First game of the season.
0-2 win
Martinez
Bellerin Holding Saliba Tierney
Xhaka Ceballos
Willian Willock Saka
Auba
Subs: Pepe, Laca, Nketiah, Leno, Gabriel, Kola, Torreira
Printable View
First game of the season.
0-2 win
Martinez
Bellerin Holding Saliba Tierney
Xhaka Ceballos
Willian Willock Saka
Auba
Subs: Pepe, Laca, Nketiah, Leno, Gabriel, Kola, Torreira
that will never be the line-up - for a start, we all know Willock always comes on with 15-20 mins to go, runs around and achieves nothing
Eddie will play, I think
Also, 0-3
Is there any other club in the world who can have 9 CBs on their books and yet still be starting the season with a “CB crisis”?
Probably going to be 343 again until we sign some CMs - think we might go...
—
Emi/Leno
Saliba Holding Tierney
Bellerin Ceballos Xhaka AMN
Pepe Laca Auba
—
Cant call the keeper - toss a coin on that one.
Saliba’s the only surprise in there -probably earlier than we would have liked to chuck him in at CB, but everyone else is injured, and he’s ahead of Gabriel in his prep, so I think he might get a start.
CM picks itself atm.
Can see Lacazette getting the nod up front as I’m guessing he had a nice rest during the internationals again. Not 100% sure we’ll start Pepe - could easily see that being Willian - but I’m erring on the side of familiarity and continuity on that one.
Emi isn't in the squad. Likely to be sold.
Fuck him tbf.
On we go.
Fulham got anyone we need to worry about? They likely to cause us any problems by sitting deep?
Have Fulham got anyone who isn't an utter pussy and won't be grovelling on the pitch at the start of the match?
Because we don't.
I'll support Fulham for this match if just one of their players stands up.
Actually, thinking about it, I reckon we might go Willian over Pepe?
I can see Pepe really coming into his own once we have Gabriel in the side, hitting those long, cross-field passes, and have an extra man in midfield for him to play off, but we might need the extra creativity from Willian if we go 343 against a weaker side again. Hmmm..,
Match day. :bow:
Quite excited, doubt it'll last though.
Seen a few people float the idea that we might go with a back 4 today with Gabriel and Holding at CB - how would we feel about that? Is Gabriel ready? Is Holding strong enough at covering space?
The extra man in midfield would certainly be useful, if Fulham decide to sit deep.
I guess we have the options there to quickly change from 2 CBs to 3 CBs (and visa versa), so we could just see what kind of game it’s gonna be and then switch if we need to?
Last season was such a long drag it’s quite nice to be starting from a clean slate.
It’s Arsenal away from home though, so a disaster is never out of the question.
BT's programme starts in a couple of minutes.
Fulham: Rodak, Ream, Hector, Odoi, Bryan, Onomah, Cairney, Reed, Kebano, Cavaleiro, Kamara
Subs: Areola, Mitrovic, Knockaert, Cordova-Reid, Le Marchand, Christie, Anguissa
Arsenal: Leno, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney, Bellerin, Elneny, Xhaka, Maitland-Niles, Willian, Lacazette, Aubamaeyang.
Subs: Macey, Kolasinac, Ceballos, Willock, Saka, Pepe, Nketiah.
Crouch and Rio are pitchside.
El neny and xhaka feels overly defensive - why not ceballos ffs?
I guess Elneny is getting his chance to show Arteta his worth now, given he was on loan when he was appointed.
Would prefer someone more mobile though, we don’t need 2 sitters against teams like this.
Shop window. :bow:
No Ozil of course. :lol:
Oh yeah forgot to say, Jake Humphrey is a total bellend.
Says there hasn't been anything tangible to show in Arterta's side yet.
:haha:
Ceballos lays Nketiah out in the warm-up. :haha:
probably exercising his anger at being left out
I guess Gabriel will be the man in the middle of the defence then?
Meanwhile foolham have put mitrovic on the bench - have both these managers bet on a defeat or something, wtf's going on - they do realise this a real game right, not a friendly?
AMN, Leno and Gabriel clowning around.
Nearly concede through a dodgy back pass :doh:
Save from Leno.
Arteta. :bow:
LACAZETTE!!!!!
What a pub. :haha:
Arsenal pub it in :lol:
perfect start, love the scrappy goals against the run of play
The thing about Arsenal is they always try to pub it in.