The Starting Eleven Arsenal Should Play Against Liverpool

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With Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lukas Podolski and Abou Diaby still out with long term injuries, and Mathieu Flamini out for the next couple of weeks, our options in midfield and attack are somewhat limited.

Olivier Giroud is the only option up front but he looks burnt out at the moment. The way he collapsed after the final whistle against Crystal Palace summed up the huge effort and dedication he has in this Arsenal team. He has been simply awesome this season, and needs someone to come in a ease the burden.

The back five selects itself, so it’s the options in midfield Arsene has to choose. We don’t have Mathieu Flamini so who should the boss pick alongside Mikel Arteta? The only options are Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey. Ramsey has played in the “deeper” role before but while he has the engine to do that job his natural instinct is to go forward and that has left us exposed at the back, so he would be better further up the field with Jack the one sitting a bit deeper. Plus Jack puts himself about a bit more and isn’t afraid to make a tackle.

arsenal-liverpool

And the rest of the team selects itself. With Ramsey in the more advanced midfield role, Ozil and Cazorla make up the attacking backup for Olivier Giroud.

The game will be won and lost where Mikel and Jack are playing. If Liverpool are going to hurt is it will be on the break – that’s how Dortmund punished us, Crystal Palace caused problems (which lead to the Arteta red card) and Chelsea were happy to sit back and get us on the counter attack.

Will we learn our lesson and not be so defensively naive? We’ll find out today.

Is The Chelsea Defeat The Start of a “Negative Spiral” of Results?

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The defeat to Chelsea has split the opinion of Arsenal fans – some think it was a nothing game in a competition we have no interest in winning, while others seem to think it could be the start of a downturn in our fortunes.

Since the beginning of the season and the defeat on the opening day, our form has been sensational. But now with a defeat to Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea – the question is can Arsenal actually beat any of the top teams?

We’ve beaten the likes of Crystal Palace, Norwich, Stoke, Sunderland and Fulham but lost against the only real top teams we’ve faced so far – Dortmund and Chelsea. And with Liverpool, Dortmund (again) and Manchester United coming up, are Arsenal up to the task?

There’s no doubt that the next couple of weeks will shape Arsenal’s season but it appears that when against the really top teams, and teams that have excellent tactical managers, then we fall short.

We were to naive against Dortmund, and got hit with two sucker punches. The same happened against Chelsea last night. Do we have the “mental toughness” Arsene Wenger talks about so much? Are we still defensively solid or will we always get found out against the top teams?

Liverpool have Suarez and Sturridge firing on all cylinders, Dortmund have the ultra-clinical Lewandowski and Manchester United for all their failings have Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie – two world class forwards.

The next three games pose huge tests to Arsenal’s title credentials and unless we get our act together and stop conceding these avoidable (and costly) goals, then it is going to be a long hard November for Arsenal.

Sloppy Arsenal Pay The Price As Chelsea Park The Bus

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Well that was an anti-climax.

Earlier today, I predicted Chelsea would win 2-1 and I wasn’t a million miles away.

I was looking forward to tonight’s game, but knew the importance of the match would be overshadowed by far more important fixtures against Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund and Manchester United in the coming weeks.

On paper though, Arsene Wenger looked to have played a pretty strong side. It included Koscielny, Wilshere, Ramsey, Cazorla and Rosicky, and Özil and Giroud were on the bench if required.

There was a lot of sparring in the first quarter of the game but the moment that changed the game came on 25 minutes. A high ball was headed back by Jenkinson which didn’t have enough purchase, and Azpilicueta popped in to score a well-taken goal.

After that, as expected, Chelsea parked the bus. They do it so well and we found it difficult to test Mark Schwarzer in goal. We had a lot of possession but couldn’t break down a resilient Chelsea side who are well drilled defensively and showed how they won the Champions League a couple of seasons ago.

Chelsea were comfortable and we had no ideas. Nicklas Bendtner was poor, and Jenkinson’s confidence was shot as soon as he made that mistake.

In the end, it’s annoying that we lost to the biggest cunt in football but hey, that’s all it is. It isn’t the end of the world, it isn’t the end of our season and we can quickly dust ourselves off and get ourselves prepared for the big game on Saturday.

Why Chelsea Are Favourites For Tonight’s Game

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Jose Mourinho has been moaning (there’s a surprise) about tonight’s Capital One Cup fixture, saying the competition favours Arsenal because they played on a Sunday and we played on a Saturday. Yawn.

It’s a tactic designed to take all the pressure off Chelsea and put it on Arsenal. But the fact is that Chelsea are favourites to progress. I don’t necessarily think that Chelsea’s best starting eleven is better than Arsenal’s first choice eleven, but because it is the Capital One Cup then Arsene will do what he always does and play some of the younger players, and rightly so in my opinion.

Also, Chelsea have a formidable squad and their “second team” still contains top players such as Juan Mata, Willian, Demba Ba, Michael Essien, David Luiz, Samuel Eto’o and Kevin De Bruyne. Make no mistake, Mourinho would absolutely love to win this game and will give everything to get a victory over Arsenal.

Arsene Wenger on the other hand, has other priorities. We have Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund and Manchester United in quick succession. Why would he risk injury to our top players with a vital run in like that? And playing Chelsea at home is an experience that the youngsters will relish.

Expect it to be a tight game for about an hour, and then Chelsea’s experience and power will shine through in the end.

I would love nothing more for Arsenal to stage a surprise and shove it in Mourinho’s face, but I just can’t see it happening.

Prediction? 2-1 to Chelsea.

Are Manchester United The Luckiest Team In The Premier League?

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As the weekends Premier League action comes to an end for another week, Arsenal are top with 22 points and Manchester United under David Moyes, sit several places behind in 8th place on 14 points.

But things could (and maybe should) be even worse for Manchester United. They’re 8 points behind us in the league but against Sunderland and Stoke City, games which they eventually won, they really should have been 2 or 3 goals down.

And if they lost those matches, then they would be an unbelievable 14 points behind Arsenal already with only 9 games of the season played.

Sunderland and Stoke both managed to get one goal leads, only to surrender them late on by conceding two late goals and end up losing the game. With some luck – usually with poor finishing or with shots straight at De Gea – United were only one goal behind and the opposition end up folding in the final moments of the match.

Most people agree that they really should have lost those two games, and even a draw would have been a fairer result. But somehow, United have managed to win those games and keep in touch with the league leaders.

It’s a long tough season and they’re only 8 points from the top with 29 games to play. Winning games like those where they should have lost is a sign that they will be there or thereabouts. They say the top teams win games where they’ve played badly and even though David Moyes and United are struggling at the moment, they can’t get any worse and they will all begin to click at some point.