Arsene Wenger has provided the latest team news update ahead of tomorrow’s Premier League clash with Newcastle.
Arsenal need to get back to winning ways, having dropped points away at Southampton and West Ham in the last week, and there are still doubts at the back over Shkodran Mustafi.
Asked for his latest update, the manager said, “Basically Mustafi is back in training today, I don’t know if I will include him tomorrow, it’s still a little gamble.
“Apart from that we see how everyone recovers.”
There was also more clarity over Aaron Ramsey situation. Having said in his last press conference that the Welshman would be out for a ‘short’ period with his hamstring strain, it now seems that he’ll be missing for longer than first thought.
“Aaron Ramsey of course will not be available,” he continued. “It’s maybe three weeks, so … he’s not in contention for the next three weeks.”
Bad news, as he’ll definitely miss Liverpool and could miss the visit of Chelsea in January too.
As for his team selection for tomorrow, he suggested more changes.
“I rotate a little bit at the moment,” he said.
“We’ve played four games in basically nine days so I will have to assess how everybody recovers.”
It is amazing how the times predicted for players to come back extends and extends. One match becomes three matches becomes one month becomes three months.
I’d imagine that’s because he’s pressed to give an answer on the night of the game where it happened. As recovery happens, it becomes clearer exactly how long they’ll be out for. Not counting any set backs a player may have, because you know, the players aren’t robots. smh
Then why not say ‘I don’t know but will let you know once I do’ or ‘typically this is between one and five matches’ rather than get everyone’s hopes up and then disappoint, making it look like Arsenal don’t know what they are doing?
lol, that’s just it, they dont
Gutted to see Ramsey out, he’s been playing really well of late.
Ramsey will be greatly missed. Till then, we’ll need to stick with 4 at the back. We might need to bring in one of Coq or Elneny in midfield. Xhaka – Coq/Elneny – Jack. Play a front 3 of Ozil – Lacazette – Alexis/Welbeck. Theo will be important. I do hope he plays.
Not that well. Offensively yes but he has also reverted to his old bad habit of stationing himself way too high and statically wait I g for the ball to be serviced to him. Against Soton, it left Granit heavily isolated with 5 Air in players surrounding him. Our back line had no outlet which then under duress led to mistakes. It was all too easy like against United to cover our so g backs with quick pacy wide players and bc Ramsey is not close enough to Granit to finesse the ball out of midfield, we are forced to… Read more »
I’m numb to it and hold little ambition for the season.
Oh bugger, three weeks. We’ll see you next season Aaron.
Time for a change of system, surely. Wenger has a slightly worrying tendency of seemingly restarting the machine and hoping for the best each time the team starts stalling and it seems its due again. He has to mix it up again. I thought the inclusion of Iwobi was really interesting on Wednesday. Its clear that Wilshere and Xhaka together dont have the mobility, and when you look at what our midfield ideally needs (a player with physicality who can beat a press, play a pass and win the ball back) its encouraging that he’s giving Iwobi a chance over… Read more »
Good chance for jack to show what he has to offer and build on his last game. Hopefully wenger gives holding or chambers a try at cb to give the defence better balance. The changes he makes must start with playing the right players in their best positions not the square pegs in round holes thing that he keeps on trying to make work. Get the balance and tempo sorted quickly, drop anyone who’s struggling for form and give some of our quality young players a chance.
It may be too much to ask Jack to play through the entire game after midweek.
Iwobi can be another option to carry the load. If we are ahead, Coquelin can cone in to help close.
Who cares anyway.
It’s all gone stale and boring.
It’s sad to see the demise of Arsene wenger, especially when it come to the league.
Maybe we’ll challenge after he leaves. But one thing is for certain, we will never challenge for the league under him. The keyword is “challenge” ?
Just the sort of positivity we need . talk about bottle.
If the team showed this kind of attitude, we would not have even won 3 FA cups in 4 seasons.
We are still only a point or two off top4 challengers.
That’s the minimum we need to ensure for now.
There’s still half a season to play for. City look a tough ask but culling United back is not impossible.
Any rediscovery of form will also translate to Europa form and beyond in the FA cup so what do you mean who cares??
I don’t think we will miss Ramsey that much. Its not to say he’s been poor but his defensive positioning has been suspect again. Jack like up for a scrap and turns with the ball well. I would start him next to Granit should we go 4 at the back bc of the Mustafi issue currently. Ozil and Alexis are automatic starters. Maybe Walcott on the right side could be interesting. Iwobi cam cone in to replace Jack so he doesn’t have to play through the whole game. Start Lacazette but if he shows no ability to hold the ball,… Read more »
Hmm…finally at last Wenger seems to actually rotate players after 20 yrs, initially playing a different team in the PL and Cups, now within the league team. However there seems to be a significant driver of trying to find form again.
Next step will be to play players in their natural positions even when developing/easing them back in.