Everton preview: walk the walk

Morning everyone.

We play Everton tomorrow and there are two obvious reasons why we need the three points badly:

1. Teams around us will drop points. Chelsea and Tottenham play one another in the Cup, thus we have a chance to catch up on the former and widen the gap from the latter; City play Liverpool. One of them will drop points (both, hopefully) and thus we'll be presented with yet another chance to cement our place in the top 3. I'm not even excluding Sunderland and West Brom causing problems to United and Southampton respectively. Fingers crossed
2. Psychological reasons. We need to put that debacle of a performance behind us, the only way to do that is winning as many games as possible

All of this brings us to team news update

We'll have to make do without Jack Wilshere for at least another week:

"Jack Wilshere had a little surgery to take his two buttons off his ankle because they were irritating him but it’s a very minor procedure...Next weekend will be a bit quick. I don’t know exactly. It’s days, not weeks."

Very unfortunate and highly exasperating. Jack is one of the few with an actual spine, we could use it (and him). It is what it is, no point moaning about his absence and wondering what might have been.

But we have a positive bit of news on Ramsey and Flamini:

"They come back into normal training today and tomorrow. They are nearly there, not completely there."

"Tomorrow" means "today", as the presser took place yesterday. Both haven't been out for long, so I hope both can be reinstated in the squad. Rambo is our most pressing need, we can't, it seems, carry on with Cazorla in such a deep role.

Alright, I usually try to guess, which squad Arsene will put out, but this time I decided to go about it another way: I'll give you the squad which makes most sense to ME and explain my choices. Starting with

The attack

Funny as it may sound, choosing who will play on the wings depends on whether we decide to actually play through the wings or not. If Arsene will try crowding the middle of the park, then we should pick Welbeck and Alexis once more. However, playing people in not the most natural positions to them will hardly bring about the desired effect. I don't know what position Alexis Sanchez prefers, but Welbeck is definitely not a winger and he shouldn't be used on the flank.

And so, going from the personnel we have, I'd introduce Walcott for Welbeck and Oxlade for Alexis. In case with the Chilean I just think he needs a rest. Sanchez looked absolutely knackered against Monaco. We might also ponder the idea of giving Gnabry a go, though it would be a bit controversial with a fit Walcott. However, it has to be said Theo likes to drift inside. Less so, than Welbeck, but more than Gnabry. And so the German becomes our second most natural winger after Oxlade.

Up top I definitely wouldn't play Welbeck. Bar his pace, he's inferior to Giroud in every single way. It's what Goodplaya said in this piece and I agree with it wholeheartedly. He also argued that subbing Giroud was the wrong decision, because, though the Frenchman was having an off day in terms of finishing, he was getting into the right positions. Something that Welbeck didn't. It leaves us with a question of where exactly Welbeck fits in in this Arsenal side, but that's a subject for another day.

The midfield

I've seen one too many posts recently crying to deploy Alexis in the middle, with people pointing to Sunderland and Burnley performances as the example. And to such people I say: you are insane.

Alexis is simply not the material for a №10. He is too erratic. He loses the ball a lot, fails dribbles, gets dispossessed and, most importantly, he cannot dictate the tempo of our play with his passing. The Chilean is frenetic, he often both holds onto the ball for too long or makes a rash pass. Alexis is brilliant when it comes to creating space for himself, he has an outstanding sense of positioning and his finishing ability is second to no one at Arsenal, but these are not the attributes you are looking for in a CAM.

With that settled, we can move onto the midfield and I don't see how it can be changed from the previous four games. That means another outing for Cazorla in a deeper position, something I don't like. Ideally, I'd play Ramsey alongside Coquelin. Question is, will the Welshman make it in time for the game and if he will, should he be thrown in right away? I think that if he's fit, than yes. In Wilshere's absence he's the best №8 we have.

I don't want to see Oxlade there and I don't think Rosicky in an option either. The Czech is a playmaker, not a defensive midfielder. Cazorla also isn't for that matter and that brings us back to Ramsey.

Supposing he makes it, Ozil and Cazorla will fight it out for the only position left and I don't know, who should play there, if both are fit. Cazorla is on brilliant form, but so is Ozil. Bar the Monaco game (when everyone was bad, mind you), the German had a flying return from injury. Personally, I'd pick him over Cazorla with both fit.

The back five

Monreal on the left please. Why Gibbs was picked over the Spaniard in the Champions League will forever remain a mystery to me. Nacho was (and still is) on top form, Gibbs was plucked out of the cold and asked to perform in the last sixteen. Bollocks.

Most importantly, you just don't play two romping full-backs at the same time, and so a Bellerin-Gibbs duo won't do. You can play Bellerin with a more conservative Monreal, or Chambers with Gibbs, but playing Hector and Kieran simultaneously is suicide. So bring Nacho back and keep Bellerin.

Whether we drop or keep Mertesacker for me hinges entirely on what approach we take. If it's a high pressing line like against Monaco, then Gabriel should get the nod. If we, for whatever reasons, will opt to sit back and absorb the pressure, then the German suits us better. For now, at least, till Gabriel hasn't adapted and we haven't seen what he's capable of.

Finally, the goalie. Szczesny or Ospina? Ospina had two shaky games now, but Chezza had a whole lot of these this season. If we drop Ospina after one bad performance it will send the wrong message to both keepers: that one bad game can be your last. Which is not what we want, do we? So I'd play the Colombian and see how he recovers.

The verdict

It will be tough, but we need to bounce back as quickly as possible. Everton, despite sitting just six points above the relegation zone, have a lot of quality players and they, unlike us, won their midweek game. We, right now, are a Schrodinger's cat. I really hope tomorrow shows that we are alive.

So come on you Gunners.

Back with a review on Monday

Until then

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