Let's see who in our regular starting XI didn't play: Chez, Debuchy, Gibbs, Arteta, Walcott, Ozil. Mind you I don't even think you troubled Martinez at all.
You can hardly accuse Arsenal of 'hoovering' up players though, our squad has been pretty thread bare in key areas for some time, especially in defence. Up until the last game, we'd been playing our second choice LB at CB and we're still playing a 19 year old at RB. The players we do have in the squad, esp in MF are quality, so we can replace them fairly easily but the fact is that we still had a number of first choice players out tonight and we have done for the majority of the season. A first choice Arsenal would look like this ....................Szczesny.................. Debuchy......Mert......Kos........Gibbs ..............Arteta......Wilshere.......... .......................Ozil...................... Walcott..............................Sanchez ....................Giroud.......................
Just ignore him, he has a habit of preferring to post on other teams boards than the Saints one. I think the fair point being that in the last two games we've had 3 injuries in the same, critical position, two today (leaving us with 10 men). Up to that point I thought we were at least holding you. Anyhow, at least we weren't overawed like against City. Just hope we have some midfielders left for Utd. Good luck for the season.
Cheers. Same to you. Hope we get 3rd or better and you steal 4th. Would be nice to see the Saints in Europe.
Could have yes. You wasn't though. Despite being the better team on the night, I don't think you would have scored had Saints not gone down to ten men. You got fortunate with the Saints injuries and made the most of it.
Are you seriously suggesting Arsenal and Southampton both suffering injuries problems is an equal...? I suspect Arsenal have a slightly bigger and better squad to be able to cope than the Saints
From outside you only seem to be lacking depth in CB and that's your managers fault for selling one and not replacing. Quick look at your team shows... 3 GK's with 1st team action. 2 RB's & 2 LB's is fine. Only 2 CB's with Chambers a 3rd. Have to blame your manager for that one. 9 Central midfielders (all of which are first team players) 3 CF's and a couple of players that play wide like Walcott, Sanchez, Campbell and a few others in the "central midfield" category that can do a job out wide like Ox, Rosicky, Ozil. Really don't think your depth of squad is too bad at all.
Fan reactions after the game: [video=youtube;Mtxte-BDWM4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtxte-BDWM4&list=UUBTy8j2cPy6zw68godcE7MQ[/video] [video=youtube;OOkiqbQBc2Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOkiqbQBc2Y&list=UUBTy8j2cPy6zw68godcE7MQ[/video] [video=youtube;ZsBbHTmXSUA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsBbHTmXSUA&list=UUBTy8j2cPy6zw68godcE7MQ[/video] [video=youtube;XKlxmwEMvis]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKlxmwEMvis&list=UUBTy8j2cPy6zw68godcE7MQ[/video] [video=youtube;8TntdW3UBMc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TntdW3UBMc&list=UUBTy8j2cPy6zw68godcE7MQ[/video] [video=youtube;S3mnEbkEq7Q]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3mnEbkEq7Q&list=UUBTy8j2cPy6zw68godcE7MQ[/video]
I didn't say any players were 'destined for the bench', I posted a first choice Arsenal XI Credit to Wenger that we have good quality through the squad, but this argument that it was only Southampton who had been affected by injuries is bollocks
But you guys suggested you have been equally effected is also bollocks, you have the squad to cope whereas they don't.
Ramsey is probably still ahead of Wilshere and it's a 50/50 between Giroud and Wellbeck depending on our opposition. But it still shows how many quality players we've been missing most of this Season.
But as has been proved above, we haven't got the squad - we've lost one of our best players - Ozil (would affect most teams), we've been playing a LB at CB, a teenager at RB, we have 2 not fully fit LBs, one of which was playing last night, we've had our 3rd/4th/5th choice goalkeepers on the bench through most of the season, and the 3rd choice playing yesterday. We've had a teenager upfront for a few games while we've missed our 1st choice striker for 3 months. Plus we've missed game changers like Walcott, Kos, Ramsey & Wilshere at different times, and been missing our captain and only decent choice at DM. Anyone can see the effect this has had on our season...
I think what some others are saying is that we have the resources and the squad to cope. The reality is we DON'T have a properly balanced squad which has contributed to various problems this season. This is really down to poor management rather than anything else. Southampton on the otherhand has no choice. They don't have the resources or squad to cope if they go through injuries.
Our problem this season goes beyond just injuries. I guarantee if we had our first choice 11 fully fit we wouldn't suddenly start playing great football
Exactly. We've had plenty of first teamers playing for us but they've been playing poorly. The main place where we've been hit is the defensive part, and for the most part, Mert, Gibbs and Monorail have been playing. Sanchez has saved Wenger's ar$e this season, hence why he is waxing lyrical over him in the news consistently. Despite racking up two good wins beforehand and having a pretty strong lineup at home against a depleted Southampton, we still played like the Emirates was a giant tar pit.
