the couple of games last season those 2 started in the middle, we couldn’t get the ball out of our defense. They just pressed coq and xhaka and win the ball back in 3 secs.
I agree, Elneny is not average, he is a very solid player. Works his tail off, is disciplined in his positioning (which is very underrated on this squad) and does not turn the ball over. He may not be spectacular, but he does that job that you need from that position with solid defensive work/positioning, being available for the ball to allow us to keep possession and moves the ball quickly without turning it over.
I think the problem is Wenger seems to want yet another attacker and goals from that position as well. Even when Cazorla was back there he was saying he’d like more goals from him. That in itself isn’t the problem; the problem is when it is at the expense of midfield positioning and defensive stability. Stoke and Liverpool.
I keep hoping in vain he’ll tell Ramsey to be more selective in his bursts forward like he did when Arteta was Xhaka. But that doesn’t seem to be the way Wenger sees it.
Poor old Flamini, written out of history again. It’s like he was never involved when Ramsey’s form was at its peak….
I totally agree – Flamini (when he wasn’t suspended) allowed Ramsey to be Ramsey and he hasn’t since had a partner that fully able to park it and defend as it never really came together with Coquelin as well.
But there was another patch – not Aaron’s goal glut – when he and Arteta pulled it together for a good stretch with Aaron staying more defensively positioned allowing Arteta to pass, possess, and control the tempo of play. In other words, he didn’t just bomb forward all of the time and it worked.
Good.. Atleast we have most of the squad available.. Hope we play them in their position.. #COYG
Whether we play five, four or three at the back, all Wenger formations revert to 1-1-8 by the 55th minute. God help me I’m actually looking forward to the game…
Predicting a win against Bournemouth and everything will be rosy again according to him… before our inevitable thumping from chelsea in a couple of weeks time.
I know where you’re coming from, but at least we surely have to agree with Wenger that a win against Bournemouth will be a good thing?
Andre, of course winning we’ll be a good thing, all of us love the club whether we agree with the way the manager is running it or not, but jgunner does have point – AW has a tendency to act like everything is great just because sometimes, the team does what it should do in any state, I mean, with all do respect, it’s freaking Bournemouth.
Can’t say how well we’re gonna perform against bigger clubs…
Just like the thumping we had in the FA cup final.
Give Wilshere a few minutes on Saturday (if we can afford to have him on the bench) and then like half an hour in mid-week in EL. Skip the Chelsea match and then start him against Doncaster.
Good news that Koscielny is unscathed. I fancy us for 3 points this weekend.
It’s depressing that it should even be in question.
Wenger don’t you dare bench Kolasinac and Lacazette again.
We haven’t scored a goal since the Leicester game so we need to a) win and b) sort out that goal difference :\
@blogs, just a quick question: why always several 150-words articles after 10 mins of press conference, instead of just one? Lately we have a *stay tuned for more* approach, too…
A change is as good as a rest
I agree. Why not write one really long blog, like once a month. I hate getting quick and succinct articles.
It’s normal to make different articles about different subjects/topics on a news site. That’s kinda what it’s about.
The stay tuned was because I didn’t have full quotes as I was still listening to press conference and thought people would be interested in the Cazorla story.
To those asking for long articles, running a blog is also taking care of all users and that is something blogs have to deal by working on the stats, stats says a lot of things about how People are reacting while visiting a blog and Bloggers need to work that out accordingly. Even if some People Do like big articles most like smallish one more and they d rather read Quick dedicated news than reading lenghty articles 😉
I for one like the posts reduced to fewer topics. Quicker to take in, more focused. Plus the comments would be [more] all over the place if a single post tried to cover every topic of a press conference.
And Santi should always get his own dedicated post!
Lol you know every post gets hijacked no matter what
Yeah, but at least it’s obvious when it’s off topic and that forces the hijacker to know they’re an ass.
Simple answer: $$$
Lol if you don’t like the content why are you even here?
I wasn’t criticising. Just pointing out that Blogs has got to earn a living, and I’m assuming that mostly that comes from advertising revenue. More articles = more clicks.
if players stay in position we are unstoppable
Time for Wilshere to step up and be the CM we need this season. Hopefully he and Wenger fix whatever issue they have.
Not expecting much from this game. Hopefully we ditch the 3-4-3 and switch to a 4-3-3.
Would be delighted to see laca giroud sanchez playing upfront with ozil and xhaka feeding them …. woooshie … goosebumps
Can’t drop Ramsey. He isn’t the problem. If anyone needs dropping it’s xhaka. He offers nothing.
Ramsey, Wilshere, Santi, Ozil, even Elneny would florish if we actually had an out and out DM.
A Vieira/Petit/Kante/Matic type player.
Not only massively improve our Mid given our CM’s & ATM’s freedom to do what they are suppose to do intead of worrying about who’s not behind them.
It would also massively help out our exposed CB’s considering wenger loves our FB’s / WB’s to get forward.
Agreed. Actually this is really the problem with arsenal. We have no fucking clue with formation playstyle and personnel. Early wenger team is good because we have a clear formation and we bought the right personnel for that formation 4-4-2 interchange with 4-2-3-1 during counter. Fast, physical and direct style. After cl final loss, wenger had a change in philosophy going for technical fluid style in 4-2-3-1. He got the right vision as evidenced by rise of Spain. But we were hampered by a combination of bad injuries bad luck financial constraints rise of oil money etc. In hindsight the… Read more »
Ramsey runs around thinking he’s Messi and he isn’t a decent distributor of the ball unlike Xhaka. Problem with Xhaka though is that he’s not got good ball control so he can easily be pressed off it and currently every time he makes a bad pass it leads to a goal. If only Cazorla were fit…
You’ve listed two pairs of players, none of whom did/do the defensive part on their own.
Pretty terrible way of trying to prove the argument you’re putting forward.
What needs to happen is for Ramsey or (insert other midfielder here) to be told not to constantly bomb upfield. That’s what the 3 front players + wing backs are supposed to be for.
Xhaka is arguably the most creative midfielder in the country. In the latest statistics he has made more accurate passes than any other player in the Premier League.
Instead of that just put Ramsey on the Wing. I’m tired of Welbeck doing everything but scoring, Walcott not being anything more then a sprinter(he does make solid runs but we need more) and Iwobi not developed his finishing yet. I know Ramsey isn’t perfect as a finisher either but I think he’s our best option with AS on the other side.
Drop Ramsey for Elneny,Walcott in place of welbeck if Alexis is not available.Laccazette up front, ozil right wing ,kolasinac xhaka Elneny midfield, monreal Lauren mustaphy bellerin at the back .
I’m pretty sure Lauren retired…
Welbeck needs to be dropped!
Welbeck needs a week (maybe a month) of just being played in 1 v 1 with a keeper and receiving crossing balls 9 hours a day. He does the rest fine.
Welbeck has a chip in his brain that Man U implanted when he left and it must be removed first before such training – it programs him to lose balance and behave like a headless chicken if his visual system detects he has entered the opposition box.
Cech-bellerin-Mustafi-Kos-kola-wilshere-xhaka-ramsey-Sanchez-ozil-laca
4-3-3 narrow
Best formation for these players, maybe all our players.
Wwe need to give Walcott a chance every game he can score any time,
Cech
Bellerin
Kos
Mustafi
Kolasinic
Ramsey
Xhaka
Ozil
Sanchez
Giroud
Lacazette
Not solid enough in the DM department. Replace Ramsey with Elneny and i’m ok with your lineup. How about the following:
Cech
Hector Mustafi Kos Kolasinac
Xhaka Elneny
Ozil
Ramsey Laca Alexis
Thats one I would like to see this weekend. AR up front. I know he isn’t a perfect winger but at least he knows how to make runs and attempts. He definitely has the workrate to get back and help out on the flanks with Bellerin.
Caligunner – you agree with me for once! Love it. 🙂 You in California?
Elneny is a better midfielder than Ramsey. But they offer different play styles and can be used in different games. As for our current midfield crises I will play Elneny and Xhaka as the first option, if we need to defend I’ll play Coquelin and Xhaka and if we need a goal in the second half I’ll play Ramsey and Xhaka. Coquelin and Xhaka midfield is probably the most solid but it does not really do much if we need to create chances. Elneny is underrated, he deserve more games just prove some of you critics. Another option in midfield… Read more »
The new Viera! 🙂 He has the build.
I want my positive update about Santi!
Seriously, good news about Santi beat just about any transfer news I can think of…
Wilshire didnt even start towards the end of his time at bournmouth… yet now we’re talking about playing him in Arsenals first team?? He should have been the first player sold this summer
To be honest elneny is a much better player than coquelin he jus needs more game time an a coach who motivates his players in oder to get the best out of them wenger needs to take a hike he is no good at lifting a players game
Cech
Bellerin • Holding • Koscienly • Kolasinac
Iwobi • Xhaka • Ozil • Sanchez
Lacazette • Giroud
4-4-2