Arsenal need to take three points against bottom of the table Sheffield United this evening.
Here are the official line-ups.
Sheffield United: To follow
Subs:
Arsenal: Leno, Chambers, Holding, Mari, Saka, Xhaka, Partey, Ceballos, Pepe, Martinelli, Lacazette
Subs: Ryan, Bellerin, Cedric, Gabriel, Elneny, Azeez, Willian, Nelson, Nketiah
Martinelli! Pepe! Come on boys take your chance. COYG.
Yes, wanted pepe and gabi to start! Hopefully they are good and keep their spots for thursday!
They won’t, Willian will start Thursday. Mark my words
Martinelli at last! Hope he has a great match.
Saka and Martinelli on the left should be fun
the pressure on Mikael to play Martinelli was just too great. c’mon boy play your heart out
Not really, his hand was forced by injuries
Same as when he played smith Rowe
Like this. No Balogun though?
Busy signing da ting
Let’s hope so – not actually signed yet as far as I’ve read though.
Yes he’s as good as drop a was with his back to goal
All the talk on Balogun signing a new contract and he can’t even make the bench ahead of Nketieh?
He hasn’t signed a new contract yet…
Didn’t say he had
Hence why it’s ‘talk’
Blogs – Freudian slip leaving Ceballos out of team? I think we should start with 11 men!
Sorted now, thank you.
No Willian?wtf?lol
I know everyone jokes about him always starting but including today’s game, he has started only one out of our last 6 games. 1 start, 3 on the bench, 2 injured.
He is too important to be risked today, saved for Thursday.
Willian is needed up front on Thursday with the hopes that he’ll bore Slavia to death which could allow someone, not Auba (not at the moment anyway), to hoof one or two in via a sneaky counter.
Glad Martinelli is starting.
Not happy with Saka and Partey starting.
I’m I the only worried that he started Partey/Xhaka/Saka knowing how desperately we need them for Thursday? This game doesn’t matter in the grand scheme
That’s why I wasn’t happy with Saka starting.
Saka leftback? Such inconsistent line up choices by Arteta, what’s all the culture and non negotiables worth if youre never letting peapole settle down in a certain place of the 11.
Why not Saka at LB? He’s played there before and with Gabi in front of him, our left could be super deadly. Also we’re playing Sheffield, so need to take the game to them.
I suppose it’s strange because he really should have played there on Thursday. It would be good to know why now and not then.
Yes he is the natural lb back up (although clearly he is one of our best attacking players). We should have played him at lb against Prague, especially with hindsight, given how useless going forward we were.
Today a trial for Thursday?
Aye he should have on Thursday. I was more puzzled with why we didn’t put their makeshift defence under more pressure.
He’s a attacking player who covered at lb!!! When you find a position that suits your most valuable player, you just don’t move him…let alone to the other end of the pitch!!
Not saying LB is a natural position for Saka, but these days you need a good attacking outlet from the wing/fullbacks. A little extra protection from Xhaka/Partey can enable Saka to do exactly that without getting too exposed defensively.
Could Xhaka be at left back? Oh dear God, no!!! Not only is that a calamity waiting to happen but Ceballos in the middle again ready to make another mistake. My nerves would be shot.
Oh no, I was right 🙁
Yeah, does look like a shift for Xhaka to LB. Saka’s been drifting in from the RW for a while now.
My elation over getting to see the dynamism of Pepe and Martinelli are heavily outweighed by the sadness of seeing the slowing down of all our attacking with Willian and ceballos starting.
Oops, not sure why I thought I saw willians name starting, but I stand by the ceballos slowness of passing, attacking defending and well, just running.
Willian starting? Thought he’s on the bench.
So who do you start in the 10 spot? Or do you play without one?
Wow a very strong team, good enough to beat Sheffield United. Hope it doesn’t mean we start with Willian on Thursday.
A good lineup……… We gonna kill then
So confident we are staring with only 10 men 🙂
Let’s hope they run around a bit and don’t only stare.
We do rabbit in headlights type of thing quite a lot
Ceballos better play like Burnley at home 2019, rather than Olympiacos away 2021
Interesting tactical decision to play 10?
…website updates.
Err without a recognised #10.
I think we’re allowed one more player?
Ya know all those amazing players Wenger said we “nearly” signed over the years……well Martinelli is one of those type of players….and we have him! His performance against Chelsea helped spark our season back into life. Gabi won’t be world class in every single game but it is better to keep trying with him (like Saka and ESR) than die on the Willian hill.
Take ya chance kid. COYG!
Ozil has passed on the flu to auba
Saving Willian for prague i see…
Probably the best lineup he could have picked, given who is available. COYG!
We all know what happened last time that Partey and Ceballos played together… at least Martinelli is FINALLY starting 🤞🏼
looks decent!
Back to Saka and Martineli on the left like last year. Bring it on.
Hoping that Mari is a calming influence on Holding today too.
Better get the W today. Looking forward to it.
Would rather not see Saka, Xhaka and Partey to rest them for this week; but a strong team selection. COYG
After watching how good manure were against the scum, it just highlights how poor we are when we consistently keep playing average players like Xhaka. Sigh.
Xhaka is one of our best players, do you actally watch what he does?
Today could be Boxing Day version 2.0 – Arteta hitting the reset button again so to speak by giving rare starts to Martinelli and Ceballos.
Starting the game with 10 men? Mikels team selections may be questioned after this haha
Thanks for listening arteta. Now watch him score some goals
Called it
Worried about Saka starting. He is required for Thurs.
Cedric could have started instead.
Interesting selection. Let’s see what they can do – and surely they should be able to do something against the team well adrift at the bottom of the PL.
Listening on 5Live and Mark Lawerson says “ceballos has the body of an office worker ” WTF does that mean !!!!!!
Good to see Martinelli start a game. He is a bit rusty today, but he gives 200% every game.
Pls can someone explain this formation to me. I have my pen and paper
Parteeeeeeeeyyyyyyyy!!!!!