Tough Decisions in Midfield

Our plethora of talent in the midfield is well-documented and I'm sure we all agree that this is Arsenal's strongest area. Due to injuries, the midfield has basically chosen itself, until now. According to physioroom.com: Walcott, Cazorla, Ozil and Rosicky will all be available for the match against Norwich this weekend. I'm obviously more concerned about the game against Dortmund on Tuesday and I don't expect anybody to be unnecessarily risked against the Canaries.

Now the debate starts. Who should play in Arsenal's midfield? The official website has 15 players listed in the first team squad that are fighting it out for the 5 midfield positions (wingers obviously included). I don't think anybody (including the players themselves) would expect Frimpong, Zelalem, Miyaichi and Diaby to start. Gnabry will probably be on the bench when Oxlade-Chamberlain and Podolski return but has a chance of playing at the moment.

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.

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.

Match in Brief: Arsenal vs Norwich City

It was a very important and hard-fought victory by The Arsenal on Saturday afternoon.


Michael Turner opened the scoring in the 57th minute with a header from a Robert Snodgrass' free-kick after a number of first-half Arsenal chances. Mikel Arteta converted a suspect penalty late on to give Arsenal hope, and Olivier Giroud and second-half substitute Lukas Podolski finished the turnaround.

Talking Tactics: 4-2-2-2

 

You’re all probably as disappointed as I am. Yes, the ref made two bad decisions which gifted Chelsea two goals, we played well in the second half, Jack Wilshere is a great player, etc, etc.

Wenger was forced to put Santi Cazorla on the left wing because we don’t have any decent left wingers available. Chamberlain and Podolski were injured and ill respectively, Gervinho is at Afcon and Arshavin is totally out of form. Although after Santi played poorly on the left wing during the Swansea game, I was surprised that Wenger didn’t change it up. Cazorla is an integral part to Arsenal’s attacking play. He already has 6 assists in the Premier League and his creativity was evident when he played a near-perfect pass to Walcott for our solitary goal from the centre of the field, not from the left. I think Santi is a great player, but not a natural winger: he can’t influence the game enough.

Match in Brief

Van Persie and Walcott score to put Arsenal into the Champions League.

 

A very good all round performance by the boys. My man of the match goes to Gervino for providing most of our creativity.
Also an honourable mention for Szczesny for a good game and a great penalty save (I thought he would be blown for coming off his line before the ball was kicked but was extremely happy when he wasn't).

What is also very good is that Wenger now has 6 days to sign a player wanting to play in the Champions League. This is a big perk for players.

Arsenal have a tough match coming up- United away, but with the confidence going out of this match I can see us winning.

Regards