• The Arsenal

  • Arsenal - Aston Villa, Today, In about 3 and a half hours.

We play football soon, so here we go. All the regulars are still injured, Califiori is listed as a doubt, so maybe he will be in the squad? I also read that Ben White is out training again with the team so that is great. The twitter regular are saying Saliba is out with a hamstring injury, but nothing from Arteta about him.
For Villa they are missing Barkley, McGinn, Pau Torres and Diego Carlos is a doubt but might make it.

Aston Villa, a team we struggle against, but seem to be able to beat away from home more often then at home. In the last 5 direct games they won 2 we won 3...last year they beat us home and away but this season we did them already once in august.
Now, we are tired as fuck, so no idea how we line up and how we score and win, Gabriel must be ready to go as he is our biggest goal threat, and I feel like we need to score early as we will struggle in the second half.
A cool fact about today: Aston Villa have an away record of 4W1D5L this season with a GD of -7. A not so cool fact: Emery has faced Arsenal 8 times as a manager, with a record of 3W3D2L.

Hard game to predict, so we will see.

Raya
Timber Saliba Gab MLS
Partey Rice
Martinelli Ødegaard Trossard
Havertz

I again would say would love to drop Havertz, out of the squad really, but only after Nwaneri is back. I want to forget Sterling exists.

  • MistaT

  • Post #2
  • Edited

A rare game/opposition where I would actually prefer Rice deepest as our six.

They play a very vertical game and have a number of attacking players, Morgan in particular, who can drive forward with the ball. I’m concerned that Partey doesn’t have the legs for defending that anymore, and especially after playing a hard game just a few days ago. Incoming pulled hammy for him….

—— Rice ——
— Ode — Merino —

Let Partey come on second half to stabilize the game with better possession.

They've gone off the boil a bit so I'm very much hoping for the best. This is a weird season and this is one of those matters where a win would be unusually meaningful. I truly believe Emery tries harder against Arsenal due to his experiences here.

    Think this will be a tough match.

    Martinez will waste time - about 85 minutes worth atleast

    Burnwinter I truly believe Emery tries harder against Arsenal due to his experiences here

    Can you blame him? I'd be exactly the same and trying to stick it to the haters.

      Saliba out - confirmed

      Partey and Timber at the back, Merino in midfield.

      Fuck me

      We need to maintain pressure on Liverpool and be able to do it for a sustained set of matches and see what they do. Villa are decent but we totally messed up against them last year total implosion on our part as they were not really that great and we missed big chances in the first half.

      Many of the same issues we have faced will be true today. Can we get the chances and put them away otherwise we should be able to beat them. But these are the tests you gave to get through.

      Why did we not sell Kiwior this summer? Very strange.

      Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert He is not Saliba but he is not that bad. Let's say it's just the left foot, maybe?...the thing is, Partey is very bad at right back, and I'm pretty sure we lost points in each game we started him there, granted...when we play him there we also miss a bunch of other players.

      It's just hard for me to get why you would move 2 players out of position and have to play Merino in midfield instead of playing Kiwior.

      Also, our bench is just terrible: Neto, Zinchenko, Tierney, Sterling, Kiwior, Kacurri, Kabia, Jorghino & Butler-Oyedeji

        • naz

        • Post #17

        Fuck. Hope Saliba isn't seriously injured. He was hobbling near the end of the last game

          Just bad team-building. Regardless of injuries, these options are the result of our tentative stance in the market.

            Cant see us getting 3 points in this game. Partey at RB weakens us in 2 key positions.

            Sorry, but Saliba should be replaced in the lineup by a CB. Timber in the middle weakens us there.. Partey at RB weakens us there. Not having Partey in the midfield and putting in Merino instead potentially weakens us there.