My Combined 5-man Midfield From Arsenal and Liverpool

The most eagerly anticipated match of the weekend is also the first game. Arsenal's strength is in their midfield and Liverpool's most dangerous weapon are their strikers. Both teams regularly adopt 5-man midfields; Liverpool to allow them to play with 2 up front and Arsenal because we have so much quality in the middle of the park. I have made a combined midfield made up of players from both sides. I will be playing two defensive midfielders and 3 attacking midfielders. Only players that are eligible to play this weekend were included.

Gerrard may not have been in the team if everybody was fit

Oxlade-Chamberlain
The first of my two defensive midfielders was the man of the match in the last game and scored two goals from a central-midfield position. I believe he would have played in a more defensive position if it was a tougher game.

Poll: Who Are We Missing the Most?

It is well documented that Arsenal have a full waiting room outside the doctor's office. We currently have 7 injuries - namely: Walcott, Cazorla, Sanogo, Podolski, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Zelalem and Diaby. Arsenal are playing exceptionally well at the moment, so we aren't feeling the casualties too badly.

Cazorla, Podolski and Walcott are the players that I would like to see return sooner rather than later. Their respective, expected return dates are quite murky. Assuming that we had a magic genie who could allow any injured player to no longer have their current injury, who would you choose?

Both Walcott and Podolski also have good selling points, but If it were up to me, I would choose Cazorla to be the first to return. Saliva is pouring from my mouth at the thought of Özil and Cazorla playing together and providing a plethora of goal-scoring opportunities.

Player Season Analysis: Per Mertesacker

When the big German came to Arsenal in 2011 I thought he would be like my younger brother: I would rather play squash with a pretty girl, but if she's not available my brother will do. He's slower than Tony Adams is now and already 28 years old, but Per Mertesacker had a good 2012/2013 season.

It didn't start particularly well, but his performances improved as the season went on and he formed an important partnership with Koscienly in the second half of the season. The centre-back scored 3 important league goals and received his third career red card. He played the third most games in the premier league behind Cazorla and Arteta. Statistics are taken from whoscored.com.
Here are his statistics in the premier league:

Starts

Sub

Goals

Assists

Shots

Target

Fouls

Fouled

YC

RC

33

1

3

0

17

6

12

19

3

1

What is The Ox's Best Position?

The hype around Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has slowly decreased over the past season. Arsenal first bought him from Southampton 2 years ago and after a couple of exciting performances, fans were insisting that he got more game time. The arrival of Podolski and inconsistent performances from The Ox has meant that he has been on the bench more than he would like. He started 12 times in the league last season (13 as a substitute), only completing the 90 minutes once.

He is still young and I’m glad Chamberlain doesn’t have the same pressure that Wilshere had a couple of seasons ago, but if we want him to develop he needs to play more. He’s been playing well for England and according to his dad he is more relaxed, “I can see that he is more relaxed playing for his country than he is playing for Arsenal.” Hopefully he can start relaxing when playing for Arsenal. He’s only 19, and still has a lot of time to fill his potential.