Arsenal’s upcoming fixtures are as follows: Everton (Saturday 8th), Bayern Munich (Tuesday 11th), Tottenham (Sunday 16th). Three fixtures against top sides in the space of 9 days - with at least one training session missed due to having to travel to Germany. Arsenal’s current injury list is as follows: Wilshere, Ramsey, Walcott, Monreal, Diaby, Kallstrom. Three key players and three useful squad players all missing going in to a nightmare run of fixtures that one would struggle to even script for pure lack of realism. Clearly, something is going to have to give. In my opinion, we can forget about the league title and now focus on securing 3rd place and automatic re-entry into next season Champions League. This is not to say we are ‘out’ of the title race - indeed we are level on points with Liverpool who are considered by many to be well in the hunt so it would be ridiculously biased to rule Arsenal out whilst considering Liverpool to still be contenders - however with our fate now out of our hands and City and Chelsea both potentially holding a four point gap having played each other twice already - putting all our eggs into the league would be slightly misguided at best. Furthermore, the Champions league is all but over. Even if we were to put out a full strength, full fitness side at the Allianz it is difficult to see the European champions and probably best team in the world letting history repeat itself and actually allowing us to go one step further. I expect a thoroughly professional performance from Bayern Munich this time round with no complacency and certainly no allowing us to hold a one goal lead for 80 minutes without really doing much about it. Undoubtedly, becoming the first ever English club to win at the Allianz - and doing it by two goals -was a remarkable achievement but in all honesty had Bayern Munich been playing their best that night it would not have happened. It was still an amazing result and one that few other teams in the world would’ve (or indeed have) pulled off but the fact remains that if Bayern turn up, we won’t be good enough. Given the scare we gave them last time round I doubt they’ll even give us an inch this time, and certainly not enough for us to score two goals without reply, they are just too good.
So, instead of focusing solely on a minor miracle at the Allianz next Tuesday, for me the sensible thing to do would be to play a full team against Everton. There can be one or two minor changes, perhaps sticking Podolski up front, but nothing of the scale we have seen in the past and indeed anything close to the rumours on Twitter of a line up consisting of Monreal, Kallstrom, Jenkinson, Fabianski, Gnabry and Sanogo. There will always be some slight debate on what our our strongest team is but I would put very good money that no Arsenal fan’s favoured line up consists of all or even 4 of these 6 players.
Personally I’d go with: Szczesny - Sagna, Mertesacker, Kos, Gibbs - Flamini, Arteta - Chamberlain, Rosicky, Cazorla- Giroud. I believe that with this team we’d just about make it past a strong but perhaps slightly dipping Everton team of late and make it to Wembley for the first time since that fateful day in 2011. Failure to do this will be, in my opinion, completely unacceptable if caused by a weakened team. Of course, if Wenger risks it (as he did against Liverpool) and still manages to pull off a narrow win then kudos to him, but I question whether we can really afford to take that gamble. Indeed, given Arsenal’s current position in both the Champions league and the Premier league, is it even a gamble worth considering? Is there any reason at all in not going all out to win the FA Cup and end this trophy drought? I felt that last season, losing 1-0 at home to Blackburn, Wenger was let down by his players. It was not a full strength team but it shouldn’t have needed to be - the players out there should’ve easily had enough to beat Blackburn and in all honesty, on any other day would’ve. Having 26 shots, 16 corners, two penalty shouts and 54% possession would usually point to a thrashing - but on the day it was just not to be. This wasn’t Wenger’s fault and a lot of the criticism he got after the game for ‘not taking the FA cup seriously et al was completely unfair. He didn’t get it wrong on the day: the players and to a certain extent Arsenal’s bad luck did. On Saturday however, playing a weakened team against Everton is a very different thing. Everton are not a struggling Championship side and will not be forgiving if any half measures are taken to put them to bed and this time it won’t be Wenger’s players letting him down, this time it will be Wenger not taking it seriously. Hopefully however this will not have to happen. A full strength team should be put out, Arsenal will win, will get a long overdue kind draw which puts us up against one of Charlton or Sheffield United and will be one game away from winning football’s oldest cup competition and ending our eight year trophy drought.
Written by Nathaniel Shaughnessy (@Natshaughnessy8)
So, instead of focusing solely on a minor miracle at the Allianz next Tuesday, for me the sensible thing to do would be to play a full team against Everton. There can be one or two minor changes, perhaps sticking Podolski up front, but nothing of the scale we have seen in the past and indeed anything close to the rumours on Twitter of a line up consisting of Monreal, Kallstrom, Jenkinson, Fabianski, Gnabry and Sanogo. There will always be some slight debate on what our our strongest team is but I would put very good money that no Arsenal fan’s favoured line up consists of all or even 4 of these 6 players.
Personally I’d go with: Szczesny - Sagna, Mertesacker, Kos, Gibbs - Flamini, Arteta - Chamberlain, Rosicky, Cazorla- Giroud. I believe that with this team we’d just about make it past a strong but perhaps slightly dipping Everton team of late and make it to Wembley for the first time since that fateful day in 2011. Failure to do this will be, in my opinion, completely unacceptable if caused by a weakened team. Of course, if Wenger risks it (as he did against Liverpool) and still manages to pull off a narrow win then kudos to him, but I question whether we can really afford to take that gamble. Indeed, given Arsenal’s current position in both the Champions league and the Premier league, is it even a gamble worth considering? Is there any reason at all in not going all out to win the FA Cup and end this trophy drought? I felt that last season, losing 1-0 at home to Blackburn, Wenger was let down by his players. It was not a full strength team but it shouldn’t have needed to be - the players out there should’ve easily had enough to beat Blackburn and in all honesty, on any other day would’ve. Having 26 shots, 16 corners, two penalty shouts and 54% possession would usually point to a thrashing - but on the day it was just not to be. This wasn’t Wenger’s fault and a lot of the criticism he got after the game for ‘not taking the FA cup seriously et al was completely unfair. He didn’t get it wrong on the day: the players and to a certain extent Arsenal’s bad luck did. On Saturday however, playing a weakened team against Everton is a very different thing. Everton are not a struggling Championship side and will not be forgiving if any half measures are taken to put them to bed and this time it won’t be Wenger’s players letting him down, this time it will be Wenger not taking it seriously. Hopefully however this will not have to happen. A full strength team should be put out, Arsenal will win, will get a long overdue kind draw which puts us up against one of Charlton or Sheffield United and will be one game away from winning football’s oldest cup competition and ending our eight year trophy drought.
Written by Nathaniel Shaughnessy (@Natshaughnessy8)