Arsene Wenger has provided the latest team news ahead of Saturday’s North London derby against Sp*rs.
The Gunners play the old rivals at Wembley, and beforehand there were injury and illness worries over Petr Cech, who picked up a calf problem in the 5-1 win over Everton last weekend, and Nacho Monreal.
Asked for an update on those situations and the potential squad for Saturday, Wenger said, “It will be a similar squad to Everton, maybe Danny Welbeck will be back.
“We’re unsure about Petr Cech, he has not practiced, so we don’t know if he’s available yet.
“Nacho Monreal should be all right.”
The manager seemed unconcerned about the prospect of playing his second choice keeper in a game of this magnitude.
“I have no problem with David Ospina, I will make that decision tomorrow,” he said.
“I will not take any risk with Cech if he’s not 100% because I have full faith in Ospina.”
Am ok with that…….
Fuck me if we win this I’m going to go mental. If we win this, as far as I’m concerned, it’s a four way battle for top four.
Also we got a pretty solid record at Wembley of late… C’mon lads, don’t let us down!!!
Any keeper better than Ospina!!
Where’s Rami Shaaban when you need him?
Mart Poom might have a thing or two to say about that!!
Alisson,Oblak,Navas,Neto
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Surprising comment from an Arsenal supporter on a player who has contributed to several wins for his team .. on the eve of a major derby …
Szczesny’s silk cuts to start in goal. You heard it here first.
In fact both our keepers are way below the top level that the other teams have.
Only de Gea is a top level keeper. Courtois and Lloris are good keepers while Ederson or Mignolet are worse than what we got.
Ederson worse than our options? What are they smoking in Berlin?
I disagree. I think it goes De Gea, Ederson. Courtois, Lloris as top class (in that order.) Then there are Cech and Ospina mixed in with all the rest in a pretty non-stand out group. Cech has fallen off a cliff entirely. He probably hasn’t been truly elite since his unfortunate head injury but since he joined us he dropped down a level again and this season he has probably made more mistakes then any other keeper in the league.
he left Chelsea before the real implosion to join a team that can’t string more than two solid defensive performances together in a row. In other words…he played at Chelsea when they were a defensive powerhouse. And joined a team where he’s facing a LOT more shots, scrambles, one on ones, be put under pressure by defensive errors generally and also anytime Xhaka plays. So while he’s going to appear worse as a result, i’m not sure quite how far he’s fallen in terms of his real performance level – but of course he has anyway due to age. But… Read more »
Hard to disagree with that
I agree with Jimbo’s initial point though. I don’t think has been an elite level goalkeeper since his head injury. I’d argue that the defence in front of him at Chelsea is what made him look so good. He didn’t look too hot when we beat them 5-3 at Stamford Bridge, for example (he was already getting beaten at his near post).
‘He probably hasn’t been truly elite since his unfortunate head injury’
… what? the one in 2006? Think you’ll find he was MOTM in champs league final 2012 after making two penalty saves.
Wish he’d save a couple for us though
6-0 to Arsenal. You can get your bets on now and thank me later. ?
Ta chap!
In with Martinez
He’s on loan elsewhere
Out with Martinez
Shake Martinez all about.
Martinez. Vodka Martinez.
Will be a big boost if we can do it.
Looking forward to Auba’s first hat-trick for Arsenal.
And mikhis second hattrick of assists
The new attacking options we have, for me, mean that they won’t know exactly what to expect from us. This game feels like it is coming at a good time. Plus we love a drop of the Wembley open spaces. It’s tricky not to feel optimistic for this one at the moment. Come On You Gooners!
Pains me to say it but this will definitely be a more challenging test than Everton of our new players & how effectively they work with the rest of the team. While 6-0 would be great will settle for winning by the odd goal. COYG!!
I’m ok with odd number too. 5-0, 3-0, 7-0 all good.
we never did a 10-0 on the spurds.. i wont mind that either
Actually Arsenal ladies won 10-0 against Tottenham
Let’s go smash us some spuds!, and the lads should play this one with the proverbial ‘wenger hand-brake’ off!…..we’ve already smashed them in our own home game, so its up to them to try and win their one if they can.
Haven’t been this optimistic going into a north London derby for about 10 years.
Neither have they
??????
I know that smash us all the time right? Its just weird that since the 07/08 season we’ve played them 26 times in all competitions, won 11, drawn 8, lost 7
Get back Fabianski! He’s better than Ospina at the moment in term of experience in the PL.
Swap Gerry Peyton for Tony Roberts instead.
Ospina, Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Xhaka, Ramsey, Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang, Ozil, Lacazette.
4-2-2-2 with Ozil on the left and Mkhitaryan on the right.
Play Ramsey in a defensive mode and unleash LMAO in the 1st half.
Xhaka will have 2 options for short passing in Mkhi and Ozil
2 direct options in Auba and Laca who will make them runs.
Now when Mkhi puts in that low cross we will have Laca, Auba and possibly Ramsey(3rd man) making runs in the box.
Yeh bro I been crunching shit w this formation on FIFA18 too FUCKIN LISTEN UP ARSENE ya mong Ramgooner + Santi Claws for Arsenblogal manager
….. and we’ll be torn a new one
stop with the xhaka/ramsey gaping midfield hole lineup please
I like it but it wouldn’t work our current CM and CB options, if we had a pair of proper DM’s then i think it would be highly effective, certainly its a nice option to have against lesser opposition. I wouldn’t line up like that at the etihad for example but it certainly is a nice option for next season should be strengthen our spine.
What’s up with your username?
I would stick in Monreal in the SW/DM position – seems like an obvious choice and it has been done before by Phillipp Lahm
Wonder if Wenger would try to squeeze in Ramsey and Wilshere in the same team for this one.
Cech
Bellerin Mustafi kos nacho
Xhaka
Wilshire Rambo
Ozil Auba. The one that’s hard to spell
433 doesn’t seem too bad
Think I’d be ok with that but given opposition I’d likely switch Elneny for Xhaka.
If you want to retain Xhaka slide him forward and leave out Jack. Spuds have a few smart movers and Xhaka has been poor tracking men of late.
jesus thank christ someone calling for elneny instead of xhaka in a game like this xhaka will switch of an cost us. if you play elneny we can do a back 4 – which we seem more comfortable with, he can drop back to protect the CBs when we’re out of possession…..and do a 4-1-4-1 with ramsey, mhiki, ozil and Iwobi behind Auba.
Could go all out with a 4-1-3-2 and get laca and Auba starting with ozil, mhiki, ramsey all switching positions behind them too. that would be amazing fun to watch.
I’d go for a 1-2-2-2-2-1
that would really encourage the verticality wenger craves.
Xhaka at left back.
Left back in the changing room.
I hope Xhaka isn’t reading our forum here – won’t do his confidence much good
Am OK with absolute 3 points…
My prediction? Ospina will save a Kane penalty, Anthony “dishonest to your federation” Taylor orders a retake, Kane blazes over, Taylor orders another retake…
Or they just get 3 penalties in the game- they got 2 dodgy ones last week. How many of his 100 PL goals have come from dodgy penalties?
Not many tbf less than 15 if I remember, he’s a lying cunt who can’t talk but he can put the ball in the back of the net better than any other English player atm.
The funny (strange, rather than ‘ha-ha’ funny) thing about Kane is that he was released by Arsenal at the age of 8. What criteria do they use to decide whether an 8 year old will make it or not?!? Seeing as how they don’t get paid, it seems weird to get rid of kids at that point unless they can’t even kick a ball.
i think they screen them early and can tell they are spurs men by a rash. then its the door i’m afraid…potential or none.
Kane was dripping saliva from his gaping mouth all over the training field. Arsenal is a clean and classy club we cant have that.
lol
“off to spurs with you you drooling mess”
Released by Arsenal? Well he can’t talk now, so age 8 he was probably struggling to count. That’s my bet.
Not just any English player but everyone in the league in the last 3 years. ( our new 14 apart hopefully)
And he did top even Messi and Ronaldo but being a spud, I laugh when they market the likes of Neymar and Dybala for the Balon d’or ahead of him.
Dunno by 100% of Aubameyang’s PL goals have come from dodgy offsides.
I did not see it so I cannot say for sure.
Give Matt Macey the Gloves, sink or swim. We did it with Szczesny against Man U a while back and he didn’t sink (‘least not for a while)
If we threw him in behind this defense he’d be on the fast track down Szczesny Lane. Let’s not do that. Let the vet and the guy on his way out take the trauma until it’s sorted.
Fully expecting Ospina to start tommrw
It’s a fair opportunity to claim the gloves for the rest of the season if he puts in a performance
as long as we do a 10-0 on them, i have no problem on that either
Does it mean we get a lot more seats than normal for our away section?
Nope, we got 3000, bare minimum. Sp*rs are a pretty petty club to be honest, I suspect they’d give us less if they could, they’re still in a huff about the cup game at ours a few years back where the Met set the allocation at ‘only’ 6000 and have been shafting us for tickets ever since. As an aside, because of the FA cup gate receipt split, Sp*rs made more from that game than any home fixture in the club’s history.
first of all get Flamini & Poldi to talk to the new boys about the importance of this game 🙂
my team will be
Ospina
Bellerin-Mustafi-Koscielny-Monreal
Ramsey-Xhaka-Wilshere
Mkhi-Auba-Ozil
#COYG
I would take a back 3 – and give Holding another shot – allowing Nacho to push up more.
Cech
Kosh-Mustafi-Holding
Bellerin-Xhaka-Ramsey-Monreal
Miki-Auba-Ozil
#COYFG
Why the so lack of confidence in Ospina?
If Wenger is confident to play him….that’s good enough for me. Lets get behind the team… whoever gets played