Arsenal kick off the new Premier League season away at Brentford this evening. There are some injuries, and the two main strikers are ill, so Mikel Arteta has had to shuffle his pack a little bit.
Here are the official line-ups.
Brentford: Raya, Ajer, Jansson, Pinnock, Canos, Janelt, Norgaard, Onyeka, Henry, Mbeumo, Toney
Subs: Gunnarsson, Goode, Wissa, Ghoddos, Dervisoglu, Bidstrup, Bech, Roerslev
Arsenal: Leno, Chambers, White, Mari, Tierney, Xhaka, Sambi, Smith Rowe, Pepe, Martinelli, Balogun.
Subs: Hein, Bellerin, Cedric, Maitland-Niles, Holding, Tavares, Elneny, Saka, Nelson
Damn! Bring it on!
COYG!
Sweet line up! Love the aggression. Mikel means business.
Fuck experience. It’s all about hunger!
COYG!!!
(I will actually not retrospectively criticise this line up if we lose or draw. Promise)
Average age here is about 23. My fear has turned to excitement. Let’s fucking have it!!!
Me too. I am shocked Willian isn’t starting. Bloody glad he’s not though. Can’t wait to see this front three together and Sambi in midfield. Maybe Mikel got the memo afterall…time for youth
I feel like as Arsenal fans we get obsessed with certain players, and usually for negative reasons. Mustafi, Ozil, Xhaka… They are all we talk about.
I’m not going to let Willian fall into this category. As much as anything because he’s really quite insignificant.
The fact that he hasn’t made the squad is very promising. A move on the horizon? Let’s not jinx it.
Not even on the bench – Arteta has become self-aware!
There is a Ghost in the Shell
Also I hope we throw the handbrake away and play. Let the attacking players loose, there is enough talent there to score some goals.
I’m hoping both Aubamayang and lacazette are about to be sold and we use the money to buy another forward, not abrahams though.
Haha. All our pre season hopes are short lived.
Sideways and backwards passing, no penetration thru the middle, wingers isolated, amateurish defense. Same sh*t, different season. 8th spot incoming.
I called it earlier, Arteta’s tactics are useless. He’s a poor man’s Pep. Even if he manages to get us playing like Pep, we’d be a second rate City. Pointless AF.
Everybody creaming about our second half of last season. Yet the two most important games (Villareal semi) we bottled it.
Whoa! should be fun
Ah, you must be new here.
Let me show you where the sick bags are and then we’ll get you hooked up to the spikey anal thrusting device.
Apart from Saka there is no threat from the bench.
“No threat” of Willian coming on – I like that
No Runarsson either. This is the least threaty bench ever. I’m loving it!
Hein ahead of Runnarson also. Of course we dont want to see him either, interesting nonetheless.
Future Arsenal #1 right there…
lol…
Agree, but at the same time for a player like Nelson this might be a tremendous opportunity to show us what he can do.
Same for AMN if he comes on as a CM.
Let’s try to enjoy this one and see what the young guns have in store for us!
You must be fun to live with
I am, meatballs for tea every Thursday!
Socks on during intercourse?
Socks and sock braces
What are the sock braces attached to? Nevermind…
My tighty whitey y fronts
So is Tavares
Based on last season, and that we more or less have the same team, there’s not much threat in the starting 11 either
There are literally THREE players making their debut…
Three?! Wow!!! Two kids and a Brighton defender. Watch out PL we’re coming for the title. You realize there’s 11 players on the pitch yeah? If three are new, then EIGHT are the same. Math is hard but this is simple. 8 is pretty much the same team.
More or less the same team apart from the three debutants..?
More or less the same club but different players… *shakes head*
Man what could be going wrong right now. Lack of creativity. I don’t understand why we’re having the same problems as last season. I mean after all, we have a reserve team player making his PL debut and two new signings. That like a whole new team!!!
Excited to see what the young guns do in attack .. COYG
You mean Chambers?
This is the best available lineup. COYG!!!
3 right backs on the bench!
Exciting front three with speed to burn.
On paper, They should be too hot for Brentford to handle.
No striker on the bench though.
This is a team with something to prove. Very exciting lineup
Damn, I was planning to hit bed early. Now, I must watch this..
The season begins and suddenly all our CFs that have been healthy since, are out. And so we have 3 RBs on the bench.
Hold on to ur hats gentlemen..
All things considered I am very happy with that starting line-up and the bench
No Willian yipee!
Exciting to see the future young guns, but wow there isn’t much strength in depth.
If this works it will be great. Seems like a team picked on merit alone. Even Hein at keeper was more impressive in preseason.
Also, opportunity (and expectation tbh) for Pepe to step up. We need him to deliver in this kind of circumstances.
This is the future already infront of us…wow except for a gabriel at CB and a xhaka replacement and saka missing but that bench look crap need to be improved in a couple of windows…
I dont care what people say bout arsenal .i love my team n i wish them the best n pray all who are injured get bk n help us amen..its not easy been us ..we dont have an owner who splash the cash but we are trying
Coyg
Either Mikel has learned his lessons or he’s covering his ass in case of a loss since no fan fan will moan if…wait…tje fans will moan anyhow if we drop points tonight…
This will be interesting. Probably a good thing this first match is against Brentford, and not City or Chelsea.
Fuck yes! Let’s go lads
This is exciting!
Different lineup that’s for sure. Balogun & Martinelli leading the attack & congratulations to our debutant Ben White. C’mon you Gunners!
Thank fuck for that.
Love that Line up, Martinelli and Balogun, bring on the young guns
Laca and auba out ‘sick’ could be a blessing in disguise
I love it!
Fun fact. Icelander on the bench for the newly promoted side. A GK . And very exciting for us from Iceland
I have far more confidence in Balogun and Martinelli than I have in the other two.
And Sambi starts in place of Elneny.
All good !
This line is is good enough to play at pace and take 3 points from Brentford.
Glad he’s finally made a bold choice in favor of youth.
I’m a little apprehensive about the lack of creativity in our forward line, but hopefully, the kids’ drive will compensate for it.
Willian no where near this team, that in itself is cause for celebration lol here is hoping it means he’ll be gone before long 👍
COME ON!!!!!!!!!! Boring Arteta is now over
4 defenders on the pitch, 5 defenders on the bench, we are definitely keeping a clean sheet. COYG!!!!!!!!!!!
Oops…
A very exciting line-up. Really looking forward to watching White, Lokongo, and Balogun. I hope Martinelli takes his chance. He may not get another start quite so soon with a fully fit Saka, Aubameyang, Lacazette, and maybe Odegaard to come. Pace and forward thinking players all over the pitch. Exactly what we’ve been crying out for. None of the sideways/backwards crew in the team. All eyes on Arsenal tonight, I hope we can make a statement with an emphatic win. Just hope the fans go easy on the likes of Balogun and Lokongo if they have a quiet game. But… Read more »
Was thinking the same. We’re stupid, it’s bloody Arsenal.
Man do I feel stupid.
Off topic, but Sky’s blanket ‘Plucky Brentford’ coverage is making me put my fingers down my throat.
I fucking hope we stuff this lot.
COYG
Yeah, there’s nothing ‘plucky’ about them. They’re a good side and in this league on merit. It’s not going to be easy. They’ll go into it with nothing to lose. This is the sort of game that often ends up being an upset at the start of the season as no one will have figured Brentford out yet.
Here’s hoping this team clicks.
I’m really hoping this is the time for Martinelli to shine
Fucking buzzing! Genuinely think there’s mire to this illness than being admitted but I love the look of this line-up. We wanted something different something younger hungrier… Is this it? I bloody hope so
Come in ys gunners!
This slightly reminds me of when Wenger played a really weak side that got utterly smashed by United before we signed Arteta, Per etc.
This could either be a great or terrible idea. I’m not sure which, but it’s exciting.
If Aubameyang and Lacazette really are ill and there’s nothing else going on there I guess this is our strongest line up at the moment.
Looking forward to seeing Balogun, Lokonga and White. I hope Nelson gets some decent game time from the bench and does well with it.
Lol what a bench 3 RBs, 1 LB, 1 CDM, and 2 wingers
How far we have fallen
Fine squad building.
Ah come on we’re missing Aubameyang, Lacazette, Partey, Gabriel. With Odegaard on the radar. Those five in the squad and our bench is significantly improved.
Excited to see a young, hungry squad out there.
Lol
Xhaka starts again. Perfect.
Right back problems they’ve known about all summer cause the goal. Perfect.
Here we go again…
Not surprising, we’re probably a weaker side than we were at the end of the season.
Same sheesh kebab different year
I love torturing myself while I continue to support arsenal week in week out 🥲
Well, thank god Arteta had a full proper pre-season and transfer window!! otherwise, things could be worse right now…and so many find crosses in the box!! To who are we crossing these balls to?????????????????????????????????????????? FFS
Aubameyang I guess
Don’t forget all the crosses are coming from the left back too.
On another note, I didn’t realise Brentford had such a nice stadium.
Wow! This was shit! This team is more likely to be relagated than beeing top 6!
Amazon have struck gold. Greatest doc of the century.
Ep. 1 – Arteta sacked. Now that’s a documentary I’d watch.
Arteta is not a good coach
Its only presea – oh wait no its not
Not sure why the lineup excited me. They’ve never played together. Look lost and clueless. Movement in front 4 is non existent. Static. We aren’t stringing any passed together at all in their half. Sloppy. No passing options.xhaka on rcm. Confusing.
The alternative wasn’t exciting either so it was likely just seeing something different. Sadly it’s been dogshit.
What absolute clusterfuck of a first half. Outplayed by mighty Brentford..
Small scary kids loosing all duels , Xhaka seems to mentally in Rome, Leno is shaken and stirred, Maro is an awful centre half.
It’s a bloody torture to watch
Thank fuck I managed to fight back the urge to comment on the line up at kickoff amidst all the optimism and enthusiasm at the “young” “hungry“ etc selection 🤣🤣🤣 Same old same old ☹️☹️
Leno really doesn’t seem on top of his game mentally.
I’ve been critical of him but I wonder if Arteta might be to blame. Leno was brilliant before Arteta came (and during the early part of his tenure).
well fuck me for getting excited. Can’t clear our lines and then undone by a fucking long throw. Arteta’s countdown begins
Don’t panic
Got the European and Premiership champions next.
Then after that Arteta is GONE
And White is Shite..