Arsenal are away from home this evening, as we take on Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
Here are the official line-ups.
Crystal Palace: Johnston, Ward, Andersen, Guehi, Mitchell, Doucoure, Lerma, Eze, Schlupp, Edouard, Ayew
Subs: Matthews, Tomkins, Richards, Clyne, Riedewald, Ahamada, Rak-Sakyi, Gordon
Arsenal: Ramsdale, Partey, White, Saliba, Tomiyasu, Rice, Odegaard, Havertz, Saka, Martinelli, Nketiah
Subs: Raya, Zinchenko, Kiwior, Gabriel, Jorginho, Smith Rowe, Nelson, Vieira, Trossard
Gabriel out?
Beginning to worry about Gabriel now.
It’s starting to annoy me, really. Is he injured? Or are just trying to shoehorn Havertz, Partey, and Rice into the starting line up all at once?
Soon as Elanga came on last game, Partey got exposed… so why stick with that experiment.
He’s copying the worst trait of his mentor. Screwing around experimenting with formation when t there’s no need.
As weird as it looks, let’s trust Arteta on this one
COYG💪
Arteta is not infallible, only God is. His tinkering is strange.
Critical reminder!
Sorry my fault.
After a recording braking run of consecutive starts for Gabriel, I brought him into my Fantasy League team. He hasn’t played since. Soz.
It is a bit weird. We were good first half last week, but I don’t expect Palace to sit off in the same way that Forest did.
No Olise for Palace is a wee bonus
I have the feeling it’s a just pretty pragmatic approach to have an additional midfielder.
Partey doesn’t really play RB. It’s basically a back 3 with Saliba in the middle and Benny and Tomi either side of him. Saliba is better in that middle man position than Gabriel and the other 2 better as outside CB‘s. We will have games when we play a more traditional back 4 and games where Willy gets a rest. Gabriel will play a lot of games.
Tomi better than Gabriel as the left sided centre back in a back 3 ? Not convinced on that one !
Doesn’t Tomiyasu play there for Japan ? Not saying Im happy with the selection /formation by the way .
Look at his role he’s not really playing traditional CB
Agreed but why are we playing it in this game with palace parking the bus.
It’s a bit weird but the setup worked very well last week (yeah we conceded a good counterattack but that can happen to any team in any setup). Wait and see I guess but not really worried yet
100%, hope it’s just fitness and not Arteta feeling he has to make sure to get his expensive signing Havertz into the starting lineup. It may be though that he was to play with an inverted fullback and since Zinchenko isn’t ready to start that he is going to do that with Partey from the right side and once Zinchenko can start will go back to the Gabriel and Saliba partnership.
In 100 years they will still be talking about Mikel Arteta’s 3-6-1 formation.
Or is it 1-4-5 ?? Playing BW (big willy not benjamin white) as an old school sweeper … becomes 3-2-2-3 on the press.
I think it’s 1 3 3 3 with Saliba as the lone CB and the other two pushing up alongside Partey, although it seems to vary quite a bit during the game
Seems risky against Palace away, suspect it might cost us
If we lose and a goal comes from the right side of the pitch. The fans will turn toxic quickly. If a goal comes from a bullied defense the fans will quickly turn toxic.
I can’t find any Justifiable reason for this, even if he’s managing minutes for the long season ahead it is very strange. This plus the goalie issue has makings of possible avoidable self made disaster.
My guess is that while Partey inverts right, White covers and Tomi plays left.
When Zinchenko inverts left, we’ll see Gabriel covering.
Saliba plays as ball-playing CB in both systems.
Have we had ANY clarification on what’s going on with Gabriel?
Big money
Real Madrid is the latest rumor.
But just look at that bench!
Real madrid would make more sense than Saudi surely. I wonder what his salary is in comparison to Saliba. Maybe he feels underapreciated
doubt that a club like madrid can afford larger wages than what we just gave him in his latest contract (~6 months ago, too) when they’re very publicly gearing up to offer mbappe the literal moon every week.
He’ll regret leaving The Arsenal Family. He won’t get the same from the kings team!
I have total trust in Atreta and I try not to be dramatic, but what is happening with Gabriel?? I loved seeing him and Saliba on the team sheet every week last season and could see them growing even better this. Only playing together can that happen though. Hope he isn’t on the way out or that there has been a falling out.
Anyway COYG!! 3 points our way please
I’m hoping this is part of the players “periodisation”
Not to teach anyone to suck eggs, but athletes cannot remain at peak physical form indefinitely.
Athletics is the best example. Training schedules are tailored so players peak and trough throughout the year so they are in prime form for key events such as olympics.
We finished poorly the last two years. I’m hoping we learned our lesson
There is no chance this is the case. In order for the end of the season to matter we need to go ALL OUT to win games now. No reservations.
Same formation Last week, finger crossed. Come on GUNNERS.
Very risky defense palace away not the same arteta has to be so spot on…and what in the world is happening to Gabriel..absolutely confused by this
Gabriel still on the bench. This is not good news. Hope the Saudi rumors are false. Trossard on bench too wow. He was our best player in pre season.
Probably because Nketiah seems to be more effective starting.
Hoping Gabi is just a little unfit.
Seems like KT is out the door though.
Partey still at RB? Gabriel on the bench again? I sincerely hope it doesn’t come back to bite us.
Three points all the same; we are the better team. COYG!
Nothing to do with Gabriel, it’s a tactical choice to integrate Partey and new signings..
ppl really believed the complex system last week was a one off for some reason.
Poor Tierney 🥲
Poor Gabriel, too
I hope I’m wrong but I’m starting to think that Arteta might be losing it a little
Again Gabriel is on the bench while Partey inverts at right back. Arteta knows best but I prefer Ben White / Saka combination on the right.
Do not like Partey in that position.
KT being badly treated.
Question: Given that we can expect most teams playing a low block against us, would it be terrible to have Kieran Tierney on the bench as an option to spread things out and, god forbid, maybe give Martinelli the opportunity to shoot at goal or make a last pass without having to beat numerous defenders on his way into the 18 yard box?
What did Tierney do to deserve this treatment? Does Arteta needs to replicate anything Guardiola does? You don’t have to treat a player badly to force him to decide to leave.
I was more confident about this game before the line up, but arteta knows more than me so let’s get this done 🙏🙏🙏
I hope we’re just being cautious with Gabriel’s fitness, if this is a tactical thing to have another inverted fullback then I’m not convinced by it. Apart from anything else, regularly shoehorning all four of rice, partey, havertz and odegaard onto the pitch together would limit rest/rotation opportunities, and we all know how important that will be after how last season ended.
I hope so but Arteta doesn’t play it careful with injuries. If someone’s fit he plays them if they are first choice. Very concerned about Big Gab. I don’t buy it’s for tactical reasons. You don’t change the best cb pairing in the league for the hell of it
What’s going on with Gabriel. This is not good at all. And I won’t buy any tactic nonsense. Something is just not right here.
Is gabby leaving for saudi?😣😣
I don’t like this line-up at all.
There’s a massive difference between Forest at home and Palace away. Partey at right-back a huge liability.
And I feel really sorry for Gabriel. Wouldn’t surprise me if he goes.
My one and only complaint about Arteta is that he has this sort of snobby arrogance that we see with Pep, which influences his man management. He has no problem playing the same player for 90 minutes for 30 straight games, even if there is one on the bench who could use some minutes to build up match fitness and sharpness. Basically, if he likes a player, then that player will play no matter how little sense it makes. If he doesn’t like them for whatever reason, they’re out. ESR, Vieira, KT, Reiss, are all players that haven’t reached even… Read more »
Not Vieira though.
Arteta is overthinking here. Nothing’s broke from last season ,apart from squad, and he is fixing it.
Squad depth
We will trash Palace and a lot of fans will explain the tactics behind the lineup right here in this forum. Wait for two hours and you will see.
Hope you’re right
Exactly.
I love Gabriel, but I think you’re being a little hysterical here.
Worried a bit about how these changes this season affect the togetherness & team spirit ! Just a hunch but no Gabriel ? No Tierney ? Raya breathing down Ramsdales neck ? Partey at right back ? Yet to be convinced we are stepping up as we should be this season ? Hope I’m wrong & MA is right ? Great trainers aren’t always the “Dogs Bolls” in games imho !!!
Wonder why big gab has tripped Arteta’s fragile ego🤔
Why change a winning formula just to incorporate Havertz, Arteta?! Our best central defensive partnership is Gabriel/Saliba.
Suppose we can play partey at rb if palace don’t have Zaha to contend with, but still, I don’t like seeing him back there as it forces saka to do more defensively and he doesn’t offer the overlap that white does. Combine that with the near static nketiah up top and we’re less dynamic.
I don’t like it. But I think Arteta has earned this leeway. We will support the team as usual and hope he knows what he is doing
I think ziny comes back fit and lineup gets back to normal..hopefully
I’m really fed up with no Big Gabi and very suspicious. I put him on my new shirt, and if he leaves I’m going to be gutted.
LB and RB is old school. So are all the old formations 442 etc. If you knew better than MA you would be accomplished soccer coaches and wouldn’t have time tobe naggering over here
Big Gabi is out for the same reason he was out last week: Ben White is a better passer and mover of the ball. This week though, there is added impetus to want that kind of thrust from the back because we lose a lot of ball progression with Tomiyasu instead of Timber at LB.
Too slow on the ball, got to speed it up in the second half.
I understand that Arteta will take inspiration from his mentor and friend Pep but please don’t take his worse trait and change formations/players for no apparent reason and certainly not twice in a row and certainly for no benefit.
Yes I know Palace are parking the bus but we look a bit pedestrian and Havertz certainly isn’t speeding things up.
And now he takes martinelli out instead of harvetz
it is difficult to straighten up a team when you start with the wrong formation.
What is Harvetez really contributing in this game? Haven’t seen anything good in him in the past 3 games he’s played. Looking like a misbuy.
Nothing more frustrating than a player sent off for an apparent foul on a player that should have been sent off earlier in the match!
David Coote is a terrible referee… and that’s just an understatement. Always HATED him!
What does Rob Holding have to do to get a game?