Uh-oh, we just lost Olivier Giroud to hamstring. Injuries had to hit us sooner or later. First Ramsey, now Giroud. Next Wilshere? Or Kos? OK Danny Welbeck... now is your opportunity mate!! p.s. And maybe the Nelson youngin can help
Looks like I was off the mark. Coquellin is now down with a groin injury? Wow, this game really took a toll on us... right during the busy festive period. The more things change the more things stay the same.
I'm glad I had something else to do while I streamed this match. It would've been a big waste of 2hrs. Between the 2 teams there was just 1 shot on target in 90 minutes. Luckily Danny knew how to bungle it in. Onward. And bring on Liverpool.
Hopefully Eddie Nketiah gets some first team football... It's not like we are making a run at the title...would love to see the lad get more time on the pitch
Yeah me too. I just figure that Wenger has him earmarked for the secondary competitions like UEL group stage & early Lg.Cup matches. I don't imagine Eddie having much a role on our most vital objective... as sad as it is to say/admit this... the EPL-Top-4 Trophy. Although if more forwards come up lame, who knows! And in general, it's going to be very interesting to see if the boss sticks with our B-team in those secondary cups, or starts to bring in A-players for the later rounds, now that we're getting closer to a final or two. I think there's precedent for him doing that.
I very much doubt it, he hasn't before. He has even played weakened teams in the finals we've reached. Looking at the games around the two legs of the semi-final I think there would be some scope to mix the teams a bit, before the first leg is Forest in the cup and after is Bournemouth. Before the second leg is Palace at home and after is the cup fourth round. Depending on who we get there, if we're still in it, that would be a chance to play a mix of first teamers and B teamers. I don't hold out much hope for this happening however. I'm not a fan of playing two completely separate teams anyway, wouldn't it be better for a player like Joe Willock to be playing alongside Aaron Ramsey rather than Francis Coquelin, or Eddie Nketiah beiing supplied by Ozil and Sanchez rather than Walcott and Welbeck to see what they can actually do? For all that it is experience in competitive matches we still don't know how they would fare at the highest level.
There is something to be said about familiarity though. I thought it was brilliant in one of the matches recently that after subs the young guns all gathered and had a brief passing tizzy. I believe it was Maitland-Niles, Eddie, Nelson, and Iwobi. They are more likely to dribble by someone then our A teamers imo. Their passing isn't as good but they open up space because defenders can't leave them open. At the other end Chambers and Holdini looked solid in the back. Not a lot of action in this match so hard to scale where they are at.
We drew Chelsea next. And ManU f-ed up the symmetry of 2 derbies in the Semis. The lost to Bristol City?!!! So that's who Citeh will face. Question is do we have the balls to join them in the final?
New thread's up https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/arsenal-vs-liverpool-epl-22-dec-2017.2079874/ Here's to more than 40 posts this time!