By Bulldog Drummond
The only news of late is that Jack Wilshere missed training this morning, although there is a suggestion he might still play. And it is said that Rob Holding is going on loan to Burnley so he won’t be in the squad but we are told Giroud is.
Meanwhile the issue we’ve touched on quite a few times about our goalkeeper Martinez seems to have come to the fore with suggestions that he will leave Spain and go to Leeds, after having only been given four games this season.
So let’s see what we have left… here is one approach that looks roughly viable.
Lacazette
Mkhitaryan Ozil
Wilshere Xhaka Ramsey
Monreal Mustafi Koscielny Bellerin
Cech
It does have the great benefit of getting Ramsey and Wilshere on the pitch together with any of the three players in that line being able to scamper forward or hurry back as the case may demand, but primarily leaving Xhaka playing in front of a back four.
That would leave a beach made up of the likes of
Ospina, Mertesacker, Chambers, Mavropanos, Debuchy, Nelson, Kolasinac, Maitland-Niles, Elneny, Iwobi, Giroud. Take seven from that group of ten.
I would certainly imagine that Mkhitaryan will start but he will probably be taken off on the hour or shortly after, as he has not played much this season. Iwobi could then come on.
However there is another way of seeing all this, by playing Ozil in the middle
Lacazette
Mkhitaryan Ozil Iwobi
Wilshere Ramsey
Monreal Mustafi Koscielny Bellerin
Cech
Of course that doesn’t mean that it has to be Xhaka that drops out, but one of those three would have to give way if we played that way. Ozil pulling the strings and the other two providing the balls either to Ozil or to Lacazette. Looks good to me.
The situation with Giroud is complicated by the possibility of the loan or permanent move to Chelsea or Germany. If he is about to go, probably he won’t actually be on the bench today. On the other hand if he is not going, he could come on, in the second half, and do his usual stuff. However the Express have just published a story saying that Giroud has agreed a transfer. Mind you they have the word “agree” in inverted commas which is normally the sign that even the guy who wrote the piece doesn’t believe it. The Star also says that he is off to Chelsea.
Meanwhile Paul Merson has surprised us all by being positive about Arsenal. He said,
“Swansea will play in exactly the same way as they did against Liverpool. They’ll defend in numbers but for me, Arsenal have got a bit more guile than Liverpool.”
Anyway, it seems that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has come into the country ready to join Arsenal so it would be a bit of a surprise if he didn’t actually transfer. I’d still like to hope the whole Giroud thing is a decoy – and that he’s not going either on a loan or permanent deal.
Thankfully the whole nonsense of the transfer window finishes tomorrow and we can get back to the football.
The Game
- Arsenal: The 7 biggest transfer stories of the hour, and recent games with Swansea
- Arsenal v Swansea: home & away form, lowest goals, wacky rumours, injuries, everything.
- Swansea v Arsenal – Tuesday 30 Jan 2018 – on a good day the ref is dodgy. On a bad day…
- Swansea v Arsenal: Just how good does a new manager have to be?
According to Arsenal.com, Marcus McGuane has been sold to Barcelona.
https://www.arsenal.com/news/marcus-mcguane-joins-barcelona
Good luck in Catalonia Marcus. Hopefully your DNA works for them.
Team news.. Mikki and Giroud on the bench .. Wilshere out sick.
Telegraph and others reporting Giroud to Chelsea for 18 million. I like the players coming in but hate to up Giroud. Couldn’t have sold the younger and inefficient Welbeck? Like the guy but can’t put the ball in the ocean. Giroud has a good scoring rate. And I notice that once Chelsea became interested the media jumped on how good Giroud is. On Arsenal? Complete shite. they are consistent though.
should have read ‘hate to give up Giroud.’
The pitch is waterlogged man.
That man Monreal again
Who needs Giroud, Lacazette or Aubameyang when one has Monreal ?!?!?
Monreal – The Man from Arsenal!
Then we went to sleep.
More accurately Xhaxa did … Yet again
But he has great stats for passes completed so nothing to worry about.
We’re giving the ball away too easily, or Swans are taking it off our feet i should say, come on lads, more focus.
But let’s get a few more attackers in. Grrrrrrr
Almost everytime Arsenal pass the ball they get kicked. The official ignores the fouling & as a consequence we concede a goal. The fouling continues & the cards stay in the pockets.
That is the magic of the EPL.
It’s the same old same old thing, refs think Arsenal is too soft, but they don’t realise this is football and not rugby.
Olsson made a very late challenge from behind on Ozil after the ball was played, no yellow. The same Olsson deliberately shoved Bellerin to the ground, still no yellow. And I think (not 100% sure) that was also Olsson who made the foul on Ozil leading to the equalizing goal.
But be sure that Xhaka will receive a yellow card on his first random foul…
Menace
They conceded because they switched off not because they were kicked. Let’s face it, they don’t play for 90 minutes.
Sometime we are so slow to start running, are we conserving energy?
Thats a foul
A 60 mins substitution? Well i never. The new Arsenal?
Well i never.
No same old arsenal.
how can anyone blame the ref in this match?
No matter how ridiculous our defense was (once again), a shove on the back of a player who is trying to pass the ball is a foul. A lot more a foul that for exemple Verthonghen dive when we was outmuscled by Ozil in the NLD.
But hey the pundits will just say Arsenal are too soft…
Do’nt worry, we will win this.
If (and hopefully a big if) results stay like this we are 8 points off 4th place. Europe league looks more and more important. Our usual strike force in those games is Walcott and giroud. Aubemayang would be cup tied I believe.
Have we even got a foul for us tonight? I cant remember seeing one.
If that ref sends off an Arsenal player i will wish him bad luck for the rest of his life for real.
4 for us, 5 for Swansea according to bbc, but it’s probably fake news.
How can that be a foul?
Come on lads, time to show some class about now.
FFS ref, baised like no other.
Laca off and Nketiah on please.
Let’s hope we sign aubemayang tomorrow. We desperately need a new attacking player given the strength of our goalkeeper, midfield and defense.
Could we not offer Dortmund wenger?
Aubemayang won’t change much if the rest play like they played tonight.
Now come the pseudo fouls. The slope gets steeper.
Xhaka not acceptable…everybody makes mistakes, but the lack of effort definsively..the first time I am mad at an Arsenal player. 1st and 3rd goal, he didnt even bother running!
Today we lost to stupid mistakes ans cowardness in attack. If we just have the courage to play in front like we do at the back (those meaningless passes) we could score plenty of goals.
I don’t know Arsenal, i really don’t know, you don’t seem to want to win this game.
What a performance tonight, I would make you watch it all week as punishment for sure.
Same old Arsenal as Sheworeayellowribbon says, we are playing like a schoolboy team
and gifted Swansea a win.
I wonder why? We have the ability to be better than this, so why?
I just cannot even begin to fathom such a miserable performance, and i must say, they deserve all the angry fan’s tirades that are sure to come.
Disgraceful.
Off to watch Black Mirror, at least i will get more enjoyment from that tonight.
Sheworeayellowribbon
They would not even want him on a free. 🙂
The Cech cock up for Swansea’s second goal wouldn’t have been out of place in Crawley Wasps under 11 girls team.
the story of Jekyll and Hyde is on line. also known as match report. If anyone is interested after this display of schoolboys errors….
At least though Cech’s mistake was a bit of a one off. Xhaxa giving away goals either be being caught in possession or more recently by not tracking back happens time and time again. All the managers in the Premiership know it, except one.
Can’t say anything good about this match. Totally unacceptable in desire, effort and focus. With the exception of Chelsea, it’s the norm this season. 3 away wins this season. And struggling or losing against away to sides in the relegation zone. Ooph it’s hard to keep watching.
We were excruciatingly poor tonight and the players, bar Ozil who tried his heart out, should offer to forgo their wages this week. We got nothing and deserved nothing.
How can such good players play so badly. Very little enthusiasm, zero pace, most of them didn’t get any faster than a jog, no running off the ball, afraid to take a man on and instead passing the buck with sideways and backward passes. No movement up front.
I wouldn’t blame Ozil for not signing a new deal after this shambles.
MickHazel
Agree on all points. Ozil is always worth watching. I only hope that having won in Spain and the World Cup with Germany he’ll be content to play his game and stay. Pay him. Can’t blame him if he goes, sorry to say. Sometimes I feel that I respect the shirt more than most of those wearing it. They’d all come out of the changing room sunburned and calling their agents if they played for Fergie. I expect they all keep their places anyway. Sad.
Couldn’t do anything about Sanchez. Rejecting MC for MU shows it was about mpney and I can’t blame AFC if they didn’t want to pay him the highest wages in the league. But I wouldn’t want to help another team contending for the UCL places by sending Giroud to Chelsea. Personally I’d keep him. But if you let him go, make it Germany or France. Let’s get Vieira back from MC as 1st team player/coach. Probably still better than this lot. Definitely still tougher. Imagine him on the pitch today with that performance. You wouldn’t have to wait until the changing room to hear it. You’d have heard him in the Upper, FFS.