Dinamo Zagreb preview: all about building up momentum

Well, this is awkward. A few times a season such a thing happens: we play a team I know nothing, or next to nothing, about. And yet I have to write a preview.

In such cases I try to concentrate more on what we do and how we approach the game and this is exactly what I’m going to do now. However, you can check out this article if you want to learn a little about our opposition.

Team news update

The big news is that Jack Wilshere will have to undergo a surgery on his ankle. The operation and subsequent rehabilitation will see Jack sidelined for around three months, in a year when staying fit was pivotal for Jack’s stake at a starting spot.

For him the lay-off means he’ll miss a lot of football and will find it hard to break into the starting XI when fit again. For us it means Arteta is the only fir central midfielder on the bench. And, though I like the Spaniard a lot, he is just one man. I think it would be sensible to have at least one more option from the bench, be it a talented youngster or someone from the current starting XI. We’ll see how Arsene reacts, but it looks like he is content, for the time being, with having just Arteta as a midfield sub.

Everyone that was available against Stoke will be available today, so we should put together the usual good squad. However, with three players already out with long-term injuries, any further injury would see us looking at youngsters, so fingers crossed we can avoid it.

Squad and approach

“You need to find the balance between urgency and confidence and at times that is difficult as you can quickly be too confident and lose your urgency.”

Interestingly enough, Wenger has confirmed Bellerin and Ramsey were left behind (in London), so that they could get a rest. That means it will be relatively easy to guess who will play.

As highlighted by the quote above, Wenger will most likely use this game as an opportunity to rotate, so I think a slew of regulars will get a rest. It’s also important to keep other players happy, not just provide the starters with a breather.

The big decisions for me are who starts in goal and whether Arteta comes in for Coquelin. I’d say Cech is more likely to start, as we don’t have a tradition of rotating keepers in the Champions League. As for Coquelin, this is one of the few opportunities to rest the Frenchman, so I think Wenger will start Arteta over him.

“I think he has an eye for the goal. The quality of his receptions in the box is at the top. He will become a instinctive finisher when he has a couple of goals behind him.

He needs a few more goals to score a bit more spontaneously. He is quick and gets into good little pockets."

Does this mean Theo will start? For me it sounds like he will. I suspect he’ll lead the line against Chelsea on Saturday, so it’s important to give him a chance to build up some momentum.

Predicted line-up: Cech - Debuchy - Mertesacker - Koscielny - Gibbs - Arteta - Cazorla - Ozil - Oxlade - Alexis - Theo

As for the approach, it’s hard to say, really. Will Dinamo be forced to play even a little bit before their own fans or will they shut shop completely? If they want to make at least third place to subsequently feature in Europa League, their only chance is getting as many points at home as possible.

The verdict

“It is important we go to Zagreb highly focused and conscious at what is at stake there. You can be quickly out of the Champions League and we want to start well and we know we have a battle first to qualify with Bayern Munich [in the group].

We have Olympiacos and Zagreb first and we have to finish above them and the result will come down to that. I think it is important to start well.”

Well, that about sums it up. Having learned the hard way what complacency can lead to, we should go into this game with our usual attitude. If we manage that, we have the quality to claim the three points and kick off our European campaign.

So come on you Gunners.

Back with a review.

Until then

Arsenal 2-0 Stoke: profligate Gunners get the much-deserved points

I’ll start my review with two simple facts:

1. Jack Butland would be my MoM if I could have voted him. The man made 10 saves. That’s more than Petr Cech against Liverpool (8).
2. If you can’t enjoy the win and the performance because Arsenal were quite profligate again (or for any other reason), I suggest you find a new team to support or, even better, a new sport to watch.

I suspect the review will be a short one today, as I’m not feeling well. I’ll thus get straight to the point.

The chances we had

“Maybe if I wanted to be critical I could say that that there is too big a difference between the number of chances we created and the number of goals we scored but that will come quickly once you win your games at home.”

Frankly, we nearly played Stoke off the park in the opening ten minutes and we came out of that period without finding the back of the net, I admit I was worried. Games where you start like that and fail to score an early goal don’t always turn out the way you want them to, but luckily, it was not the case yesterday.

Ozil and Cazorla were our top players yesterday in terms of chances created, with 8 and 7 respectively (each got an assist for his troubles). Unless I’m much mistaken, Ozil created the same amount of chances yesterday as Fabregas in 5 games (lol). The German also tops the league in 2015 calendar year with 76 chances created. On a side note, Bellerin fancied 4 chances for his teammates yesterday, making him 3rd in this regard.

On overall, we created 24 chances yesterday (remember, a chance is a pass that leads to a shot), but the crazy stat is that out of those 24, 9 were big chances. A big chance occurs in a one-on-one, as a result of a shot from close range or in other scenarios in which you’d reasonably expect your striker to score. By taking 2 of these 9, our conversion rate went from 0% to 12% (last year we had a 45% conversion rate of big chances).

You can check out some other interesting bits here.

Theo Walcott vs Olivier Giroud

I’ll put it in black-and-white: Theo was extremely profligate. Out of 9 big chances we had, 5 fell to Theo: a rebound after Sanchez hit the post, a header, a one-on-one, a flick at the near post and, finally, a goal.

In simple terms, Theo had a bad day in terms of finishing. He scored the least easy-looking chance, yet horribly squandered everything else. Giroud would have been slaughtered for such a performance (indeed he was, when he failed to take any of his 6 big chances against Monaco in February).

The upside is, of course, that Theo did finally score. Also, he got into dangerous positions, ones in which Giroud probably wouldn’t have. I think a run of games will ensure Theo’s finishing improves and it looks like Wenger will give him a chance:

“He has chances. He can be a prolific goalscorer. When you come out of the game and look at the amount of chances he scored. The bigger the belief he has to score the more he will score. But he gets in good situations.”

Giroud, meanwhile, came on as a substitute and sealed the game in the 85th minute. But not before he fired wide with the goal at his mercy. It’s amazing, really. Ollie can screw up the easiest of chances and then score a worldie. I don’t have stats to back this up, but I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking this.

However, I’ve liked what I’ve seen yesterday. Letting Theo rip from the start and then throwing on Giroud for 20 minutes looks to be a very good plan, one which suits both the players and the team. Theo’s impact is maximised when he starts (11 goals in 11 starts), Ollie is a devastating player from the bench. Hope we’ll see more of this over the course of the season.

By the way, do you get the feeling we cross the ball when Theo is on and then start playing through balls when Giroud comes on? It’s not the first time I get this feeling. Weird.

What next?

Among other things, Wenger vaguely touched on why Mertesacker didn’t play:

“He should not worry. He should just come back and play. It is good we have four centre backs and this produces a problem.

It is always a vicious circle and at some stage you just have to believe in your players and Gabriel has shown that he can play with Mertesacker, he can play with Koscielny and he can be a great defender.”

Does this mean Mertesacker has been dropped in favour of Gabriel? Cause Wenger didn’t exactly say “Per is short” or “Per hasn’t yet fully recovered”.

When I saw the squads, I thought that Mert just isn’t fully fit, yet from Wenger’s comments it looks like this wasn’t a decision based on fitness. Guess the next game will tell us more.

Our next game is the first Champions League game, where we face Dinamo Zagreb away. And a couple of days later we have a trip down the road to our old pal Mourinho. The poor lad isn’t looking too good these days, that with back-to-back losses and four points in five games. Hope we’ll be the final nail in his coffin.

Right’ that’s it for now. So much for keeping it short. Enjoy the win and I’ll be back with you with a preview of our midweek game.

Until then

The loss of Danny Welbeck doesn't mean we are short in attack - in fact, we have a plethora of options

Transfer window woes

Less than a day after the transfer window slammed shut with Arsenal failing to make any further purchases, a statement regarding Danny Welbeck’s health was issued on the official website. Unfortunately, the news was far from heartwarming, as it turned out Danny’s injury required surgery. a surgery which took place during the last week of August.

Arsenal’s fanbase duly exploded and you could see why: it was hard for the supporters to come to terms with the simple fact Cech remained our only acquisition, losing one of our forward options on the back of a summer when most considered an elite striker a necessity was the last straw.

The Club was once again accused of dithering, of keeping the supporters in the dark and, most importantly, of failing to recruit when the need for recruitment seemed so obvious. Gloomy predictions were up next: we are 1-2 injuries away from a disaster, our forward line looks incapable of scoring and we can just forget about mounting a proper title challenge. 4th, here we come.

This tune became almost laughable. In a hurry, everyone forgot that nobody of importance left our squad. It was forgot that the same squad (minus Cech) had a storming end to the last season. It was forgot that transfer window is not a panacea, something Rory Smith brilliantly summed up:

Remember everyone: your team's problems are caused and resolved by what has or hasn't happened in the transfer market. Nothing else.

There are no tactics. There is no training. There is no human error or excellence. There are only transfers.

Rory then went on to produce a quite fascinating article for ESPN, in which he gave his explanation of just why the transfer window is loved so much and why it’s unlikely to change in the near future.

In fact, I believe we had a good transfer window, one which would have been viewed as such by more people had we picked up more points in the opening games, say, 10 out of 12. People would have just taken a look at the table (because looking at the table is crucial in early September) and seen we are not far away from City. City, who have spent over 150 million pounds on players they didn’t really need and will have problems cramming into their squad.

But our stuttering start, during which we’ve scored only one goal had people looking at the transfer market in search of a killer striker who would score more or take his chances better. Amidst all that, one little detail was ignored: there was no striker on the market we could have bought for reasonable money and who would have presented a substantial upgrade on Olivier Giroud. In their article Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail!) hailed Arsene’s transfer policy, while saying the exact same thing which has been blindingly obvious all along: our Premier League rivals overspent, quite likely didn’t get good value for money and didn’t substantially improve or, more importantly, didn’t improve in the areas which needed improving most.

The author argued his point very well (among other things he also backed Arsene’s decision not to reinforce central midfield), so I won’t repeat what he said here. What I will do, though, is quote him on Benzema and Cavani rumours:

By all accounts he tried very hard to bring in one of the few strikers in Europe better than what he already has - Karim Benzema.

It's not easy to buy top-class players, and it is not sensible to drastically overpay for them. Arsenal went up to £50million, and were rebuffed. Any more money would have been ridiculous for a man who, at 27, would have next to no resale value if he flopped over the next two or three years.

The other name linked to Arsenal was Edinson Cavani - the man most fans desperately wanted Wenger to sign on deadline day. Why?

Last season, in Ligue 1 - a significantly easier environment than the Premier League - Cavani scored 19 times in 35 games. That's a strike rate of 0.54 goals/game - nearly identical to the 0.52 scored by Giroud in a tougher league (and when you throw in the fact that Giroud's all came from open play, while Cavani netted two penalties, the Arsenal man's record is actually more impressive).

What message would it send to the players Wenger already has at the club if he was desperately trying to replace them with expensive stars who are not better than what he already has?  

Cavani might have improved Arsenal's squad, but at £50m-plus he would have been a terrible signing in terms of value and, again, at the age of 28 would be almost worthless at the end of what could turn out to be a disappointing spell.

All of this finally brings me to the point I wanted to make in this piece (800 words in I finally get to this point): how can we compensate for not bringing in another striker? Who do we deal with it knowing Welbeck will be unavailable up until Christmas? Well, I think there are a couple of solutions we (or rather Arsene Wenger) can try out.

Continue with Giroud as our main striker

That’s the most obvious, easy and likely solution. We know what we’ll get with Olivier up front, the team has become accustomed to seeing Giroud spearhead our attack over the last three seasons. If Arsene really decides to continue with the Frenchman as our main threat, both will have to get ready for critique coming their way. Giroud will score a lot of goals, but not enough to please the fans, but, crucially, he’ll miss quite a few chances and will be reminded of this by our fans at every opportunity. As for Arsene, he will naturally get blamed for not finding an adequate upgrade in the market.

However, there’s a case to be made for omitting Giroud and trying someone else. It will yield the double benefit of putting the Frenchman out of the firing line and changing our style of play, something that can ultimately lead to us becoming more effective in front of goal.

As Tim Stillman pointed out in his column for Goonersphere, it doesn’t look like Wenger planned to use Giroud as a main man for so long, which can prompt him to try and bring his original plan to fruition:

For the first game of the 2012-13 season, Podolski started as Arsenal’s central striker, with Giroud on the bench. I think it’s fair to assume that this was Arsene’s long term intention, for Giroud’s physical presence to provide a much desired Plan B.

For the first few games of the 2014-15 season, Alexis started as a centre forward, with Giroud again sealed in the envelope marked Plan B on the bench. This worked to good effect at Goodison Park when Alexis was hooked at half time and Giroud bagged a last minute equaliser. His predilection for changing games from the bench is very good; he almost unwittingly talks himself out of his preferred job in that sense. Giroud starts most games, but he has been left out of plenty of big fixtures. He was omitted from the starting line-up for a Champions League tie against Bayern Munich and for F.A. Cup matches against Liverpool, Everton and a semi-final against Wigan.

Last season, Theo Walcott was preferred in the F.A. Cup Final (where Giroud again scored from the bench). Olivier is clearly on a temporary visa as Arsenal’s starting forward until Wenger can find someone better, because he does not omit other regular picks from big matches in the same way.

Playing Walcott as a centre-forward

When Theo signed a luxury contract back in July, it became obvious you don’t just leave a player on such wages on the bench. Yet it was just what Arsene did for the first three games of the Premier League: Walcott came late on for Giroud against West Ham to try and rescue a point, a similar switch was made in the game against Liverpool with the scored locked, while in-between (against Palace) Walcott was an unused sub.

When Theo finally started a league game at St. James Park, he was utterly useless barring the first 15 minutes. Of course, the sending-off changed the landscape of the game, robbing Theo of space he thrives on; yet one could make a case most teams will play this way against us, both home and away. That means Theo won’t be able to help us much, as he wouldn’t be of much use in a direct battle against English physical centre-halves. In that case the Newcastle game may have been a demonstration by Wenger on why exactly Walcott can’t be our main striker.

However, I don’t think Wenger will abandon using Theo as a striker altogether. I’m not basing this assumption on anything, though, it’s just a hunch of mine.

Playing Alexis as a centre-forward

I believe it was the original idea when Arsene bought the Chilean a year ago. We didn’t see much of Alexis as a centre-forward since then; however, this can be explained by a combination of factors: Giroud’s injury, the acquisition of Danny Welbeck, no adequate cover on the left flank, Theo’s prolonged absence. By the time Giroud and Theo returned, Welbeck and Oxlade sustained injuries, while Podolski and Campbell were shipped out and Cazorla rediscovered his mojo in central midfield.

But I don’t think Wenger abandoned that particular idea of his. As I’ve said countless times it’s much easier to find a left winger and move Sanchez infield than find a striker and keep Sanchez on the left. Why am I so keen on playing Sanchez through the centre and why do I think Wenger might try it out? Simple: Alexis is world-class. It’s much easier to teach Alexis how to become a goalscoring machine as a lone forward than to find such a goalscoring machine.

Alexis could follow into Henry’s and Van Persie’s footsteps: both started as wide forwards, both were world-class, both were able to make that transition with resounding success. I believe Alexis can repeat this feat.

Playing with a false nine

By this I mean trying either Ozil or Ramsey up front. Both players are very intelligent, both are good finishers and both can (I believe) therefore play on the shoulder of the last defender to great effect by making darting runs.

Furthermore, Ozil and Ramsey will also be able to seamlessly interchange positions with Alexis/Oxlade/Walcott/Wilshere, allowing any of the lot to finish attacks.

I know this is a very unlikely scenario, that’s why I saved it for last. However, after giving it some thought I realised this formation has its benefits:

1. Ramsey and Ozil are both very effective in the final third. Both are attacking-minded players, who will be able to greatly influence proceeding by basically performing the role of a centre-forward, albeit they will influence it in different ways
2. This style of play will allow to accommodate both Alexis and Walcott/Ox. Oxlade can undoubtedly improve his end product, but there’s no denying he is a good finisher when he has the chance
3. It will also allow to cram in most central midfielders, something Wenger looks hell-bent to do anyway. Only this time every central midfielder will play in his preferred position, or very close to it
4. Finally, we’ll have the added benefit of utilising Giroud as a devastating weapon from the bench

Wrapping it up

The point of this article was to show that even without a new centre-forward, Danny Welbeck and resorting to Joel Campbell’s services on a constant basis, we have enough variety in our squad to mount a proper challenge. I hope I managed to do just that.

Right, enough said. Voice your opinions in the comment section below.

Until later

Newcastle 0-1 Arsenal: Theo underachieves as the Gunners clinch the points

Like I said before the game, away days at St. James park are always hard. Yes, we still manage to win there, but our last three meetings with the Toons (now four) finished with a solitary goal to separate the two teams: 1-0, 2-1, 1-0 and 1-0.

However, there are different kinds of hard. Yesterday’s game proved hard to win because from 15th minute onwards Arsenal played 11 vs 10. We generally find it tough going to beat deep sitting teams with even squads, but that sending off ensured attacking was never really on Newcastle’s mind. Even late introductions of Perez and Cisse didn’t change that: McLaren’s side finished the game with only one shot (off target) and 26% possession. On the up side, Cech racked his second consecutive clean sheet without breaking a sweat, something he thoroughly deserved after putting in a monumental performance on Monday.

Theo Walcott

Just when I gave up predicting changes to the team, three happened at once: Kos for Chambers (expected), Oxlade for Ozil (the German suffered a minor knee injury) and Walcott for Giroud. The last change took me by surprise and eventually proved ineffective:

“I expected more space for Theo Walcott. At the start it looked quite promising but after 15 minutes it was a different problem for us. There was no space behind their defenders, the service through their lines was very difficult and they defended very well.”

In these 15 minutes, Walcott squandered a brilliant chance after being set up by Bellerin. Theo reappeared 15 minutes later (to spurn another opportunity after Krul parried Sanchez’s effort straight into the Englishman’s path) before vanishing in his entirety.

As Arsene always does, he persevered with his starting XI up until 70th minute and so Theo wasn’t subbed earlier. During these 70 minutes, Walcott  made 17 (!) touches: 3 shots (1 on target), 12 attempted passes (10 completed), 1 dribble and 1 ball recovery.

What I’m driving at is that Walcott was utterly useless up front. Despite his shortcomings, Giroud did more in his 20 minutes and that includes a shot in frustration and spurned big chance late on.

Aaron Ramsey, MoM

Yes, he was my Man of the Match. This game showed he is not a playmaker (Ozil, we need you), however we wouldn’t have won the game had it not been for Aaron Ramsey.

The Welshman had an 89% pass accuracy (89/100 passes completed), made 5 ball recoveries, created 5 chances for teammates (all from open play) and finally, his only shot on target (of two attempted) led to the only goal scored.

Aaron is not a 10 and I doubt he won’t feature there with a fit Ozil, but he made a vital contribution in this position yesterday.

Francis Coquelin

He had one of the best passing accuracies on field (69/73 - 95%), his long pass led to the penalty incident and his only successful dribble led to a dangerous free-kick, however it was his defensive contribution (as always) which played a massive part in keeping a clean sheet.

5 tackles (3 on the flanks, so he most likely stopped three counter-attacks), 11 ball recoveries, the Frenchman drew 3 fouls, one of which was a straight red for Mitrovic and finally, he showed immense maturity. It was obvious Steve McLaren sent out his goons to “rough Arsenal up”, yet Francis kept his composure and didn’t commit a single foul, let alone get a yellow. Bravo.

Putting the result into context

This performance was far from what is needed to mount a proper title challenge, however, let’s not diminish the importance of this win. Looking at other results, I realised just how vital it was.

City continued their impeccable run by beating Watford and now have 12 points in four games with 10 goals scored and 0 conceded, while both Liverpool and Chelsea lost (both at home). United, meanwhile, have a tricky away trip to Swansea later today and you don’t need me to remind you how Swansea played against us and United last year.

Transfer window

Yesterday Wenger said he remains open to strengthening in any position:

“We are open and we are in the transfer market. If we find an exceptional player in any sector, we will do it. At the moment I don’t know if something will happen or not.”

The Frenchman also remains positive overall and I do think we are in for a late surprise. If you ask me, I think Arsene has a striker in mind, though I’m not quite sure who that might be. I’m still convinced in the market where strikers are at a premium it’s easier to buy a winger and try Sanchez at centre-forward. The Chilean had a very positive performance yesterday. He took 7 shots (4 blocked, one off target, the other two made Krul work hard), created 2 chances and even had 6 ball recoveries. He also drew 5 fouls, some of which earned a yellow for the perpetrators. A lively performance from him, looks like he’s almost at his best.

Right, that’s your lot for today. A bit short from me, but not much to talk about really. Hope we’ll add another arrow to our quiver when I next write.

Until later

Newcastle preview: another vital game for the Gunners

We face Newcastle today and, once again, we badly need to win the game. It’s kind of funny to be in such a position 3 games in, but our less than spectacular start ensured we need a second away win in a row.

Interestingly enough, we have a very good record away from home: 6 wins and a draw in our last 7 games. So the last time Arsenal lost a game away from home was early February, at Spurs. I wonder whether this is not a simple coincidence, cause our home (as you no doubt heard countless times already) is pretty appalling.

Maybe it’s the atmosphere? Home fans tend to show their displeasure more often, simply because it doesn’t take much effort. Whereas demonstrating displeasure away is a more difficult task: it takes dedication to travel and support your team away, so away fans have less desire for bullshit.

Wenger also think home form can be related to the atmosphere:

“Our results away from home, with goalscoring opportunities and our finishing percentage has been higher recently.

Teams come and defend very deep at our home, so as long as we have not scored the first goal it is maybe more difficult to open up the defences and in the recent two games that is what happened to us.

Maybe we are not firing on all cylinders at the moment. By definition, the finishing is a little bit cyclical and it goes in cycles. Finishing qualities come and go and you do not always know why, but certainly at the moment we want it so much at home that we’re trying to force it a little bit.

It doesn’t look natural enough in our finishing qualities because we want to force the situation a little too much.”

Forcing it too much to please the fans, apparently. Or because the pressure is getting to the players. Whatever it is, right now we have to get used to the fact our away results are better than home ones.

Head-to-head

We have a pretty good record against Newcastle. We haven’t lost to the Magpies in 9 games, winning seven on the trot. Naturally, we won both games last season, 4-1 at home and 2-1 away respectively. Newcastle aren’t also very adept at scoring against us: last time they scored more than one was during that memorable 7-3 encounter in 2012-2013.

Our main man against the Steve McLaren’s side is Olivier Giroud: the Frenchman scored 3 goals in 2 games last year, all of them headed goals. On overall, he scored 5 headed goals from just 5 shots on target.

Newcastle’s campaign also hardly started with a bang: the Magpies managed two draws and a loss in the opening three games. However, they demonstrated resolute football against United in their last outing, something that ensured Newcastle got a point and a clean sheet; they also won their midweek cup game convincingly - by beating Northampton 4-1.

Their most two dangerous men are Florian Thauvin (who bagged a hat-trick of assists midweek) and Aleksandar Mitrovic, who proved a constant thorn in the side of United’s defense.

Team news update

Wilshere and Welbeck were earmarked to return after the international break, we already knew that. The more interesting (and worrisome bit) concerns Mertesacker and Koscielny:

“Mertesacker is still sick and we will know more about Koscielny today. He might have a test on his back today and I will certainly know more tomorrow morning. The less likely to be fit is Mertesacker.”

Mertesacker has a chest infection, didn’t take part in training today, so he is unlikely to feature. Koscielny, however, trained with the main group today and this suggests he should be ready: if so, I expect him to start alongside Gabriel.

Newcastle’s only doubt is Moussa Sissoko, who faces a late fitness test.

Squad and approach

I feel more and more stupid by the day, especially when opposition managers say things like that:

"To beat any of the top four teams you need to defend well, be compact and heroic.

We need to repeat that and be better on the ball especially at home where we need to keep the ball better than we did last week.

"With a sell-out crowd behind us we can hopefully make it very difficult for Arsenal."

“Better on the ball” is not saying much, since Newcastle only enjoyed 31% possession in their last league game with only 71% pass accuracy. However, the first bit “defend well and be compact” indicates Arsenal will once again play against a deep defending side.

The common theme that ran through most posts from Arsenal bloggers was how we could beat teams parking the bus. Two suggestions are the most discussed: width and pace. Andrea talks width here, while the lack of movement in this current Arsenal set-up is addressed here.

However, I don’t really expect changes, bar Koscielny for Chambers. Wenger seems to hold Ramsey in very high regard and is reluctant to drop the Welshman in order to add another dribbler or winger.

This Ramsey obsession (may I be excused) can also stem from the fact Bellerin plays at right-back. While I’m not in any way taking a stab at the young Spaniard, he is sometimes more careless in his movements, relying on his speed when caught out of position. To give us a bit more security (and Hector a bit more protection), Wenger may be inclined to use Ramsey.

And look, this whole “Ramsey on the wing” debate (cheers, Dave!) can be a tad inflated. I’m guilty of this too, of course. If you ask me even now, I’d say “drop Ramsey and play Ox” to give us width, but we haven’t been too shabby going forward in the last two games in terms of chances created, shots taken etc. etc. Sure, our play is a bit lopsided, as Ramsey constantly drifts inside to create overloads, but I’m perfectly fine with that as long as the tactic bears fruit in attack and Rambo gets back in position when switching back to defense.

Predicted line-up: Cech - Bellerin - Koscielny - Gabriel - Monreal - Coquelin - Cazorla - Alexis - Ramsey - Giroud

The verdict

As always, I believe we have enough quality in the side to beat the opponent at hand. I’m not too worried Mert won’t make the game if Koscielny does, since Mitrovic isn’t much of an air threat. Also, the Koscielny-Gabriel partnership is quite intriguing I think you’ll agree.

It’s what happens further up the pitch that troubles me more. We showed against Palace and Liverpool we can create chances, now we need to take a further step: start converting these chances. I’m not talking only about Giroud here: Alexis, Ozil, Cazorla can all contribute more than they did. In fact, the only goal scored by our player was a stunner from Giroud, so he must be under fire less.

That’s it from me for now. Fingers crossed Arsenal have what it takes to get a win and then we’ll get to enjoy an uninterrupted couple of days of the transfer window with all the rumours and crazy money for bang average players. The mere thought of this makes me drool (heavy sarcasm).

Until later and don’t forget to tune in to the ever-brilliant Omar for the live game commentary here.