Swansea preview: last men standing

There is a saying in Russian which goes like this “Осталось только день простоять и ночь продержаться”. In English it will read roughly “You must hold out for a day and a night only”. I don’t know if there’s an equivalent in English, for two reasons:

1. I was never really good at proverbs and use them with extreme caution
2. It’s not so much a proverb, as a general wisdom, a product of a collective mind

In case you are wondering what the saying means, I’ll explain: it is applicable to a hard, but finite, situation. So when, for example, you return home on Thursday evening, exhausted after a long working week, you know that this time next evening you’ll be a free man. In order to remind you of that, to cheer you up, someone might say this “you must only hold out for another day and a night” (though the order is reversed, in this case). Which basically means “it’s tough going right now, but it won’t be this way forever”.

I think the saying is very much in harmony with the current injury situation at Arsenal. Things look bleak right now, but they should improve considerably after the break. Hence why I brought the whole thing up.

Team news update

What exactly is the situation? The usual trio aside (though even their return is getting closer), we have Ospina, Arteta, Ramsey, Walcott and Oxlade out. Eight seniors in total. Here is the latest on all of them:

“We have two kind of injuries - the injuries who will be coming back after Christmas, which is Rosicky, Wilshere and Welbeck. [Then] we have the short-term injuries. Most of them like Arteta, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain should be back after the international break.”

And on Ox and Theo:

“Both are out for Saturday’s game and until at least after the international break so they are out as well for England. I believe the quickest back will be Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott might be a fraction longer.”

I don’t like this “a fraction longer” bit and I keep wondering whether this particular injury was avoidable. It is what it is, however, not much we can do about it.

Right-wing problem

The litany of injuries creates another problem: we don’t have a reliable right-winger at the moment. Ramsey, Ox and Welbeck, followed by Theo and Wilshere were our options and, amazingly, all of them are injured at the same time. Where does it leave us?

According to Wenger, he’ll be mulling over two options: Joel Campbell and Alex Iwobi:

“Campbell and Alex Iwobi (are my options). Santi can play there as well but he has become very important centrally. The problem sometimes is that you can destroy two departments if you move one player out. We control the ball better with Santi in the middle.”

This passage gives us insight not only into manager’s thinking regarding the right wing solutions, but also his approach to the problem as a whole. Before Arsene said it, there were suggestions he could use Gibbs as a left winger and shift Alexis to the right flank, or move Bellerin further up to accommodate Debuchy. Now I think both scenarios are off the cards.

Truth be told, I don’t like either scenario anyway, mostly because Gibbs and Debuchy have been utter crap this season. I don’t know why, I think they are much better players than their recent performances suggest, but I don’t think a crucial away game against Swansea is a good playground for experiments. Gibbs and Debuchy have been skinned by lesser opponents than Ayew and Montero respectively (Monk’s preferred wingers).

I would probably have suggested using Chambers at right-back with Bellerin essentially becoming a winger. This approach will allow us to be defensively secure, while both Bellerin and Chambers have the requisite experience at their respective (potential) roles. However, this plan has two downsides:

1. Unsettling a stable back four
2. Montero

As we remember all too well, Montero gave Chambers a torrid time last November, so I don’t know whether it’s such a good idea to pin them against one another. If Bellerin doesn’t get back in time to help out Chambers, Lord knows what might happen.

Taking all this into account, Campbell is probably our best option. He is a like-for-like, he is surprisingly good at defending and his introduction causes minimal disruption to the established order. The downside? Joel doesn’t look very good at attacking, a requirement pretty essential for an inverted winger.

Problem is, there is no ideal scenario. When your 6 options or so for one position are all out simultaneously, you have to make do with what you have. And hey, what gives that Joel won’t improve alongside the likes of Ozil and Alexis?

I’m pretty sure this is Joel’s last chance with us, however. If Ramsey and Ox return after the break (like they should), Campbell will once again be consigned to the bench. Unless he shows signs of improvement, that is. So he has everything to fight for on Saturday. Here’s hoping he will show some steel vs the Swans.

Lighten up, fellas

Despite the slew of injuries, there is one very obvious and very heartwarming positive: our starting XI essentially remains intact. The same guys who started the majority of games from March onwards are available, with two exceptions: Ramsey and Walcott (the latter played less than Giroud overall, but seems to have won the starting spot lately).

Yes, we don’t know how our XI would have looked with everyone available. Maybe Wilshere would have been a starter, or Welbeck, but the reality is such, that in over 5 months of football our team included neither on a regular basis. So the right wing position is our only real bother going into the game.

One could make a case Walcott started most games this season, but again we are definitely more used, maybe even better suited, to Giroud up top. He has been our main striker for the last three seasons.

And you know what? It’s important. Yes, our bench will consist of several defenders, Matt Macey, Alex Iwobi and a couple of my chums visiting London, but so what? We all know Wenger is at his best at getting results when he has a settled team (Tim Stillman examines this phenomenon in-depth here). He is even reluctant to make substitutions in-game if his initial plan works.

So yes, we are light on numbers overall, we don’t exactly have a right winger everyone likes and our bench may be held with Blu-Tack at the moment, but all of this has little or no impact on the starting XI and, therefore, on our ability to win games. At the end of the day, while squad depth is important and substitutions can have the desired impact, it’s the guys who play from the off that get most of the work done.

The verdict

This is a crucial game. Maybe the most important up to now. Maybe even season-defining.

Why? It will set the tone for the upcoming week. It can also show we can win games despite having multiple injuries. Finally, a win will take us one step closer to getting some of our walking wounded back.

I liked a thought expressed on Twitter the other day: “If Arsenal win the next two games in the Prem before their players recover, they will win the title”.

Now we only have to hold out for day and a night

Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 Arsenal: young Gunners get slaughtered

Before I say anything else, an important notice: I haven't watched the game. So everything you are going to read is just my thoughts based on what I heard/read. Don't expect a tactical breakdown from me. But you can bulk up on one right here.

The decision not to watch the game was partly based on medical reasons (I had a kind of allergic reaction and took some pills which have an unfortunate side effect of making you sleepy), but it was also based on a nasty feeling I was not going to see good football from Arsenal. I had a feeling of this kind before the Zagreb game, however that time I decided to nonetheless watch the match, something I thoroughly regretted afterwards. This time around, I was wiser. Thank God I was.

I woke up midnight because of a sinking feeling and instantly knew we lost the game in a horrifying way. I didn't even need to look at the final score (something I naturally did) to know it all went horribly wrong. It's an inexplicable bond: I can say most of the time how Arsenal is performing/performed even when I don't follow the game, live or otherwise.

I opened the app I use to follow games via live text updates. This time around the commentator either didn't find a stream or just couldn't be arsed to give updates other than cards, substitutions and goals. As there wasn't much to read anyway, I scrolled through and something caught my eye: two substitutions from Arsene during the first half. My heart sank: Oxlade and Theo came off in the 5th and 19th minute respectively. There could only be one reason for such quickfire changes: injuries. And so it proved.

Both players sustained muscle injuries, hamstring and calf respectively. The extent of the damage? 2-3 weeks, it seems, which means we’ll be without both for crucial away games vs Bayern and Swansea. Theo and Alex become our 7th and 8th injured players respectively. Injuries aside, though, there are other things I’d like to discuss. Starting with…

Team selection

I do not blame Arsene for picking the players he picked. Some needed games (Debuchy, Campbell etc.), others featured because the regulars needed a rest. What I do blame him for, however, is playing Walcott.

Oxlade needs games to get back into the swing of things, this bit is obvious. But why, having lost him to an injury, Wenger put on Theo? Why risk our back-up striker and our only viable right winger left? I don’t know what was going through the manager’s head when he motioned for Theo to come on.

Our youngsters

None of them seemed to have a good game. Some said Bielik and Iwobi were decent, but that’s about it. Here’s what Arsene said post-game:

“They are not ready to play at this level. None of them are”.

Which is a brutally honest assessment, but also an unexpected one from the boss. I don’t really remember the last time he threw the players under the bus like that. Was at a dig at Jonker? Is that why Brady was called back?

I don’t know and I don’t much care whether we find ourselves amid political games. I do care about our threadbare squad, though. We have 8 seniors out, some of our better prospects are away on loan (though Crowley has been recalled) and a crucial week coming up. Knowing we can hardly rely on any of our younger understudies fills me with dread.

Our seniors

They seriously underperformed. While I don’t get the outpouring of anger aimed at Chambers (the guy is 20, he is a 4th-choice centre-back, let him develop for Christ’s sake), I can relate to criticising Debuchy, Gibbs and Campbell.

Problem is, none of them have been any good this season. Considering Mathieu and Kieran are second-choice in their respective positions, I’m ready to dance naked around the fire and pray to ancient Gods nothing happens to Bellerin and Monreal.

As for Campbell, well, odd thing is, he is likely to have another chance soon, As every single player who could potentially play on the right is out (Ramsey, Oxlade, Walcott, Welbeck, Wilshere, even Rosicky), Arsene has little choice but to play Campbell. In three crucial games. Someone hold me.

Question is, what should we do with these three in the grand scheme of things? I’d suggest shipping them off unless they improve drastically. Get Jenko back and find a decent back-up left-back and a winger. Maybe Gnabry will make the step up, I don’t know. However the standards demonstrated now by our second-string players is simply unacceptable.

The verdict

I don’t care much about crashing out of the cup. We all knew it was a sideshow, a distraction from the main event. No one really cares about the Capital One Cup.

I don’t care much about the performance, which, I suspect, stems from the fact I haven’t watched it. I doubt it will have a psychological effect on the team, simply because very few regulars were involved (Cech, Mert and Giroud being the only ones who played the entire game).

What I do care about, though, is injuries to senior players. At a very important time. One of these injuries was utterly avoidable.

What do we do now? Put together a squad capable of beating Swansea and Spurs and at least drawing Bayern Munich away. This is achievable, since Swansea are in piss poor form right now, Spurs are Spurs and Bayern Munich…

Do you remember the squad which beat them at Allianz Arena in 2013? I’ll remind you in case you don’t: Fabianski - Jenkinson - Mertesacker - Koscielny - Gibbs - Arteta - Ramsey - Cazorla - Rosicky - Walcott - Giroud. We can arguably field a better XI this time around, even if it includes Campbell or Iwobi. Our bench will be held with Blu-Tack, but that’s another story.

Right, that’s it from me for now. Back with a Swansea game preview.

Until then

Sheffield Wednesday preview: rotation with the capital "R"

Another day, another game. They really are coming thick and fast, which has its benefits, of course. But also its downsides.

The obvious one being fatigue. No player, however physically fit, can play three games a week for even a fortnight, let alone three or four weeks in a row, which is exactly what we have now. A lot of games squeezed into minimum days.

Key to getting through it all successfully is having a big squad and Arsenal, at this moment in time, can’t boast one. We had a very good squad before the Community Shield game, when all were hoping Jack, Welbeck and Rosicky would return any day.

Not only did they not return, we are unlikely to see any of them this calendar year, something that obviously puts a strain on the squad. Our 24 players were reduced to 21 from the off. Now Ramsey and Ospina are out till the end of November, while no return date has been put on Arteta. You counting? We now have exactly 18 players, just enough to fill the squad. 8 of these are defenders. At this point I’d gladly trade in a defender or two to have Ramsey and Welbeck back. But things don’t work that way, of course.

With these 18 guys we have to hold out till end of November. Luckily, an international break will give us the much-needed two-week period to get some of the walking wounded back (it’s one of these rare occasions when I use “luckily” and “international break” in the same sentence). That means we only have to hold out 4 games without further incidents. First one will take place on Tuesday, against Sheffield.

Team news update

“There are no new problems from Saturday, Per Mertesacker is available again after illness. Nobody else is coming back. Arteta will not be fit. Ramsey, Wilshere, Welbeck and Rosicky of course are all out too.

Ospina is still out too, so Cech will certainly play.”

That’s it, basically. One in, no one out, we have 18 players as I’ve stated above. But I hope we can count some youngsters in. Iwobi maybe. Doubt it’s Jeff, he was away with France’s youth NT the last time I checked.

Squad

Think I’ve seen in the Evening Standard that they expect massive rotation, on the other hand I’ve also seen reports Wenger hinted he won’t change things around all that much.

I really hope he does, though. With Swansea, Bayern and Spurs coming up, our top players should have as much in their lockers as possible. It’s very unlikely City will drop any points in their next two games (they play Norwich and Aston Villa), while we still need at least a point from the Bayern game to not complicate matters in our Champions League group any further.

I came to one very simple conclusion though: we will be unable to fully rotate our squad. Furthermore, Cech’s inclusion from the first minutes means Wenger is taking the game seriously, so I don’t’ expect a side chock-full of youngsters. Things are even pretty quiet on Iwobi front, let alone someone even less experienced.

I think we’ll see a totally different back four of Debuchy, Mertesacker, Chambers and Gibbs, but in midfield things get tricky. Flamini can come in for Coquelin, but then what? Without Ramsey, Wilshere, Arteta and Rosicky we look really thin and will likely be forced to play at least one regular. My guess is Cazorla, although ideally I’d like him to have a break.

The only other senior option I see which is not Ozil, is Oxlade. Again, I’d rather have him on the flank, especially if we take into account the amount of turnovers the Englishman allows (these are often in dangerous areas too), but who else do we have?

It’s a bit easier with the front three, here I’m sure Campbell will start, with Oxlade/Iwobi/Walcott on the other flank and Giroud down the middle. Ideally, I’d like to see Iwobi on the left, Campbell on the right and Giroud/Walcott down the middle, depending on who will start against Swansea to keep his powder dry.

Predicted line-up: Cech - Debuchy - Mertesacker - Chambers - Gibbs - Flamini - Cazorla - Oxlade - Iwobi - Campbell - Giroud

The verdict

If I may quote Michael Cox on this:

“The Owls are likely to give Arsenal a classic lower-league test - they’ve committed the most fouls in the Championship this season, and have scored one-third of their goals from set-pieces.”

That’s why I think Giroud should start: he is generally a more useful player against organized defenses, furthermore, he’ll be another body on set-pieces and this may prove crucial. Oxlade’s dribbling and energy through the middle, meanwhile, can be highly effective in breaking down Sheffield’s defense. Just have a word with him about turning the ball over, Arsene, will you.

Hope we have enough to win this with our second squad. We should, really. Here’s for a win and no injuries. Come on you Gunners.

Back with a review

Arsenal 2-1 Everton: Gunners do the job for the third time inside a week

I’m writing this fresh from the most boring derby game I’ve seen this season: I’m talking about the Manchester derby. However, the goalless draw with two shots on target and two dangerous moments overall certainly has its joys. In this case, it allows the Gunners to go two points clear of United and level with with City.

Another important conclusion I’ve formed as a result of this game is that both teams are from invincible. In fact, the quality of football on offer in Manchester today was so dire I’m now convinced we can win the title if we keep up our form.

But back to matters Arsenal and we did what was required yesterday. Had it not been for a lucky deflection off Gabriel in the 44th minute, I think the manner of our win would have been more convincing. However, few would argue we deserved anything less than three points on Saturday. A win over a dogged Everton side in which the score flattered the visitors, on the back of a hard week is nothing short of a tremendous effort. Well done to the Arsenal.

The squad

Arsene made three changes to the side that beat Bayern Munich midweek: Gabriel came in for the ill Mertesacker, Oxlade replaced the injured Ramsey and Walcott made way for Giroud. However, our bench really had me worried.

In short, it looked defense-heavy. Flamini, Campbell and Walcott were the only non-defenders. Out of them, you can only trust Walcott to make an impact in the final third. Amusingly, Theo didn’t get off the bench the entire evening. Not that we needed him really, but it just highlights Theo is a very specific player, who would only be used under strict circumstances or he wouldn’t be used at all.

I can only hope Arteta will return soon, but even his comeback won’t change much. Having Ramsey, Wilshere, Rosicky and Welbeck out simultaneously hampers our attacking options severely, at the same time limiting our rotation possibilities.

Fact: we have only used 19 players in the league this season, joint-fewest with Swansea, But while Swansea have a smaller squad, we are restricted by three long-term injuries from the very start. Add to these Ramsey, Arteta and Ospina and we are looking very light on numbers in several areas at the moment.

Such a shortage leads, in its turn, to overplaying the available players, which can potentially cause further injuries. We are skating on thin ice now: though Arsene said pre-game we don’t have a fatigue problem, we’ll surely have one soon if we don’t get several players back quickly. Fingers crossed the ones which seem affected the most (Bellerin, Alexis, Cazorla) will get a rest against Sheffield Wednesday and then we come through our next three games (Swansea, Bayern, Spurs) unscathed. And after the Interlull we might just get Ospina and Ramsey back. Hope Arteta and Mertesacker return even earlier.

Gabriel, an able stand-in

Or is he a starter now? I’m confused a bit, as this we never seem to have Mertesacker, Koscielny and Gabriel available at the same time to see which duo the manager prefers.

Regardless of his status, Gabriel put in a great shift. The unlucky deflection aside (he really is not to blame for it, was doing everything right by blocking the shot), Gabriel had 5 ball recoveries, was ⅔ on tackles (both successful were crucial ones, inside our box), made 2 interceptions, won ¾ of his aerial duels and completed 87% of his passes (40/46) displacing none in our third.

It was a tidy and able performance from Gabriel, his late tackle on Lukaku was absolutely vital, so I can say I’m pretty calm even with Mert temporarily sidelined.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, the criticised one

When the Ox saw his shot blocked in the 44th minutes, my heart skipped a beat. Everton came flying out of their blocks and the rest you all know.

The Ox immediately came in for a hailstorm of criticism. I have to say there is a feeling most times Alex loses the ball it ends in goal at the other end. We conceded that way in pre-season against Everton. then on the opening day against West Ham and Ox’s Monaco loss will live long in memory.

Yet the criticism is blown out of proportion. Here is the guy was a guaranteed starter last season all the way until March. Here is the guy most fans (myself included) were pining for Wenger to play in the opening stages of the season. Here’s the guy who most call a prodigy whose talent surpasses that of Sterling.

Have some patience. The Ox seems to me very much a confidence player. Not getting any support from the fans won’t make him play better and the Ox looks our only real option on the right for at least the next month, until Ramsey returns.

Really, who else do we have? I don’t think we can cut Gnabry’s loan spell short and even if we can, I’m not sure Wenger will do that. It looks like Walcott is now viewed only as a centre-forward, maybe because of his defensive contribution, or lack of thereof.

The only other option I see is trying Bellerin as a winger with Debuchy at right-back, but that’s phantasy territory. Not sure Wenger will even consider such an approach, although we do seem to have an abundance of defenders and not nearly enough attackers.

The most likely scenario to me (and probably the best for everyone concerned) is sticking to the Ox and playing him into form. Even yesterday he was far from catastrophic in the final third. Alex completed 4 dribbles of 8 attempted and created 2 chances for teammates. He also helped out defensively quite a bit: 2 tackles, 2 interceptions, 2 blocked shots and 3 ball recoveries. This particular aspect of his game seems to have improved, it was noticeable vs Olympiakos too, so here’s hoping he ups his attacking game in the coming weeks.

Olivier Giroud, our second-best goalscorer

While we were drooling over Walcott’s relative success as a striker, Ollie was quietly playing himself into form. He seems to have come a long way since his Zagreb red card (although as I’ve said then, I believe he had a very decent game up front up the the point of his sending off).

Whether Giroud starting was a tactical switch from the manager or a reward to Giroud for his recent goalscoring travails remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: Giroud was massive on the night.

He took 6 shots, 3 headed, 2 on target and hit the bar late in the game. He also created 2 chances for his teammates, won 4 of his 5 aerial duels and, surprisingly, proved a very efficient tackler by completing 4 out of six attempted. He was immense and it’s a shame he didn’t score a second goal, but it’s heartwarming to see Giroud start, get a goal and put in such a shift. Took his chance of re-establishing himself as first-choice really well. Ollie now has 6 goals in 14 appearances for the Gunners (5 in 10 in the league). Only Alexis Sanchez has more (7 in 14, 6 in 10 in the league).

The aftermath

It was a very good win against a resilient Everton side. On the back of a week we had, it makes the win even more special. Now we play three games away (Sheffield, Swansea, Bayern), before returning to the Emirates to face Spurs in what will be the last game before the break. A challenging ten days period lies ahead.

I’ll be back to cover the Sheffield game for you. For now, enjoy our deserved win and a no-less deserved joint-first place in the table.

Onwards and upwards

Everton preview: the Gunners should prove too much for the Toffees

Another league game looms large and another tough opponent awaits us. I gotta say Arsenal’s fixture list hardly does us any favours: between two international breaks we face(d) Watford, Bayern Munich (twice), Everton, Swansea, Tottenham and Sheffield Wednesday. All of this inside three weeks, meaning we are forced to play every three days, but the real challenge will be facing Swansea away before flying to Munich to play the Bavarians.

On the bright side, we get a kinder run of fixtures after the November break, plus we have already contested games vs Watford and Bayern and came out victorious on both occasions. Our next task is Everton at home.

Roberto Martinez’ side has been hit-and-miss this season: from smashing Chelsea 3-1 at the Goodison (although I’m not sure Chelsea is a good benchmark nowadays) all the way down to losing to United 3-0 at the same Goodison. United were incredibly lucky on the first goal, however, they are yet to convince me with the quality of their football. Even the fans describe LvG’s style as dire. United looks far away from the days of Ferguson, but still managed to comfortably beat Everton away, which tells you a lot about how Everton played on the day.

Head-to-head

Everton is historically one of our most comfortable opponents. Arsenal racked up 95 wins in 192 games in all competitions against the Toffees. Further comforting stat is that we haven’t lost at home in the last 21 games, drawing only 4 times.

Our man Ollie Giroud should be the dangerman for Arsenal. He is definitely hitting form right now, scoring 4 goals in his last 6 substitute appearances. Furthermore, you all know some players are comfortable against certain opposition, in this case Giroud seems to produce good performances against Everton, scoring 4 goals in his last 4 appearances (all comps) vs the Toffees.

Team news update

So what do we have in our Arsenal going into the game? Unfortunately, we really could have been better off in terms of personnel. To start with, we lost Ramsey:

“He had a scan today but he’s out. I believe he will be out until after the next international break. With the [last] international break, the fact that he played against Andorra certainly cost Bale and him as well.”

Wenger later went on to elaborate on his thought that Ramsey was overplayed, basically admitting the Welshman should have been given a rest either against Andorra or against Watford. But I understand why Arsene persevered with Rambo at Vicarage Road: how do you drop a player who provides your side with balance and is central to most successful attacks?

However the end result is far from ideal. We now can’t rely on the Welshman for at least a month and this, coupled with injuries to Welbeck, Wilshere and even Rosicky leaves us short. It might also lead to some disbalance in the side, though I’ll come back to this particular point later.

We also, quite unexpectedly, have lost Arteta to an ankle injury and I’m praying it’s not long-term:

“We lost Arteta on Thursday with an ankle problem, From the [Bayern] game we have no injuries but we lost Arteta [in training] yesterday unfortunately.”

And just to make matters little bit worse, Ospina is also out till the end of November:

“David Ospina is out for our next game and certainly until the next international break.”

That leaves Matt Macey as our back-up guy, with Huddart and Iliev 3rd and 4th choice respectively. I’m pretty sure the time has come to cut Martinez’s loan short. We can’t risk going into important games with one senior keeper, we just can’t. Don’t know about you, but I’ll be fidgeting the entire month (potentially even longer) if we don’t bring back Martinez.

But there is a silver Gabriel-esque shaped lining to the cloud, as the Brazilian returns to strike fear into the hearts of our opponents. Will be interesting to see what duo Arsene prefers. Right now I’m at the Mertescielny station, as both guys were ever-present in all our big wins this season and last.

Phew, that’s it with the team news. To keep further tabs on our injury situation, I strongly advise you to pay ArsenalReport a visit. Very useful site. You can also follow them on Twitter.

The right wing problem

Think only now will we realise how important Ramsey was to the overall balance of the team. Arsene is very limited in his options on the right, that with Welbeck and Wilshere out, so I see two possible scenarios of a post-Ramsey (albeit not permanently) world:

Playing the Ox on the right. Seems the most logical decision. Oxlade is a right winger, so it’s Ramsey out, Ox in and no further positional tinkering is required. However this approach leaves us with two problems:

1. Bellerin’s space. Right now we use Bellerin’s pace and agility in attack to great effect, Bayern’s assist the pinnacle of this approach. Hector provides us with the width on the right, freeing Ramsey to drift inside to create overloads, effectively acting as a winger. This can come to an end should we deploy Oxlade, as the Englishman tends to occupy the spaces Bellerin does now
2. Defensive indiscipline. Ramsey is a much better defensive shield for Bellerin than Oxlade and, let’s face it, Hector can still use some help in defense, that with his relative inexperience and a knack for playing further upfield.

Playing Walcott on the right. It’s a choice less obvious, however it should at least address the issue of space I talked about, as Theo will have a tendency to drift inside. However, it can still leave the problem of greater defensive fragility, while also creating another:

Back-up. Right now, Walcott is our main striker and Giroud is Plan B. If we shunt Walcott to the right, it means playing Giroud as a starter on a regular basis once again. It’s not a problem per se, I have no issue with Giroud starting games, but it does mean having no other forward on the bench. Oh Danny, why hast thou forsaken us?

And that’s really it in terms of who’ll play on the right. We can address the problem of depth by using Iwobi or recalling Akpom and/or Gnabry, but none of these fit the bill “start week in, week out against the likes of Bayern and Swansea”.

Oh, by the way, we can also try Alexis on the right with Oxlade on the left, which will ensure the more conservative Monreal covers for Oxlade, but shifting Alexis to the right hardly helps Bellerin carry out his defensive duties. It also means Alexis won’t be able to cut inside on his strong foot, while Oxlade will have to use his left a lot more. But it’s still a solution and a decent one on paper.

What other changes Arsene could be tempted to make? He’s suggested he could rest Sanchez, which leaves us with only possible front three of Oxlade-Giroud-Walcott and I do wonder whether giving Cazorla a breather crossed the manager’s mind, but with Arteta out it might prove a difficult task.

Predicted line-up: Cech - Bellerin - Mertesacker - Koscielny - Monreal - Coquelin - Cazorla - Ozil - Alexis - Oxlade - Walcott

The verdict

It will be a tough game mostly because I’m pretty sure Everton will try their utmost not to concede. Having suffered a heavy home defeat, the Toffees will be hell-bent on not suffering another and may even sacrifice their attacking game to keep us at bay.

Problem is, Everton can be pretty good at defending even away from home. They haven’t lost any of their last 4 away games, kept three clean sheets in the process and only conceded two goals (both against West Brom).

If there’s a perceived weakness in their defense, it’s the left flank, one currently occupied by Galloway (Baines is injured). Whoever plays there for us (Oxlade, Alexis, Walcott) can prove pivotal in breaking the Toffees down.

Right, that’s your lot for today. Here’s for the three points later on.

Come on you Gunners!