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!

Arsenal 2-0 Bayern Munich: back in the race with a bang

“If I have learned anything during these past few weeks, it’s that we can adapt to opponents. We can hit them from the off like a hurricane (the normal one, not that overgrown Draco Malfoy version), we can play sterile possession to tire them out, or we can just set up two banks of four and hit them on the break. We’ll find out what Arsene has in store for Bayern less than 24 hours from now.”

This is what I wrote in the preview before the Bayern game. I had no idea how we were going to set up, so I just listed what we did in the last two games and threw in “two banks of four” for good measure.

Such a set-up looked pretty unlikely to me, mostly because we just don't play this way all that often. City game came closest to the performance we put in yesterday, but even it wasn't taken to such a defensive extreme.

We had only 26% possession, only attempting 262 passes in the entire game (remember, passes attempted is basically time on the ball i.e. possession). 77% pass completion is also an unusually low number for Arsenal. Especially at home.

However what we did was maximise the output. What few chances we created, we tried to make the most of. We took 13 shots, 12 of them were from inside the box, 8 were on target. Also, the chances we created were generally more dangerous: if you want the numbers, we had 4 big chances to Bayern’s 2, all four were put on target, 2 were goals. That's despite Bayern completely dominating territory and possession. They have insane numbers in passes attempted (i.e. possession), the accuracy was 91%, but where did it get the Germans? Nowhere. Passes completed don't win you games.

If I sound like I'm in awe of what we did, that's because I am. Had such an approach from us been the norm rather than the exception, perhaps I wouldn't be waxing lyrical here. However, as I've stated above, such a guarded and defense-oriented performance is a rarity from us. That we can pull it off when we need, that we can adapt to opponents (contrary to the widely held opinion), that we can concede we'd sometimes be wiser to accept the opponent is likely to get the better of us in an open encounter, makes me proud of Arsenal.

Was this approach planned? It looks like it wasn't, at least it wasn't entirely:

“It is was not deliberate from the start but I thought when we played very high up we stopped them from playing. When we were playing halfway they opened us up too much so I decided to drop Ozil a bit deeper and to make it tight around the box and catch them on the break because we have the pace to do it and to find some space with the game going on.”

So, Arsene saw the opportunity and he adapted in-game (so much for being tactically naive). Bravo to the boss, bravo to the lads who made it possible.

Speaking of the lads, I feel the need to talk about some individual performances. I know it was a collective performance, a team success, however, I was still amazed at some moments to focus my attention on them.

Petr Cech

Man of the Match, hands down. He was ably aided and abetted by the rest of the team, but that doesn't make his six saves any less valuable. Remember the two big chances Bayern created? Cech saved both. One early on, from Thiago, the other at 1-0, from Lewandowski.

At least three of his other four saves were also pretty good: Cech parried a distance shot in spectacular fashion, before batting away Costa’s stinging drive and finally, tipping another effort over the bar.

Basically, Cech made big saves at important moments, which is what buying him was all about. Well done, Big Pete, extremely well done.

Hector Bellerin

It is fair to say Hector struggled against Costa in the first half. It was scary to witness, mostly because Hector is our best right-back and if he can’t cope with someone, chances are no one can. Here’s what Costa did in the first 45 minutes:

1. 6/7 dribbles
2. 9 attempted crosses
3. 2 chances created
4. 16/19 passes
5. 3 ball recoveries
6. 1 shot, off target

However, during the second half Hector adapted. He restricted Costa to a solitary successful dribble from the left, solitary (unsuccessful) cross and just one created chance. After all that, Bellerin performed one of his 4 successful interceptions, followed it up by a 45-meter sprint, continued by successfully completing his only dribble and rounded it off with the only chance he created during the entire game, which turned out to be the assist for our second goal. Hector’s lung-bursting run happened in the 94th minute.

Na Na Giroud (quite the impact sub)

Ollie Giroud came on during the 74th minute of the game, replacing Theo Walcott. Our Handsome French Bloke was introduced to a round of applause and the customary “Hey, Jude” chant. And you know what Ollie did three minutes later? That’s right, he scored the opening goal.

Our number 12 was fouled far out, Cazorla stepped up, curled the ball towards the box and, after a horrible miss from Neuer, it found Giroud. Olivier headed the ball in.

Five minutes later Giroud could have ended the game as a contest, but, unfortunately for us, his headed effort was straight at Neuer.

However, it was the way Giroud held up the play and fought for aerial balls which made him invaluable. Finally the defenders could boot the ball long and reasonably hope someone would get on the end of their clearance. Which Giroud did to great effect. Some of his close control was simply magnificent.

The Frenchman now has 4 goals in his last 6 substitute appearances (Leicester, Watford, Stoke, Bayern). He could have added to that tally, but it's still an impressive number and shows Ollie can come in handy from the bench.

The verdict

It was a splendid effort from the boys and from the manager. Everyone to the man did their bit: Koscielny and Mertesacker contained Lewandowski, Cazorla and Coquelin stood their own against Vidal and Alonso, Monreal made Muller disappear…

This win sees us move into 3rd place, as Olympiakos won at Zagreb courtesy of a late winner, but here’s something to cheer you up: should Arsenal beat Bayern in Munich two weeks from now, we’ll be able to finish 1st in the group. As you probably remember, when two teams are level on points (as we will be with Bayern in case we win), it’s how they played one another that counts.

Should we really beat Bayern, it will have the added benefit of lighting a fire under Pep’s ass to win the remaining two games and then hope we drop points somewhere along the way. Which means the Germans will do their utmost to put Dinamo and Olympiakos to the sword and that, in turn, will ensure neither team finishes above us.

Right, that’s it for now. Enjoy this immense win.

Until later

Bayern preview: all in

Last year, when changes to the seeding system were announced, Arsenal fans were both outraged and excited. Outraged because the new system meant only champions would be seeded in the first pot. Our chances at becoming champions last year at that stage looked, let’s put it mildly, slim. However, the fans were also excited to have a potentially tough team in our group, one which would spice things up. I mean, isn’t it great to face a proper opponent at an earlier stage?

No. No, it isn’t. Not the way things turned out to be. It was a great idea in theory, an enticing one, but when your qualification basically hinges on getting a good result against probably the best team in Europe, the idea becomes less enticing.

Theoretically we can even qualify on six points. That was exactly what Zenith did last year, setting a new Champions League anti-record. However, we will need a whole lot of luck to repeat this feat should we lose the following two games. In other words, I don’t believe we’ll get through to the knockout stages without getting at least 4 points in our next two games.

Is it achievable? Yes, it is, but it is also goddamn hard. And our uphill struggle starts on Tuesday evening, at the Emirates, against Bayern Munich. It’s showtime.

Team news update

Gabriel will be back in time to make the squad, which is the only piece of news really. When asked about Ospina, Wenger gave a straight answer: the Colombian is out with a shoulder injury, one he sustained on international duty, so he won’t be included.

At this point I do have to wonder what’s happening with Ospina. Was there a gentleman's agreement between him and Wenger when the latter bought Cech? If so, what did it include, what were the talking points?

For example, did Wenger make a promise to our Colombian shot stopper he’ll play in the Champions League, at least during the group stages? Must have been hard coming to your current number 1 goalkeeper and saying “Hey, you know this Cech bloke I bought for 10 million? Well, he is the new number 1”.

Of course Wenger didn’t deliver the message that way, but it is also obvious Arsene never had the intention of sticking to Ospina as our league goalkeeper once the upgrade was brought in. So to soften the blow and give the goalkeeper who did well and was only bought a year ago a chance to reinstate himself as our number 1, I’m pretty sure Arsene decided to play David in every other competition barring the league. Sounds fair enough.

Problem is, Ospina did little since the start of the season to prove he is a better goalkeeper than Cech or that he, indeed, stands a chance of fighting back the place between the sticks. For starters, Cech, while putting on a horror show during the first league game, recovered from that and got 5 clean sheets in the next 8 games.

Then, there are Ospina’s performances to look at and he hasn’t exactly covered himself in glory. He was solid against Tottenham, probably could have done better against Zagreb, but his Olympiakos game did the real damage. You can’t account for a deflection or shit defending, but the way David just dropped the ball over the line for that second…

Regular readers of my posts or, indeed, my Twitter timeline, know that I harbour a lot of sympathy for Ospina. I like him for his calm and professional attitude, it makes a nice change from Szczesny’s cockiness, I like him for how he opted to stay and fight when Cech came in. But I do realise one harsh truth: he has to actually play good football to start for us week in week out. My argument in his defense, when people say he is not world class, is that he doesn’t make mistakes. He won’t always save you, but he’ll rarely get you in trouble either.

This is a precarious argument to build your case on: once it’s no longer valid, there’s nothing you can do. I’m not saying one mistake means Ospina is no longer reliable, no, but this year our Colombian goalie looks...disinterested. Much like Debuchy did in his couple of games. Or Oxlade, though I do hope it’s temporary in his case.

Anyway, I'm getting a bit sidetracked here. Ospina won't play tomorrow and I do wonder whether that's really because of an injury, or because he lost the manager's trust. Or maybe because Arsene wants to put Ospina out of the firing line for now?

Whatever it is, it doesn't look good for David. I can only hope he grabs his next chance to impress with both hands. Time is not on his side, especially since no one knows how far we’ll go in the cups.

Squad

After saying he might rest Alexis and Ozil after the Watford game, Arsene today (Monday) denied he will:

“You would be surprised if I told you that I would rest them tomorrow, so I can tell you certainly not. Normally they should play tomorrow.”

Which in my opinion is the correct decision. Alexis and Ozil are our top performers at the moment, so if we want to stand a chance of beating Bayern, we are going to need both players from the very first minutes.

Other than that it will be interesting to see who Arsene picks in central defense. Who does he view as first-choice? Something tells me Koscielny is undroppable, so it’s a race between Gabriel and Mertesacker.

It’s a hard choice to make. Gabriel played less with Koscielny than Mertesacker did, and any miscommunication in such a game can prove costly indeed. But if we look at things from the other perspective, can Mertesacker handle Lewandowski, who is in hot-red form? I don’t know. I doubted Mertesacker before and was usually proven wrong by him, so I think I’ll just concede we have three centre-backs of highest quality and move on.

Can Arsene make other changes? I’ve seen suggestions it would be better to try Ramsey centrally in order to contain Vidal. This move will also free a slot for Oxlade on the right.

Personally, I’m not sure Wenger will tamper with the existing system in a game of such magnitude. He seems relatively comfortable with rotating his centre-backs, but, he didn’t challenge the Coquelin-Cazorla-Ozil trio after the initial experiment with Ramsey in the middle and Oxlade on the right in the Community Shield and the first league game. Really can’t see him doing it now, though I do have a hunch Wenger will throw in a wildcard Pep may not expect.

Predicted line-up: Cech - Bellerin - Gabriel - Koscielny - Monreal - Coquelin - Cazorla - Ozil - Alexis - Ramsey - Walcott (ploughed for Gabriel purely because he started both previous CL games)

The verdict

How do you stop a team of Bayern’s magnitude and momentum? A team which won 12 games in a row, scoring a shedload of goals along the way? I surely don’t know, but I hope Wenger does.

If I have learned anything during these past few weeks, it’s that we can adapt to opponents. We can hit them from the off like a hurricane (the normal one, not that overgrown Draco Malfoy version), we can play sterile possession to tire them out, or we can just set up two banks of four and hit them on the break. We’ll find out what Arsene has in store for Bayern less than 24 hours from now.

Come on you Gunners. Get your campaign underway already.

Arsenal 3-0 Watford: confident Gunners swat Watford aside

Well, that was fun. Another good performance and another win by three goals. I think I can get used to it.

Before the game, a lot was made of how tough a team Watford is on their home soil and you could see why: the Hornets started the game at a really good pace, were organised, put men behind the ball and gave very few chances away in the first half. In fact, barring a weak header from Walcott (!), a cracker of a shot from Sanchez and a scythed effort from Ramsey, I do not recall us conjuring up anything else.

Watford also had their moments. Deeney’s stinging low shot was well-parried by Cech, Troy then messed up a simple pass to send Ighalo one-on-one, before the Nigerian decided to dive in the box, when a shot could have been a much better decision.

However, one thing was obvious: we had a plan. One which we’ll call…

The Grand Plan

If the trick against United was to start well because it’s obvious the Devils need time to get into the game this season, the trick against Watford was to tire them out. Something Wenger basically admitted in the post-game presser:

“To beat Watford you have to be completely committed to the game. We faced a Watford team that was well organised and knew exactly what they wanted to do. They were very physical in the challenge and very strong in the challenges and very direct. These three things together, it took us a while to get on top of that. In the second half, the fatigue coming in, Watford came in less in the challenges and we got the ball quicker in transition and were much more dangerous.”

We showed maturity to our game once again. Seeing it was hard to break down a physical Watford side, we just kept the ball and made them run around a bit. After fatigue crept in during the second half, our blitz showing left Watford out cold inside 12 minutes.

The goals

Were the goals particularly outstanding? No, but they were all team goals and featured a moment of brilliance in the build-up. For the first Cazorla split the entire Watford’s defense to find Ozil, for the second Ozil’s cutback was delicious and for the third was preceded by a cracking run from Hector Bellerin. Ake will have nightmares about the Spaniard for a while now.

Some individual moments

I was very glad Ramsey got on the scoresheet, to start with. The Welshman needed that goal, however scrappy it turned out to be. Aaron may have his flaws, his position on the wing definitely doesn’t help get the best out of him, but Rambo will always have my respect, simply because he never hides. He never shies away from the ball or his defensive duties, he always keeps trying. I think he ran furthest at Vicarage Road, definitely among Arsenal players and he also tops the league in terms of sprints made. Rambo has an unbelievable engine, he is also a huge asset for the team, for that he has my backing.

Sanchez got another goal (I think he has 10 in 6 appearances for Club and country), while he is supposed to be out with a groin problem. I’ve stop wondering how this is possible, the answer looks obvious: Alexis Sanchez’s sheer willpower and desire to play every minute of every game outweigh everything.

A word on Mesut Ozil, also. Our midfield maestro notched two assists yesterday (he now tops the league in the regard), but what’s more important, he now equals Riquelme’s all-time assist record, tied on 181. Mesut only just turned 27. Words aren’t enough to express how happy I am to have him on board.

Finally, Ollie Giroud. Man scored his 4th league goal on the night, 3 of these from the bench (he made a total of 6 substitute appearances). He now has two more goals than Walcott, who gets far less stick. However, that’s not a criticism of Theo, I believe he is doing very well in the lone forward role. Furthermore, I believe these two work brilliantly in this combination.

Per Mertesacker, the slow defender

Per had a couple of dodgy moments yesterday, two stand out: on both occasions he failed to get back into position because, well, his recovery speed isn’t great. However, people calling for his head surprise me: do they realise that on both occasions Mert was essentially covering for Monreal and Bellerin, as the duo were caught high up the field? It’s not like Mert failed to cover for himself.

Speaking of how well he did:

1. 94% pass accuracy (51/54, no misplaced passes in our third)
2. 8 ball recoveries
3. 3 interceptions
4. 8/8 clearances (7/7 headed)
5. 2/2 tackles

People need to get their head around one thing: Mert’s game isn’t based on speed, so not having it doesn’t make the BFG a bad defender. Like Mikel “his legs are gone” Arteta, Per’s weapon of choice is positioning and both are pretty damn good at it.

Another point is that Per has a calming influence on our defense. He is a leader, whatever others will have you believe and our back four looks more organised with Mert in it.

Wrapping it up

It was another good day in the office. We got the job done against a resilient Watford side and we got it done when it mattered. City predictably thrashed Bournemouth, while United swatted aside a hapless Everton, so we needed a win to stay in the mix. We did just that. Onto Bayern now.

I’ll be back with a preview of that game.

Until then

Watford preview: poking the Hornets' nest?

Howdy.

It’s been quite some time since I last wrote, but a combination of an extremely tedious Interlull and my rather stressful two weeks at uni contributed to my total lack of inspiration. Glad to see the back of this fortnight.

In what will be Arsenal’s first game in 13 days we face Watford away and, while it’s a favourable game to get back into shape, we should, as always, find the right balance between urgency and confidence (see what I did there?)

Watford seem to be an odd duck. They have only lost two games out of 8 played (City away and Palace at home, the latter thanks to a penalty), while also maintaining an impressive defensive home record. Their only conceded goal was that penalty, in other three games the Hornets amassed 5 points, beating Swansea and holding Southampton to a goalless draw in the process.

Their main threat emanates from Odion Ighalo, the man who scored 5 goals already. Odion mostly operates as a second striker in a 4-4-2, partnered with Troy Deeney. Our centre-backs should be on alert. Luckily for us, Mertesacker and Gabriel stayed behind and Koscielny nurtured an injury, so all three of our full-backs are ready and firing.

Team news

Quite surprisingly, all of our players returned in one piece from international duty. How well they played (and they did play well) is secondary to me as long as no one will have to endure a life-threatening operation in order to sew one of their legs back on. An operation which can keep them out “for a number of weeks”, naturally.

However, I’ll still single out Alexis and Ozil. The former played with a groin injury, scored three times in two games and assisted one more, while the latter provided two assists, the second for the eventual winning goal, one which allowed Germany to top the group.

On top of all this positivity, it’s likely Arteta, Flamini and Koscielny will also be able to make the squad, as all three took part in full training today (Friday).

By the way, while we are on the subject, Wenger gave an update on Wilshere and Welbeck, saying the former can be back in training within a month, while the latter will only return in January. Good to know Jack is ahead of schedule. It really feels like the situation with injuries improved this season. Fingers crossed we’ll be able to keep it this way.

Squad

The only change I realistically see Wenger making from the side that swept aside United is Oxlade for Alexis. Mostly because there are lingering doubts the Chilean recovered from injury:

“I cannot do a lot about it (Alexis playing for Chile with an injury). He came off as you have seen against Manchester United with a hip problem, a problem with the rotator muscle and he wanted to go. He played in the last two games and we have to see how he comes back but it is always a tricky situation Chile are trying to qualify for the World Cup and he is an important player for them but they will use him if they can. He is a guy that always wants to play so I knew that was always going to be a tricky situation.”

I must say I don’t completely agree with the view that we should use our best players against Watford because the Champions League is a lost cause. There are two reasons for that:

1. Watford is, with all due respect, not the strongest of sides in the PL, so resting a player or two (especially if these players have a chance of aggravating their injuries) shouldn’t make the task at hand an impossible one. That’s what depth is for, after all, so that we could rotate when needed without losing too much in the way of overall quality and balance
2. Our Champions League campaign IS NOT a lost cause just yet, but it may well become just that should we lose another home game. Theoretically we can even qualify with 6 points, but hoping it will suffice and letting two games slip by because of that is sheer madness

I’d also probably keep Koscielny wrapped in cotton wool before the Bayern game, though there is a question of whether he needs a bit of playing time to get back into shape. Again, like with Alexis, we shouldn’t use Kos if there is a risk of losing him for our midweek game or, God forbid, for a lengthy period of time. I expect no other tinkering apart from these two.

Predicted line-up: Cech - Bellerin - Mertesacker/Koscielny - Gabriel - Monreal - Coquelin - Cazorla - Ozil - Ramsey - Sanchez/Oxlade - Walcott

The verdict

“We will be confronted by that fact and we will have to produce a quality defensive performance (on Ighalo) but away from home we have done very well until now.

Apart from the game against Chelsea which was under very special circumstances, we have done extremely well away from home.”

This is the part which also gives me a bit of extra confidence: we generally do very well away from home and has shown it again this season. Home loss to West Ham and a draw against Liverpool, albeit understandable, will still be viewed as points dropped (probably rightly so), but our away form has been near impeccable. Three wins against three resilient sides (Newcastle, Palace, Leicester) and the loss to Chelsea under very special circumstances indeed. Palace and Leicester are troublesome teams at their place, I’m sure other PL sides will drop points there, while Newcastle look to be fighting to stay up this season and may also prove a handful.

I expect tomorrow’s game to be similar to the Newcastle one. We’ll most likely seize territory and possession, which is dictated both by our style of play and the sheer gulf in class between the sides, question is, how we use our advantage. After seeing how clinical we can be in recent weeks, I hope we’ll be able to once again show that ruthlessness tomorrow.

Come on you Gunners.

Finally, a bit of extra reading for you. As you all know, the AGM took place on Thursday, so you can catch up with it here (transcript courtesy of Tim Stillman), while Arsene Wenger’s speech in full can be found here.

Also, my colleagues are ready to provide you with their thoughts on Stan Kroenke and give their take on our ticket policy (and why it isn’t half as bad as it is made out to be). To wrap it all up (and I do know it’s offtop), Tim Stillman tells us Gabriel’s story in his weekly column and, as always, it’s very much worth your time.

Phew, I sign off on this note. Back with a review.

Until then