Just noticed the Sunderland logo in the OP is small in comparison to the Arsenal one. Blame the Premier League website for that one
Ospina, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Ramsey, Cazorla, Wilshere, Ozil, Alexis, Giroud. Subs: Szczesny, Gabriel, Monreal, Coquelin, Flamini, Rosicky, Walcott. Glad to see Wilshere get a start, although it'll be interesting to see who plays where. Ramsey, Cazorla and Wilshere can all play deeper in midfield, attacking midfield or on the wing.
Ospina/Bellerin Mert Koscielny Gibbs/Wilshere Cazorla/Ramsey Ozil Alexis/Giroud Strange one to be honest resting Le Coq but not Cazorla? Some of our key creative players really need a rest, don't know why we're overplaying them, this is their 3rd game in a space of a week, so not really liking that. Would have liked to see Cazorla-Sanchez rested.
I don't think we'll need Coquelin. Recently, when teams sit deep, he is a complete bystander for the majority of the game as he does no work offensively. He just passed backwards or sideways. That's why we need a similar player who can also join in with attacks.
I reckon he's gonna try and kill the game off early and then hopefully if we're 2-0 up and looking comfortable, he'll sub them off around the 60th minute to rest them. I think he just wants to ensure we finish 3rd tonight, rather than banking on the last day against WBA.
I'm sorry but I don't agree. It was because Coquelin came off that we conceded against Swansea. The reality is we need a player to screen the defence because, as exemplified against the Welsh team, when we constantly attack, we are susceptible to the counter-attack and we need someone to help prevent them. It tales just one attack to score a goal and Swansea scored with pretty much their only meaningful attack in the whole 90 minutes.
Nicely put. Besides, we should have enough attack with all those guys in front of Coqs. If we can't breakdown Sunderland then replacing Coqs won't make difference other than make us weaker on the counter.
Our tippy tappy football near Sunderland's goal is so bland, boring, uninspiring, and uncreative, we look hopeless in attack yet again. Not really the type of performances you want to be going with into a cup final.
0-0 HT. This is like groundhog day, we've seen this all too many times before. We are too ponderous on the ball, having too many wasteful shots and Wilshere keeps drifting into the centre which is congesting our play. We have no width, very little off-the-ball movement and we keep misplacing simple passes. Wenger looks very frustrated. Perhaps he should stop playing central midfielders out wide and play with proper wide players and maybe we'd be getting somewhere.
Our last three home games has been utter dross to watch. Bored to tears watching us play the same ****ing game every week.
We've been totally in control of the game but we don't seem to quite be making the right movement to get the goal. We've stopped them doing anything, with there first shot and first touch in the box coming in the 42nd minute with no real danger. We've continually gone at them but so far have been content to hold the ball and probe rather than throw caution to the wind. Our defenders have been very good at getting out to there forwards to stifle any chance of a counter attack and then feed the ball forward quickly to our midfield. Overall it's been a very one sided game so far, but we need to keep up the pressure and we need a player or two to take a chance with a run beyond the backline, ozil did it a couple of times and it opened up chances, we need more of that.
It's the movement beyond the backline and on the edge of the box that needs to improve, if it does we will get plenty of chances to finish this off.
They have no intent to attack, so it's ****ing piss easy to stop them from doing anything, especially when you consider just how poor their attacking players are, the dross they have upfront probably has five goals between or something all season.
