When: Saturday, December 8 @ 10 am EST Where: Emirates Stadium Tv: NBC gold I think Well, despite the slight disappointment at OT, the streak continues and we march on. A return to home against bottom feeders and I see the need for rotation. We looked leggy at OT which is somewhat expected. However, we are entering the meat of the season. Emery would normally be prepping for a winter break, instead he will essentially have 3 games a week for the next month. How he does in this stretch will likely define our season.
Funny. The boys on Arsenal Vision podcast were talking about Project 16, until they realized that was the wrong math so it became Project 12 and then Project 13 if we include a subsequent draw w/ LFC. I agree that serious rotation is in order. Playing virtually the same XI in 3 days vs Spurs and United, seems to have been a bit risky. Our B-team should be able to beat Wagner's anemic bottom dwellers!
Arsenal.com says CNBC so I am hopeful. What do we have left in the tanks? Some serious rotation is in order. This game is made for Ozil. He will have space and time to find passes through to our forwards. Leno Lichsteiner Papa Mustafi AMN Nene Guendouzi Ozil Mkhitariyan Iwobi Laca
That line-up sounds good to me. I'm just not sure whether Mustafi is carrying some (knee?) problem and might not be able to go. If so, then we have a bit of a back-4 personnel dilemma. Oh, and YES we're on CNBC... at least that's what my DVR guide says.
At the risk of overhyping a game that might not be very competitive, in a weird way this is the biggest game so far this year. Ie, everything we've done so far is to get us in position for us to play and win this game. If we had played better with the lead against United, we'd have hauled in 9 points of 9 against Bournemouth, Spurs and United. As it is, we got 7, which you have to say is still damn good considering. We ought to win this one, but it's like we're hungover from the last three, and if don't win, the things we accomplished there won't matter. We don't have an especially big squad to begin with, and there's maybe a couple guys who aren't as good as we hoped. There's some who are injured, and there's a few who definitely need a rest before they get injured. We've got Mavropanos, Larry, and Monreal coming over the horizon but I don't think any of them will help us for this game, maybe Monreal. Somehow, we need to find a group to win out of the players we have available. If it were up to me I'd probably go with some 433-ish formation with Xhaka, Moe, and Duzy in the midfield, and Ozil somewhere on the forward line. Hopefully play Lacazette at 9 and see if we can get away with resting PEA.
If I'm not mistaken Emery said basically the same thing in his presser yesterday. Great minds think alike?
I think we'd be absolutely thrilled if you could keep it going for just 14 more games. Then our away fans could sing a new variation on an old song: 29, 29 undefeated, 29, 29 I say... This would be truly truly amazing if it were to happen. [realizing I just probably jinxed it]
So much for big rotation... Arsenal 19Leno 12Lichtsteiner 20Mustafi 5Papastathopoulos 2Bellerín 29Guendouzi 11Torreira 34Xhaka 31Kolasinac 14Aubameyang 9Lacazette Substitutes 1Cech 4Elneny 6Koscielny 7Mkhitaryan 17Iwobi 18Monreal 49Nketiah
So I assume we'll be selling Ozil for pennies on the dollar in January? What's the current market for a 29 year old creative midfielder who club and country no longer value?
I am back from my trip to the UK and Germany in time to watch us hose the Terriers. I am calling a 4-1 win.
Regardless of what happens today, One good thing is that both Kos and Nacho made the bench today. [emoji1] And off we go! In the Herb Chapman Derby.
Confirmation there that Danny Williams is getting his first start of the season. Wish him well… up to a point. Meanwhile the library returns to N5.