Arsenal take on Man City at Wembley this afternoon in the Community Shield.
Here are the official line-ups.
Arsenal: Ramsdale, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber, Partey, Rice, Odegaard, Martinelli, Saka, Havertz
Subs: Turner, Tomiyasu, Kiwior, Tierney, Smith Rowe, Vieira, Trossard, Nketiah
Man City: Ortega, Walker, Dias, Stones, Akanji, Rodri, Kovacic, Alvarez, Bernardo, Grealish, Haaland
Subs: Who cares?
It may take a little while to gel. But talent-wise, that’s the best midfield three in world football.
We have the best central defensive partnership in the prem.
And Saka and Martinelli are both in the top 5 wingers in world football before they can grow a convincing moustache.
Don’t listen to the twats on twitter. This team is destined for greatness.
It might not be evident today. It might not happen this season.
But this team will win everything.
COYG!!!
God I’ve missed you.
Amen
Partey, Rice, Odegaard.
The holy trinity.
Father, son and… Holy shit!!!
A definitively PRO midfield
And with Bukayo and Eddie playing it’ll be:
PROBE
They’re not ‘twats on Twitter’…
They’re twats on X.
🙂
X marks the twat
🤣 that made me laugh out loud
Tough on Trossard though given his preseason form
Yeah, but he’s going to get a tonne of starts. I think he’ll be like a sort of Ji-Sung Park player for us. Someone who is eminently trusted in big games and pretty much a 12th man.
I just hope he doesn’t get disheartened because he’s such a wonderful player to have in the squad.
Don’t think he came to Arsenal, knowing we have Saka, Martinelli and Jesus in attack, and expected to be a guaranteed starter after 6 months. All he could do is offer himself as an absolutely trustworthy alternative for all of them and he did exactly that. So he should be proud of himself instead of being disheartened and I’m optimistic he is.
I second to that.
Outrageous talent on paper – tweaked formation I suspect with a double pivot and a more traditional 4231 – but I suspect we will be very fluid with formations this season so it could just be more of a rice for xhaka scenario
I would have preferred Trossard as the false nine but Havertz has the advantage of height I guess.
I’m surprised too. Havertz didn’t play overly well there with Chelsea and hasn’t really played there in preseason…
I think Arteta definitely wants that against City’s thugs, another big body to defend Haaland et al. on corners and so on… and Havertz has shown he can make an impact in the absolute biggest games. Maybe against the smaller clubs (both literally and figuratively) would be the time to play Trossard there.
What does Trossard have to do to start? He makes everyone better.
He was overlooked, disrespected and ignored by Mikel at the end of last season and look where that got us. Is this a meritocracy or a charade? Poor.
Y’all love a (false) narrative, don’t y’all?
Sorry?
If you want to deal in facts.
Trossard played every game between our 3-1 loss to Man City in February and the three draws in a row for which he was unceremoniously dropped.
In the games he started we scored 23 goals in 7 games.
After he was dropped we only had one win for the rest of the season in a game he didn’t start. Losing or drawing every game bar the one against Newcastle.
With respect. You can stick your false narrative up your hole
He was ignored, overlooked and disrespected by the manager that signed him within the few months period you’re referring to?
Could it possibly be that we wanted a taller central striker so we can go over the top of citys incredible pressure?? Slight Variations in style and unpredictability in approach is something arteta has openly discussed.
I think it’s a horses for courses approach. City can be very physical and Havertz will bring Martinelli and Sara into play better in this kind of game.
It would be a tough game for both teams. A midfield of Partey and Declan Rice and that defence will be tough to penetrate.
The real deal begins next week. No two seasons are the same, I know; but we are better equipped to last a season than we were last season. If we ever get our noses in front again, it might need something more special than a City run to stop us (I expect them to lose some motivation after last season).
I wish the boys all the luck today.
No injuries please!, a good performance, and a draw with a win on penalties would do. This would neutralise the ‘we’ve-won-so-we-should-win-the-league’ and ‘we’ve-lost-again-and-will-never-beat-them’ talk.
Wow! This was spot on.
Big fuckin team full of big fuckin players. My prediction: goals from the two Gabs and a Benjamin masterclass against Grealish
It’s minute 31 in the match and I’m going to call it – Stewart Atwell is the MOTM.
This new focus on handing out yellows for minor petty ‘behaviour offences’ is going to get absolutely infuriating
Referees just don’t get football
I remember this incompetent ref from last year. This is the tone pgmol want to blatantly set? Favoring city so much I don’t believe he’s not on their payroll
Look on the bright side. If he’d been consistent, Rodri wouldn’t have been around to produce that shite penalty and it might have been a different story.
That penalty was so bad. If it was a team it would be Stoke with 11 Arnautovic managed by as many Pulises.
don’t want to jinx it but we look the best we have so far. timber looks amazing, havertz has been good with his back against goal, rice is growing into the game, saliba looks imperious, saka and ben white look sharp, martinelli is getting back to fitness, odegaard ballin, parteys been good – he’s been better in previous games but still solid, gabi M having a good game as well.
We were doing well until Tierney came on.
Didn’t deal with the through ball and gifts them.
With Zinchenko and Timber able to play there we would be best cashing in on him.
With such fine margins playing teams like City you cannot afford such mistakes.
Maybe I was hard on Tierney but with the direction this club is going and the quality of player we have and what we want to achieve is he at that level? I don’t think so..
Gabriel needed to get tighter on the shot by Palmer. If you look carefully you’ll see Gabriel stop with hands behind his back leaning to his left trying to cover near post with about 10ft of space between him and Palmer. If he closes down that space instead that shot does not happen at all
One of the highlights of this game has to be rodri, having fouled arsenal players with impunity, has his penalty saved – karma!!!
Also: we made 6 fouls, got 3 cards (4 with Arteta’s) while they made 11 fouls and got 1 card. 🐟🐟🐟
That’s because Attwell is a truly awful referee. He wasn’t just shit with regard to us, he was also shit with regard to the Oil Cheats. Their yellow card was never a yellow, but there were three other occasions (two by uber-cunt Rodri) that were cast-iron yellows and one of them he didn’t even blow for a foul. He’s an absolutely, utterly incompetent hack of a referee. If you want a good laugh, Google “Stuart Attwell ghost goal”. He should have been sacked, instead got promoted to the PL. Unbelievable.
Fucking get in!!!