Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Laurent Koscielny travelled to Barcelona taking a place in his squad at the expense of Calum Chambers.
The France international has missed the last three games with a minor calf injury. It’s not yet clear whether Chambers is injured, or just dropped.
As far as we can tell we’ve not picked up any further injuries following Saturday’s defeat to Watford.
In his pre-game press conference held with David Ospina at the Camp Nou, the boss said: “The magicians from Barcelona will demand a good defensive performance from our side.
“Our approach was not bad in the first leg but we lost our balance and got caught.
“We are in a position where we don’t have to calculate too much. We know we have to attack and score goals.
“We have gone through a disappointing spell and it is important to remain calm and strong.
“We have won everywhere in Europe, but not here yet. The players are united to give a strong performance.”
Chambers played pretty injured in the 2nd half on Sunday, hoping that’s his excuse. (I rate him btw)
We’ve really missed Koscielny. It’s great to have him back! Safe to say that Chambers didn’t have a great game, but if he is injured then that might be the reason for his performance.
Be great to win tomorrow regardless if we go through or not.
Keep the faith!
COYG!
Chambers seems the sort who tries to learn. Might be better to just use him exclusively as a center back. He’s not good at right back, he’s played just twice as a holding mid. The second time was far better than the first if I remember right.
http://www.gunnerstown.com/arsenal/2016/03/15/who-is-arsene-wenger-dad-well-my-son-there-is-no-easy-answer/
^ ^ ^
An excellent read.
Let them play to win.
Frustratingly I can see us putting up a wonderful show, maybe even a result without actually qualifying. The usual second leg performance in the CL knockout.
I would have kept Chambers in the squad ahead of Gabriel on current form. If Koscielny breaks down and Gabriel has to replace him, I don’t see Gabriel avoiding a red card against Barcelona.
Wenger is about to humiliated in front of 100million people across the globe.
6-0 defeat. It’s going to hurt and scar.
What a great read….form comes and goes, class is forever.
I think chambers needs a couple of years to learn the trade at centre back.I don’t know who scouted him but they got it all wrong cause as a right back he’s not premiership quality.he has potential at centre half.
Chambers is clearly a good footballer, but these days full backs need to be very pacey and although he is quite fast for his height he just doesn’t have the pace essential to being a success at full back. Holding midfield is a possibility yes but I firmly believe his future lies at centre half, and he’s at the point where he needs to settle on a position sooner rather than later.
Was he that bad defensively this saturday? His crosses are not quite up to scratch I totally agree. From what I’ve seen of him as right back I’m happy with the decision to let Debuchy go.
*Yawn* at myself* I really wish we’d got back to our most successful “formula” of recent times: March 16, 2013 – February 02, 2014. We’ve only used it a handful of times since then. I don’t know why it was ever abandoned. What a shame. Do you remember how we played? I thought it brilliant. Start off very strong defensively, give nothing away, absorb, absorb the pressure, break, break, continue, absorb, break the other team down, absorb, break them down, absorb, absorb, then start scoring with our creative talents, absorb, break them down, score again, absorb, absorb and win the… Read more »
You must be dreaming, ’cause nowadays, it’s the other team doing the absorbing the score, against the Arsenal.
Apparently, you have misunderstood my English.
You must be dreaming, ’cause nowadays, it’s the other team doing the absorbing then score, against the Arsenal.
I really think we should have Flamini and Coquelin screening in front of Meterscielny. NO Elneny. He is far too inexperience. Ozil will be pivotal distributing. Campbell and Alexis (or Walcott) on the wings. Giroud up top to distribute the ball (or Welbeck later) Just go for it. We need to be efficient on the break and make use of the channels from wide areas. Giroud has got to be sharp. Ditto Walcott, Welbeck and Campbell. There are a number of players who will want to prove something. Alexis for sure. Bellerin. Monreal. Giroud. Campbell. I’d start Campbell at RW… Read more »
I personally would go with Sanchez RW and welbeck LW. And Giroud Uptop. We need to hit them on the break tbh. Campbell is more of a play-maker than an out out winger
An open field would have better luck than our defence trying to contain the magicians of Barcelona
Just hope Koscielny can get through the match without aggravating his injury as we need him for the league run in.
if by some miracle arsenal win today (even without qualifying) then arsene will get a breather from the fans for the rest of the season, he’ll need it