Match Day Thread Arsenal vs Leicester Matchday Thread

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Emirates Stadium
Monday 22nd October
KO time: 8:00pm


Overall record:
All: 139
Wins: 65
Draws: 44
Losses: 30


Last 6 meetings:
Leicester City 3-1 Arsenal
Arsenal 4-3 Leicester City
Arsenal 1-0 Leicester City
Leicester City 0-0 Arsenal
Arsenal 2-1 Leicester City
Leicester City 2-5 Arsenal

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Team News:

Petr Cech, Mesut Ozil and Ainsley Maitland-Niles are now all fit, but defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos is a major doubt because of an ankle injury sustained playing for Greece.

Leicester captain Wes Morgan serves a one-match ban for his red card in the defeat by Everton.

Winger Demarai Gray remains sidelined.​

 

No Mahrez anymore. Vardy looks a shadow of his former self and Wes Morgan is done. Although they have still got some decent players and Maddison is looking really good this season. Won't be an easy game, but I think it's one we can win.

As for us, we can make this 10 straight wins on the bounce with a victory here. Emery looks like he's already beginning to get some solidity and consistency in this team. Torreira has been a revelation, and it just shows how badly we've needed a proper DM for the last decade. Much prefer the 4 at the back, everybody looks a bit more settled and with Torreira and Xhaka forming a two in front of the defence now, we look a lot more assured back there.

We're still making some defensive errors, but I expect Emery to iron those out as the season progresses. Going forward, we're really clicking and Lacazette and Aubameyang are scoring for fun

 

Be interesting to see the starting 11 considering we are playing Sporting Lisbon 72 hours later. I am already bemused in a thread I started as to why we are playing this match on a Monday night with the Europa match on Thursday, presume the scheduling was based around TV monies, peeves me off!

 

This would be an interesting one on Monday night.

I think we'll see Mustafi and Holding continue at the back as they were not involved in international football. Ozil most likely comes in. Won't be surprised if Guendouzi gets a start in place of Xhaka.

My preferred line up will be:

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Leicester certainly aren't as good as they were a few seasons ago, but as you rightly say, there are still a dangerous side. Their counter-attacking threat is still prevalent, and they will be looking to exploit us when we inevitably put them under the cosh. Our fullbacks will join the attack which will leave gaps open on the wings.

We will most likely enjoy a lot of possession and will control the flow of the game, however we will need to make it count.

Maddison has definitely been their standout player and, having watched him play, he has a lot of tricks up his sleeve. Good passer, decent finisher, has a good delivery from set-pieces, can create space for himself and can dribble out of tight spaces. He's certainly going to be one to watch out for.

Vardy's pace may well be a problem too, as he presses from the front and, when they're in possession, will look to play on the shoulder of the last man. And whilst I agree he is a shadow of his former self, he still has 3 goals in 5 league games this season.

A couple more players to be wary of are Rachid Ghezzal and Ricardo. The former is obviously not as good as Mahrez, but is still an adept crosser of the ball and likes to cut inside. The latter is very quick and has a good cross on him, too.

All this being said, we have more than enough in the tank to dispatch of them, especially at home.

I'd like to think we'll play a lot more intelligently than we did in the (thrilling) 4-3 win last year.

 

They will definitely use Vardy to try and press our defenders. He’s like a little terrier so we’ll have to be sharp at the back and not dither on the ball.

We’re actually improving at playing out from the back, and it was always going to take time. I think we need not to be afraid to know when to just get rid and go long though. The last thing we want to do is concede by giving the ball to somebody like Vardy 20 yards from our own goal.

 

Just seen that in Leicester's last 20 visits to Arsenal, they've drawn 1 and lost 19, losing the last consecutive 12 matches.

So they clearly don't like coming down to ours that often!

Nevertheless, with the International break over, I'm not sure how sharp the players will be. As mentioned above, they still have some very dangerous players so will need to be wary.

Won't be easy, but am confident we can win.

COYG!

 

Line-up
Arsenal

• Leno
• Bellerín
• Mustafi
• Holding
• Lichtsteiner
• Torreira
• Xhaka
• Mkhitaryan
• Özil
• Iwobi
• Lacazette

Substitutes

• Ramsey
• Aubameyang
• Welbeck
• Martínez
• Guendouzi
• Medley
• Smith-Rowe

 

Heard that Monreal and Kolasinac have tight hamstring injuries and weren't risked. Meanwhile, Maitland-Niles isn't match fit yet.

Surprised to see Auba dropped and Micky starting. Don't feel like that was the right decision personally, but I'm hoping it won't prove to be costly.

 

Presume Unai is trying to shuffle and tinker taking in to account the visit to Lisbon on Thursday. Decent attacking options on the bench is we're stalemated after 60+ mins!

 

Yeah as Straycat says, probably has one eye on Thursday too. Lacazette is bang on form too, so not too worried and we can always bring Auba on later if needed.

Good to see Lichsteiner starting too. He's proved to be a brilliant signing and on a free

 

Is Emery really this naive,knowing their strength is the counter attack and we continue to leave oceans of space for them to exploit.

 

You cannot play a high line with these speed merchants!

 

Another first half to forget why do we keep having these no show's in the first half of game's.

 

That was coming ...

 

ah well, we can have no complaints!

 

Beautiful from Ozil

 

At f=====k last and about time,we get away with a s==t fest of a first half again.

 

How long are we going to ride our lady lucky! Some wonderful interchanges from defence to attack but we are seriously leaving ourselves wide open on the counter. I'm sure Unai will make the tactical changes at HT and I believe we can go on and win this.. COYG!.

 

Stunning goal from Ozil, who actually started that move too, but we are extremely fortunate to be level.

Holding can count his lucky stars we didn't give a penalty away.

They've been overlapping on the flanks and our wide players/fullbacks haven't covered well enough. Bellerin was far too flat footed for Chilwell's deflected opener and Micky reacted a second late in getting back to cover.

Maddison, as I suspected, has been running rings around our midfield. Such a crafty, intelligent player. Vardy and Ihenacho haven't influenced the game much, but they don't need to when the likes of Madison and Chilwell are contributing that much going forward.

Ndidi and Mendy have been outstanding in midfield to be fair to them.

Micky has been very poor, he shouldn't have started and I would take him off at HT. Very ineffective.

I hope we up the ante in the second half. We won't get away with performing like that.