Given the stretched nature of his squad owing to injuries and fitness concerns, Arsene Wenger called upon four members of Terry Burton’s U21 side to train with the first-team today ahead of tomorrow’s Champions League fixture with Schalke.
The presence of Serge Gnabry was already expected, with the 17 year old likely to remain in the squad having made his Premier League debut away to Norwich City at the weekend, but he was also joined by Ignasi Miquel, Jernade Meade and Kristoffer Olsson, three players who featured as the U21s dispatched of Everton yesterday.
Jack Wilshere, Bacary Sagna and Emmanuel Frimpong, who also played in that game, weren’t present at today’s session, suggesting that they will not be involved tomorrow, whilst Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (hip) also sat out proceedings. There was a slither of good news as Laurent Koscielny returned to training and the Frenchman is likely to be in the squad tomorrow, but Lukasz Fabianski (back), Theo Walcott (lung), Tomas Rosicky (tendon), Kieran Gibbs and Abou Diaby (both thigh) and Wojciech Szczesny (ankle) all remain out.
James Shea will again make the bench as Damian Martinez is suspended for European competition.
Possible team:
Mannone
Jenkinson-Koscielny-Vermaelen-Santos
Arteta-Coquelin
Ramsey-Cazorla-Podolski
Giroud
subs: Shea, Djourou, Gervinho, Gnabry, Arshavin, Chamakh, Mertesacker.
That is a quality attacking line-up
must say i saw need at soton and just saw the highlights vs everton and ive been very impressed with him. Very strong in the tackle despite his stature and not afraid to take on players. Can he be the next gibbs…?
Cant understand why Ignasi Miquel is being taken. In the recent U21 game against Everton it was his poor touch that led to Everton scoring first. He had a shocker and yet he’s called up? What does that tell the other youth players?
“Tough break lads, but dont worry though as long as Wenger likes you it doesn’t matter if you suck”, Probably why we’ve kept Chamakh for so long. If he were at Utd, Fergie would’ve torn up his contract by now- FACT
Just look at Kebe. Brought in, struggled, shipped out. -Done. Move on.
When will Wenger learn…
Let me get this right, you’re praising Fergie for spending £7m on an atrocious player from the Portuguese third division because he got rid of him quickly, and criticising Wenger for not tearing up the contract of a player who won trophies in France, has CL pedigree, who made a great start to his career at Arsenal, and who we got for free, as soon as he lost form?
It’s amazing the lengths that you lot go to to try and justify your bitter hatred for the best manager this club has ever had.
I have to agree with dylan here. I do believe Ignasi is a decent player but he is an accident waiting to happen sometimes and he hasn’t really convinced when called upon by wenger. In fact hes the worse solution
http://www.facebook.com/arsenaltruthandyouth
Watch the video here
One would think in the event of injuries Eisfeld would come into the first team before Olsson would, and Yennaris would be considered above all others in central midfield and full-back if the need arose, but neither appear to have trained with the squad today. I don’t think it’s very significant though, opportunities to train with the seniors seem to be spread around.
Eisfeld is not in the champions league squad or is he?
i would be very suprised if mertesacker doesnt play, especially against the aerial threat of huntelaar. i am just wondering if wenger could spring a suprise and play koscielny mertesacker and vermaelen either dropping santos or resting jenkinson. I think most of the young lads are purely there to balance the 11 a side games in training due to the shortage of players. the younger ones like yennaris are training for the next gen later in the week
as for dylan with his comment. the player i think u are talking about is bebe not kebe and for the record he has not been shipped out. man united are paying 75% of his wages while he plays for besiktas on loan. as for chamakh here is a player that arsenal fans wanted wenger to pay 15m for when he had the adebayor cash. yet wenger was prudent enough to wait for a year to get him for nothing he even paid him less wages than sunderland were offering him. then after 17 matches and 10 goals everyone was saying wenger was a magician (compare that record to girouds 2 goals from 11 matches and he makes chamakh look like henry) no one would have predicted that chamakh would lose form and confidence as soon as he had van persie as competition not even chamakh. get off his bloody case!
Good point, Eisfeld isn’t registered in the CL squad. He would have needed to be included in the A squad as he hasn’t been here long enough. However, Olsson isn’t in either.
And excellent point on Chamakh. I remember how when he was in great form fans were moaning that Wenger should have paid the £12m (or whatever it was Bordeaux were asking for him) in January, and that we could have won the title if we had done that and we had Chamakh for the run in! Then Van Persie came back and fans were saying Chamakh shouldn’t lose his place, that RVP should play behind him or out wide, or stay on the bench as a sub as he was too injury prone to start every game anyway!
But these people either have memories like goldfish, or recalling the general opinion of the day simply doesn’t suit their agenda.
Jack should be included in the first 11 or atleast substitute
Has Cazorla played as a winger for us yet??? I was wondering, because I’m not too keen on seeing Aaron Ramsey play as a winger…I’d like it more if he played in the midfield…but maybe Wenger sees his future as a winger??? I really do think that it is time Aaron learned the defensive side of play. He has a good enough engine to be able to run from box to box, so why restrict him to just an attacking role??? Even though he has had a serious injury, I feel that, to best make use of his passing range, a deeper role would suit him. He can’t switch the play if he’s too far up the field, and it’s harder to retain possession further up the pitch, unless you are Xavi or Iniesta, and that he’s not. Unless he’s protecting himself from injury, why doesn’t he try to learn some of the finer points of defensive midfield play??? I don’t see him as a defensive midfielder, more as a central midfielder in a 4-4-2 or as the box to box player in a 4-3-3. I just wish something could be done so that he can find his true place and kick on from there…I don’t see him as a winger though.
starting aaron ramzy is a very bad idea cos he does not know how to diffend and he easly get tired.i believe whenever ARSENAL is playing ramzy it is definately a minus for the gunners
With his performances at u21 level (5 assist in 7 starts) is meade making strides towards the first team you think jeorge?
I would like to think so. from what i have seen of him he is every bit as good as santos at defending better with assists and link up play just lacks composure when in goalscoring positions but that is more to do with experience and in anyhow i would quite like to see a left back in the squad rather than 2 left wing backs. i would.certainly have no worries in giving him his debut against reading which is what i suspect will happen. i can actually see a very similar team lining up to the one that just beat everton something like this
szcesney or martinez or shea
sagna
djourou
miquel
meade
frimpong
coquelin
gnabry
wilshire
arshavin
walcott or chamakh
Gnabry or Arshavin should start instead of Ramsey !
Ramsey is a 90 min player. Arshavin doesn’t have the stamina and Gnarby is too inexperienced to start at this level. Other option is to start Gerv.
Arshavin? Up until Norwich we have played great. I want to see more of Gnabry though. He should be ahead of Arshavin for sure.
a very gud line up. Am yet to see d kos n metesaker partnaship, it cud prove worth
There’s a difference between a player’s position and their role. When Ramsey is used in a wide position he’s not playing as a winger, he’s not there to keep the width and run at full-backs as a classic winger would be expected to do. He’s still a midfielder, he plays narrow to support the midfield in retaining the ball, creating combinations, his movement inside also helps open up space for Gibbs/Jenkinson to drive into and deliver a cross. And his immense stamina is a big help, he can press tirelessly but also track back to help his team. If he’s picked to play wide it’s not to do the same job that Gervinho or Chamberlain would do, to take players on, but because he has other qualities that Wenger feels makes him the better choice for a particular game.
Maybe I expected too much from this team. I thought we could seriously compete for the title, and see vast improvements over last season. I don’t see that happening right now. I think we can get back on track, but we have to do it now. I thought that Gnabry, even though he gave the ball away for the second goal, offered something different to what we had out on the pitch, and I’m a bit disappointed that he didn’t get more time. He’s only 17, but right now, it doesn’t matter, we need PLAYERS out there!!! Something different, to shake things up!!! I’m not just talking about this past match against Schalke…what about the next one??? I’m sorry but we are desperate right now…I’d consider throwing Wilshere in to the thick of things on the weekend. Although midfield isn’t really our biggest problem. Left back, and the strikers are. We are playing as a bunch of individuals…I don’t see any connection at all between the lines. It’s like these players have never played together before. There’s no cohesion what so ever. What is going on??? We were playing very well up until Norwich, and all of a sudden, we are in the toilet again like last season…weird…