The Premier League is back and the teams are in the for our opening game of the season against Champions Man City.
This is Unai Emery’s first ever team selection for us – let’s hope they can do the job.
Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Mustafi, Sokratis, Maitland-Niles, Guendouzi, Xhaka, Ramsey, Mkhitaryan, Ozil, Aubameyang
Subs: Leno, Lichtsteiner, Holding, Elneny, Iwobi, Torreira, Lacazette
Man City: Ederson, Walker, Stones, Laporte, Mendy, Fernandinho, Gundogan, Bernardo, Mahrez, Sterling, Agüero
Subs: Bravo, Kompany, De Bruyne, Sané, Otamendi, Jesus, Foden
Read the Arseblog match preview here.
Ozil red-carded during the warmup? 🙁
You’ll notice the line-up above only has 10 names. Ozil is starting 🙂
ozil already invisible before the game .
I love Ozil but that’s hilarious ?
Typical of him not to turn up in the big games
still invisible at half time.
First 20 mins we were never in the game, all improved after that including Ozil.
Ozil was yet again invisible for 90minutes in a game that actually mattered.
I saw Mesut, quite a lot actually, got stuck in defensively. Be realistic, sadly they are in front of us, but everyone else too.
Kind of unfair to play with just 10 players…
“A bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off for him.”
“Just look at his hair!”
we always play with ten players when ozil is in the team
Where’s Ozil?!
Wow, that’s a bold move by Emery. Could be a massive step forward for the youngster if he performs well. Needs to pick up where he left off in preseason and hopefully maintain as much discipline as possible. Exciting stuff!
Also, that City kit is absolutely horrific
Almost as bad as their opponents
Bit of a gamble only fielding 10 players. Let’s see if it pays off ?
Big ask for the kid
Ozil is the invisible man?
as usual
Fully deserved.
Come on you Gunners!!! ?⚪️
Have to make this game a little more competitive for Man City so we gonna start the game with 10 men, and if they can survive it we will bring in an eleventh man.
What! Ozil is invisible! That is a great move then. We got this Arsenal 5-0 Man City!
All jokes aside, a 4 3 3 means Ozil on the wing. Looking forward to see how it works. Bit disappointed to leave a 50M striker on the bench.
Or is it a 4 4 2? ?
How about we just play them in a big line 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
like a square dance
Cheer up! City also have a couple of 50 million players on the bench. That’s how big clubs work nowadays.
I’m disappointed that Lacazette is on the bench simply because I believe he leads the line, links the play & holds the ball up better than Aubameyang does, but I also understand that Unai has to make choices in trying to fit so many talented players into our first eleven.
As long as we do well in this game, I won’t mind too much though!
Me too, I am disappointed. Laca should play.
Fixed now, thanks for all the comments, tweets, emails, telegrams, letters etc 😉
Did you get the carrier pigeon I sent?
Oops! Was that your’s? I am just starting to bake it for supper. xX
We talked about this, Yellow Ribbon! Those pigeons are not meant to be eating.
Not Speckled Jim!
No Torreira? Thought he would play ahead of Guendouzi.
me too
Thought he played really well with Guendouzi.
YES! I love Emery. I can’t wait to see Xhaka and Guendouzi pass through the lines non-stop. He already hinted in pre-season that he wanted to pass through the lines to find Ozil or Mkhitaryan on the wings.
Meanwhile we’ll have our full backs quite high.
I love this. We are going toe to toe against City.
COYG.
Looks like the plan is to pass them to shit
Don’t wanna hate but I’m watching West Ham and Jack is piss poor. I’m really optimistic that it wasn’t the worst thing to let him go. Zero creativity or goal threat, constantly hiding behind opponents and jogging around like he’s on vacation. And that in your first game for a ne club.
my thoughts xctly.He was not even making himself available for the ball.
Yeah I watched that game, always thought JW only ever played well when his team is well on top and dominating possession..
Watched too. He was shit and it was a sad watch really Emery was right. Anyway COYG! Bit worried by the Guendouzi choice against amazing players in Gundogan Silva and Fernandinho.
To be fair WH were pretty much on the back foot the whole game
That’s short for Wank Hand in case you were wondering
Yes, was watching the whole game and Jack’s was amongst the worse of the WH players, and that’s saying a lot. I give a f**k about WH, but watching JW struggle so much somehow felt a little bad.
To be fair West Ham Liverpool bit of a mid match after the 20 minutes I wonder if we were the same began to improve after that. Better start to the second half required.
No KDB, Sane or Silva in the starting 11. That City team is beatable. Not happy about Xhaka starting this game tbh.
Reserves ain’t bad though.
All these good players in and he still puts Granit in the team!
Feeling really excited but also quietly confident our well prepared boys can put on a good performance. What a baptism of fire for Guendozi ! Hope he produces a master class in midfield today. COYG, let’s do this !
It was always going to be a pick between Xhaka and Torreira as both are around the same level fitness wise. Personally I’d have chosen Torreira but hey Emery will have some explaining to do.
Not surprised Laca is on the bench.
Shame Welbeck isn’t fully fit. He’d be a useful asset from the bench.
It’s easy to see why he pick Xhaka over Torreira, the Uruguay man may not be ready fitness wise and he still needs to get used to the speed and physical demand of the premier league. Guendouzi has been around since the beginning so he feels more comfortable around the team as well!
I wanted bravo to start
Was half hoping to watch Welbeck play as a Left Back!
Why the fuck not. ?. COYG!!
I am inclinded to agree with Tim Stillman. Our squad looks like a 343 team. We don’t have wingers maybe we should go for with bellerin Kolasinac and AMN at sides.
One should not start drinking 2 hours before the start of the ssason
I’m not sure Kolasinac on crutches is going to win us the match tbh
our best foot forward
Holy Schmitt! Have you seen their bench?!
the city bench could walk into our first team
New manager.
New hope.
Yet nothing changes with this team.
Solution?
Rebuild – starting by getting shot of Cech – the very definition of washed up.
I hate this team….
I’m watching Emery’s arsenal and they remind me a lot like Wenger’s Arsenal
I don’t know they really tore us a new one last season, repeatedly. This looks like an improvement.
Agreed we were completely out played by them last season. You lad probably kicking himself that he didn’t take a booking and bring Sterling down. Probably watched the World Cup and thought he’d more likely hit the corner flag.
they toyed with us (again) today
Totally disorganized bunch of plonkers..
I know its only the first game.
But this team is bloody awful.
Is it wrong to write the season off in terms of top four football?
Can we rely on the likes of Ramsey, Ozil, Xhaka, Mustafi, Cech et al to get us there?
When you list those names you realise there is no fucking hope at all…
Star of an average performance by most. A true competitor, good start for the lad.
Indeed, lots of work to do. Outclassed and outplayed by a Man City side that didn’t even break sweat.
Huge difference in individual quality…
I know it’s only the first game but it’s not looking good I haven’t seen most of the game as I was in transit.
At home on our turf we allowed them to beat us in the first game of the season no cojones springs back to mind!