Arsene Wenger, as promised, has brought a real smattering of youth with him for tomorrow night’s Europa League tie with BATE Borisov.
The Arsenal manager has included some youngsters who have yet to make an appearance for the first team, including midfielders Charlie Gilmour – said to be very happy with his inclusion – and Romanian Vlad Dragomir.
Other youngsters on the trip include Reiss Nelson, Joe Willock, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Matt Macey, Marcus McGuane, Josh Dasilva and Chuba Akpom, and they have all travelled to Minsk this afternoon with senior men like Per Mertesacker, David Ospina, Theo Walcott, Shkodran Mustafi, Olivier Giroud, Rob Holding and Jack Wilshere.
With a 12 noon Premier League kick off against Brighton on Sunday, the manager has left the likes of Laurent Koscielny, Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez, Granit Xhaka and Alexandre Lacazette behind to have some fresh legs for that one.
Alex Iwobi remains sidelined through injury, otherwise he’d have a played.
James from Gunnerblog has given us his starting XI – what team would you pick?
Yes for the Romanian! I want to see Vlad in action!!
Hoping he impales whichever defender he’s up against.
Ospina
Mustafi – BFG – Holding
Nelson – Elneny – Wilshere – Maitland Niles
Walcott – Giroud – Akpom
Strong looking team. COYR.
*GOYG
Decent, but I’d really prefer to see Nelson further forward and not RWB. The problem, like Blogs has said, is there’s no cover for the wingbacks.
We could just play that forgotten french fella Debuchy.
I know he’s frozen out of the squad, but I’d prefer an actually RB in RWB rather than wasting Nelson as a WB (I think Nelson as a WB is gonna be my new Ox as a LWB petpeeve).
Also, Niles should not be a LWB. I’d rather just play Da Silva there.
Whats the problem with having RN playing WB for a game to gain 1st team experience? Its invaluable experience for a 17yo. He has the tech ability to play WB. AW isn’t trying to convert him he just wants him to gain experience. I’m sure RN just wants to get out there and play to gain experience also.
No Jeff?
Godamn, had high hopes for him, still do actually…
Injured
Yes who cares if he’s injured. Just play him to satisfy your needs.
What’s with The Jeff? Don’t see him anywhere these days.
Injured.
Don’t think so as he scored for the under 23 team the other day
“Injured”.
But what about the Jeff? Nobody mentions him these days.
;-p
Injured. See his ArsenalFanTV interview at the FIFA ’18 launch party. Nice little interviews with Reiss and Chuba there as well.
Hopefully we can master BATE on Thursday. Don’t underestimate them! They have a rigid defense and are a well oiled side.
At least you tried.
Class
Hah! I see what u did there 😉
I hope you made yourself happy with that one.
Or blind.
The need to rotate the squad probably means we’ll be using our coq to master BATE.
but we can´t master BATE with an injured coq
If we can get to the quarters?
Hopefully we’ll start taking it seriously.
Not good enough to win title.
Haven’t been anywhere near good enough to win CL.
Winning Europa and one of the domestic comps has to be the target.
You must be fun at parties
Finally we get Vlad dragomir. I really really hope he becomes a first team player, what a great name!
Ospina holding Mertesacker mustafi amn Wilshere elneny Nelson Walcott Giroud akpom
Ospina holding Mertesacker´s mustach… I´ll get my coat
hahaha lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQnd5ilKx2Y
“Youngsters like Chuba Akpom” the guy is about 35!!
BATE Borisov are not exactly push overs; it could turn out to be a very dicey game for that team, especially if we need to rely on the subs bench for injuries or tactical change.
How about Wenger fields a 4-3-3 system with AMN at right back and Reiss in midfield ?
Good call! 4 at the back (with experienced CBs) should be more than enough.
Let me get this straight…we have a guy named VLAD DRAGOMIR, in our side. And he’s Romanian?!
Dracula…we’ve got friggin’ Dracula!! How cool is that?
Even cooler would have been to be called Zlad and to come from Molvania
I think we should go with a back 4 in this game.
Ospina
Mustafi Per Holding AMN
Wilshere ElNeny Willock
Nelson Giru Theo
This looks like a decent side to me. Thoughts?
You’ve picked a 3-5-2 or 3-6-1, not a 4-4-2
Its a 433, with mustafi at rb
So, how to master BATE Borisov… Anyone have Michael Gove’s number?
Surprised there isn’t Ozil on the list. Must be still worried about his injury.
Reiss……………….Giroud……………….Walcott
……………………..Jack……………………………
……………AMN…………..Elneny…………………
Monreal………Per…….Chambers……….Bellerin
……………………..Ospina…………………………
Sub off Bellerin, move Chambers to RBack and Holding into the middle later on.
Chambers is injured, has a small recurrence of hip problem
Do you even read the post or do you just comment whatever you want? just curious.
Where’s the Jeff? What happened to him?!
Injured, but coming back soon. Interview at FIFA ’18 Launch Party with Arsenal FanTV on youtube
He was on a delayed transfer, he was make weight for Xhaka last summer
I love these kind of games….Just like our first team the ‘mixed’ teams are always either delightful or terrible….But in even more entertaining ways.