Arsenal are in France this evening to take on Lens in the Champions League.
Here are the official line-ups.
Lens: Samba, Gradit, Danso, Medina, Frankowski, Mendy, Samed, Machado, Sotoca, Thomasson, Wahi
Subs: Leca, Pandor, Aguilar, Fulgini, Diouf, Maouassa, Said, El Anynaoui, Khusanov, Guilavogui
Arsenal: Raya, Tomiyasu, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Rice, Havertz, Odegaard, Trossard, Saka, Jesus
Subs: Ramsdale, Hein, White, Partey, Smith Rowe, Nketiah, Kiwior, Cedric, Jorginho, Vieira, Nelson, Elneny
Make us proud Gunners
Tross is back! Fecking great news!
Great to see. When he plays, we play well.
Fulham? 💀
Go tomi
Please rest Saka soon 🙏
Mikel is ruthless in everything apart from rotation. Not just Saka, others deserve a rest too, and others who aren’t playing deserve a chance.
If ESR, Kiwior and Nelson don’t start here, when do they get a chance to start and prove what they can do? 3-4 times a season in domestic cups? Hardly seems fair.
Looking like an enforced rest is on the horizon. Don’t understand why he wasn’t rested tonight.
take off half the squad if we’re up at half time… we need then rested for City
There’s going to be a lot of Premiership keepers worried about losing their jobs to Ramsdale in January.
Why the downvotes, is it because he wont move until next season or will be happy to sit on the bench? Just curious.
I knew I shouldn’t have asked! 🙂
Asking about downvotes will always get you more downvotes, learned that this last weekend once and for all. Learn to surrender.
Never surrender! Fight them on the beaches and stuff. 🙂
Hoping its a good opportunity to bring Ramsdale on as a sub. Love to see that, and also how it goes down in pundit-world.
At the moment it’s hard to see him staying with the Euros place at stake.
Arteta is not fucking around. It’s going to be a bloodbath. Prayers for Lens
Everyone just seem to think we would steamroll them… but they can be a bit of a tough nut to crack. This game will definitely be tighter than the PSV one.
You’re right, we have no business taking them for granted. I shouldn’t say such things. I still think it’ll be a comfortable win. It’s ok, my crossed fingers were knocking on wood!
That’s what I’m talking about!! No holding back. Also, I may be unpopular with this but Saka playing every game is incredible. I don’t get the negativity. It’s like my kid keeping his best toy away for fear of breaking it. Do you think in Madrid for all those years, Real Madrid fans were raging to see ronaldo play every game possible? I hope it doesn’t bite me but he’s clearly keen to play every game and be one of the reasons for our success. I’m in full support to be honest
Nice to see Trossard get a start: betcha he scores!
Nice to see him back at all.
Last time he started it was a bit weak but there were some missing circumstances. Should be good today.
A start for Tomi also. He really is a useful guy to have. I’d feel quite comfortable with him swapping in for any one of the back 4.
We’re playing the worst team in the group, and Ramsdale can’t get a game?
Rotation, yeah, right!
Lol. Too many still clinging to this Raya-Ramsdale situation. The “rotation” bit was all a deflection initially… it’s clear Raya is now ahead of Ramsdale, and it is now clear that had always been the intention. There’s no need getting hung up on this.
well it stinks and is a shitty thing to do
Schhhhhhhh!!!!
I told you all weeks ago and was slagged off for it.
Ramsdale is now officially the number two – so he’ll be gone in the summer
Lens are good. Especially at home. Tough game this.
Bench strong.
Just the fact that Lens is more of an unknown quantity makes it a tricky tie. But if Arsenal open the scoring in the first 15 minutes of the game, it could be another PSV-esque scoreline.
I’m thinking 0-2 win. Havertz ghosting in at the back post for a tap in.
There’s goal in that XI
Hope we get the job done in 45 minutes to rest Saka and Trossard for Citeh. We shouldn’t start Nketiah against citeh.
Only concern with this line up is does that mean that Nketiah being rested for City? I hope we go with Jesus
Yeah. Cedric wil be properly rested to join in the goals and full-time celebrations too
🤣
😂👍
STRONG lineup!
Playing Saka before a massive gave against City is a bit risky. Should have kept him on the bench.
Wow. Full strength team. Guess Arteta wants this group won ASAP. Hopefully a couple of early goals so we can rest a few of these folks(Saka) for City.
Is Raya really better than Ramsdale? Brutal by Arteta. I kind of like this mentality but not sure if this sort of execution of a popular player that was one of the best keepers in the premier League last season will do Arteta any favours if things don’t work out and that means winning something
It will backfire on him, you need a *character* for a goalkeeper, that is why Lehmann was so good!
You know nothing, Jon Snow
Really? Let’s talk about Alisson, Ederson, Courtois, Seaman, Cech, the list goes on. Crazy characters eh?
Raya isn’t a better goalkeeper than Ramsdale because he isn’t a bigger *character*. He’s not a better goalkeeper because he just isn’t a better goalkeeper
So, we had Ramsdale last season and won nothing, but no sacrifices should be made.
Now we have Raya, and if we go on to win nothing, sacrifices must be made?
Raya, oh dear.
Oh dear oh dear !!! In fact it’s a triple oh dear !!!
3 goals conceded – 2 of which are his own errors. oh dear indeed.
Are they stats you’re using ? Just I’ve been bombarded with stats telling me Raya starts ahead of an unstatted Rambo ???
I’m with you on this one !
Great lineup, glad to see Tomiyasu get a start. White will surely come on for Zinchenko at some point (and Tomi moves to left). Hope he can get Partey some minutes late.
Ramsdale has been promised that should Arsenal make the UCL finals , he would be in goal. My sister has a friend who has a cat she shares with her boyfriend who works at a hotel Arsenal stayed in during the visit to Bournemouth who confirmed this. Apparently, Ramsdale is okay with this arrangement.
Thanks for the ITK insight. I feel much better now.
saka’s injury is all on arteta!
And now ? Saka injured & off !!! A bit like Saturday just gone then ?
Arteta’s decisions have been odd this season.
Partey at RB, dropping Ramsdale for Raya (no reason to) and unnecessarily playing players who clearly are showing signs of fatigue.
Saka, Rice, Ode should have been rested for the biggest game of the year next weekend.
Now we have our best player out injured due to negligence.
Pity.
Wtf
Disjointed performance, lots of square and backwards passing and GK mistake costing us a goal on top of Saka injury which just makes it worse on another level. That about sums it up for me.