Arsenal take on Atletico Madrid at the Emirates Stadium tomorrow in the first leg of the Europa League semi-final.
Having been without Mesut Ozil, Petr Cech, Jack Wilshere, Sead Kolasinac and Henrikh Mkhitaryan for the 4-1 win over West Ham on Sunday, Arsene Wenger provided the latest team news update for what is our most important European game in years.
Speaking at his press confer, “Mkhitaryan is not back in the squad, and Mohamed Elneny, certainly for the rest of the season.
“He has a little, little chance to play at Huddersfield. He will be available for Egypt for the World Cup but not any more for Arsenal.”
Cech, Kolasinac, Ozil and Wilshere were all in full training, so we’re assuming they’ll be available for selection tomorrow.
There were no questions as to how we might approach this game tactically, although it seems as if we’ll stick with a back four.
It’s a shame about mikhi but let’s push forward so he can make a meaningful contribution in the next leg!
Mkhi will score a curling right footed from the edge of the box in the final. Meaningful..
Elneny has been phenomenal recently.. Just hope Xhaka & Wilshere can step up.
Tbf Xhaka has been real stellar since january. I’d go with Ramsey and Xhaka as sitting mids, and Welbz-Özil-Iwobz as the front three in midfield. Jack has been really poor since offered the new contract. He can be an option off the bench.
Glad Mo will be available for the WC though!
Cech, Bellerin, Mustafi, Kos, Monreal, Xhaka, Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozil, Welbeck, Lacazette – that would make sense but I imagine Wenger will throw in some surprises!
This is what I’d like to see
It’s a very tall order for this group of players, but they simply must win both of these legs and the final in Lyon for their boss, father figure, manager, and coach. Anything can happen in sports, I know, and you can’t just will a victory, but there is the chance to write a bit of Arsenal history here and these players must produce the three best matches of their lives.
I’d take a win and a draw in these two legs. Or a 0-0 at home and a 2-2 in Madrid. Getting through is the main thing.
I’d take any combination of score lines that means we win overall 😉
They’re missing players too, Juanfran and Costa, for the first leg anyway. With Mikhi hopefully back for the second leg, Im cautiously optimistic. Let’s get the job done at home and worry about the next leg after.
Costa will be a big miss for them.
He is virtually guaranteed a goal against us.
We need to dominate in midfield and also watch out for the space behind Bellerin which Greizzman will exploit.
Mhkitaryan if he returns for second leg will be a great bonus.
I think we should stop playing with back 4 because both of our left&right backs consistently go forward. It is not a bad thing by the way, Monreal had a few goals and Bellerin had a few shots on goal recently. With Squirrelprone MustHaveFi at his peak right now, it is like playing with a back 1 at times. His inability to make accurate judgement within the split seconds and then prone to act like squirrel while looking at the fourth official proved costly. A back 5 formation would stabilize our defense a little bit because we have too many… Read more »