Arsenal have no new injury problems ahead of West Ham United’s visit to the Emirates.
Sead Kolasinac (knee) and Ainsley Maitland-Niles (fibula) and Laurent Koscielny (Achilles) remain sidelined until November, but that trio aside, Unai Emery has a full first team squad to call upon.
As you’ll remember Koscielny ruptured his Achilles in the away-leg of our Europa League semi-final against Atletico Madrid in May. The good news is he’s on the mend, although Emery says the Gunners will still need to be patient with their club captain.
“He’s working very hard,” explained our head coach. “First he was in France. He came back to us last Sunday.
“We are happy to have him here with us, because he’s our captain and he’s showing us his spirit to stay with us.
“We need to be patient with him because the injury was an important injury. It’s clear that it’s very important to stay with us, working here and showing us that he wants to help us.
“It’s difficult to know [when he’ll be back]. You look at this morning, he’s running, he’s working on the pitch. The progress is very good progress.”
As for Saturday, well your guess is as good as ours when it comes to predicting our lineup. Emery has already thrown a couple of curve balls in the first two matches of the fledgeling season.
Will Aaron Ramsey return to the starting XI? When will Lucas Torreira start a game? Is Mohamed Elneny still an option? Will Matteo Guendouzi continue his run in the centre of the park? Will Granit Xhaka get hooked again?
So many questions…
Strange thing is, whilst I used to scratch my head at some of (most of!) Arsene team selections in latter seasons, I trust this guy to pick the best lineup.
The stress of getting the team sheet an hour before kick off is completely gone.
He’s got all the calls correct so far, and the substitutions ditto. The results will come.
Side note : “any fan base that thinks a leg break is something to enjoy, can look forward to playing their football in Div1”…………dont know who said that, but I do like it!!!
I’m not sure he’s got no all the calls right – bellerin and lacazette but he’s doing ok
All the calls correct? Erm no lol
I’d like to see lacca and aubamayeng start together… would also like to see torreira get a good run out but will have to wait and see who the boss selects!
Stop starting Xhaka. All other experiments I’m fully behind, just for the love of football stop starting Xhaka.
@thw14…. and Mustafi he is crap…
Are you me in disguise?
Bravo!
As I always had the feeling that the fact that Kosc couln’t deliver in the last 2 seasons as constantly as he has all the years before was down to his ongoing achilles problems that have caused him obvious problems and there have been weeks and months in which he could barely train and almost only played games. Can’t expect top class performances under those circumstances. Maybe the horrible injury was some kind of a blessing in disguise as he seems to be ready sooner than expected and can maybe be back at his best, as his achilles got surgery.… Read more »
Agreed. Footballers careers are short so I understand why they try to ‘manage’ injuries rather than having surgery to fix them & spend a significant period out…but sometimes having the injury reach a point where the choice is taken away can be a blessing. I think he could be huge for us in 2nd half of season.
I thought Koscielny was still very good, one of the best in the league, if he had sufficient rest between matches. I hope you are right and he will now be able to train and be at his best more regularly. I know many will not like this comparison (try to forget what club he played for), but Ledley King put in top performances while effectively unable to train at all.
He was ok rather han very good. Not near his best for me the last 18 months or so. Still better than Mustafi but that’s a different discussion….
If we think even more positively, it may even get Kos to change his game a bit. He’s always been the more aggressive and front-foot of the CB pair, but he may transition to a more positional style. We certainly could use that in our back line right now and he certainly has the experience to play like this. Regardless, he should be very important for us, especially if we are pushing in the late stages of the Europa league! 🙂
Cback has still not been resolved.
We had a chance this summer but we did not take it.
Instead we bought too early without sufficient consult to the incoming manager and the way he wants to play (High pres/High line)
4-2-3-1 v WHU:
PC
HB-SM-SP-NM
MG-AR
AI-MÖ-PEA
AL
As the gaffer mentioned, we are tactically flexible dependent on situation. Much of what Emery is doing was done by Wenger. 4-2-3-1 was the base and 4-3-3 or 4-1–4-1 or 4-1-3-2 depending on where the emphasis is put. A lot is dictated as well by the type of players we have to some degree. Where Emery is slightly different is in enforcement, intervention and direction. Enforcement on details, intervention (timely) during a game and direction from the bench. This is more important of course in the defensive stage where there is better space to allow interpretation when attacking. Still we… Read more »
This is deja-vu, going into the season with only 2 experienced (if not quality) centre backs, most teams have at least 4 to call on. Plus the Ramsay situation is heading for another Ozil, Sanchez one. I’m sure Gazidis took the easy option with ‘Emery’ just been sacked @ Paris , so no compensation or haggling or hassle, the cheap option.
I have to hand it to you santori. You get called out (correctly) on a regular basis for writing absolute rubbish & yet your confidence that you understand everything so much better than everyone else remains absolute. Fair play. #bulletproofsantori
Cech
Swiss-Ger-Gree-Spain
French-Uru
Arm-Ger-Nig
Gab
For me, Özil and Xhaka haven’t done enough to start the next game. Guendouzi(spelling?) should start alongside Torrera, with Ramsay further up.
it’s funny that you spelled Guendouzi correct but Torreira and Ramsey wrong.
I’ve had a long, busy day mate. Also, autocorrect maybe? They are my excuses and I’m sticking with them.
I’ve had a long, hard day mate. Also, autocorrect. They’re my excuses and I’m sticking to them.