Arseblog News – the Arsenal news site
Arsenal’s squad for tomorrow night’s encounter with Olympiacos could have a youthful look about it. Arsene Wenger has decided to rest ‘senior’ players like Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud, Mikel Arteta, Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla ahead of this weekend’s important league game with West Brom.
The manager said, “Some players needed a rest as they’re on the fringe of injury. Some are injured, like Podolski, Walcott. I needed to rest Wilshere 100%.”
As those senior players sat out training, youngsters like Martin Angha, Elton Monterio, Zak Ansah, Jernade Meade, Chuba Akpom and Sead Hajrovic all took part and could be part of the squad.
Fringe players like Andrei Arshavin and Marouane Chamakh are both likely to start while with injuries to Johan Djourou, Laurent Koscielny and Ignasi Miquel, Sebastian Squillaci could start his first Arsenal game since Jan 9th (Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Leeds in the FA Cup).
Full squad
Arsenal squad:
1 Wojciech Szczesny
5 Thomas Vermaelen
7 Tomas Rosicky
15 Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
16 Aaron Ramsey
18 Sebastien Squillaci
22 Francis Coquelin
23 Andrey Arshavin
25 Carl Jenkinson
27 Gervinho
29 Marouane Chamakh
38 Martin Angha
39 Zak Ansah
48 Sead Hajrovic
53 Jernade Meade
55 Elton Monteiro
60 James Shea
67 Chuba Akpom
Gah
cheer up! i’m back .
I have no doubt in my mind you’ll help us to a crushing defeat. Thats our squillaci!
That is without a doubt the worst Arsenal squad I have ever seen
The worse the better – why was Arsene even contemplating taking his full squad to Greece for a game that depends on Schalke-Montepellier, and then after that, still depends on who we draw in the knockouts?
Put the youth team on to show the first team their places aren’t guaranteed! And give players like Arteta and Cazorla who have played every minute of every game (except the who gives a fuck cup) a rest for heavens sake!
No mate this is the problem,. There is no competition at all throughout the squad and none of these kids picked are anywhere near a call-up to the first team. We are sending a team of deadwood and schoolboys away to a Champions League tie. I think its fucking embarrassing.
It’s certainly the weakest in living memory.
Frankly they can’t do any worse than the seniors did on Saturday. But clearly any idea of ‘topping the group’ has been cast aside.
Wenger had better be ready to act the moment the Transfer Window opens in January. If he sits on his arse for this one, they’ll be doing more than marching round the ground in protest.
Why isnt cuntface Walcott travelling? He should be playing the arrogant wantaway little shit up front, through the middle and into the ground. And typical Djourou and Santos injured when the need them. No Esifeld or Miquel either?
Last time he put out a senior player in Greece he got injured and was out for ages.Now look what has happened to him. AS has never been the same since.
Why risk your best players .If we come first or second we will still draw a good team.
We are gonna get so thumped!
Hope they all enjoy the occasion though.
Must be amazing to stand out in front of the rowd for the first time on a European night.
(keep it tight a the back!)
We took a really young squad two years back and only lost 1-0…i don’t think we’ll get thumped..just want to see them give it all.
Normally I’d be happy at this kind of news, but everything has a dark cloud over it at the moment!
Well, fucked up things happen in the CL; maybe we’ll go all the way in some weird twist of fate to stay in the Premier League CL spaces.
>:0
Yay, Squillaci!
Yay! Squillaci’s back. Been waiting for him to start all season. I was beginning to think buying a shirt with his name on it was a waste of money
Best comment hahaha
hehehe, Let’s hope Squid and the Kids enjoy the occassion. Guys where’s the Eis?
I’m pretty sure Eis is hasn’t been at the club long enough to count as home grown, and would need to be registered as a sqaud player and we probablly didn’t have space, some complication like that.
He’s not allowed to play due to international rules or something…
Squillaci’s last appearance was in the 1-0 against Leeds? I knew that night was memorable for some reason, but now I remember, a clean sheet featuring Squillaci.
If I remember correctly he spent the game playing right wing. A fantastic move by Wenger since it not only helped our defence but also kept the leeds players busy double marking him in case he dragged his magical “the-shit-is-about-to-hit-the-fan” ability to their third. This also created the space thierry exploited. Poor ol’ squillacci. Never gets credit he deserves.
Yeah we kept a clean sheet , and french bearded bloke scored a goal and people went nuts for some reason
Would like to see Akpom get a few minutes on the pitch. He’s come a long way recently
I desire to see Arshavin! Love him!!!
Squillaci in defence. Yay, we’ll concede 5
Tell you what – Stick him up front. He’d do better a better job than the forehead!
But in all seriousness, Akpom, Ox & Arshavin could all shine. A win is needed just for morale purposes I feel
The senior players need a rest because we don’t have depth to rest them until they’re about to break!
I wanna see Eisfeld, Gnabry & Akpom!!!!
I just hope chamakh scores hattrick because he is a decent forward with excellent aerial presence. RVP overshadowed his presence with his scoring abilites and Chamakh never ever again got enough minutes on the pitch to recapture his intial form in arsenal colours. I really feel he is seriously under valued and under-usedplayer. Now arsenal has learnt to cross the ball in the box and not in the z rows so chamakh should be an asset for us.
IMO ramsey & chamakh are the players who have been wrongly picked by arsenal fans and sometimes those criticism has no place in real the world.
COYG! Lets win the match to clear some toxic fumes around the AFC
Yes very much agree with this, for me if any player really hasn’t deserved the amount of flak from fans its Chamakh, poor bloke has somehow become a byword for everything bad at Arsenal and in my opinion he’s been treated pretty dreadfully by manager and fans alike. I really hope he can carry on from his couple of goals in the Reading match and get another 2 or 3 tonight – even if all it does is improve his chances of being sold then surely the guy deserves that much at least.
eisfeld and gnabry aren’t in the squad
Eisfeld wasn’t chosen to be in the Champs league squad…and he doesn’t class as homegrown because he hasn’t been with us three years…or some shit like that, but i would have loved to see him play!
Yeah, and its the same case for Gnabry.
A shame really, would have loved to see them in this match!
Eisfeld is not registered in the CL squad and gnabry is injured
So much for the selection solutions !! Now we’re about get squillacied :-!
God help us!
Everyone calm down, Squillaci is here to turn this season around
Eisfeld isn’t on the European roster, don’t think. But Gnabry is, so I’ll settle for that.
My pick: Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Coquelin, Eisfeld, Arshavin, Chamberlain, Gervinho, Walcott.
Let me explain. We need a solid defense to go to such a hostile stadium. Gibbs and Sagna have’nt played enough to be drained while Vermaelen and BFG don’t play a position to be drained.
Coquelin impresses me infront of the defense, keep him there, dont make him roam around. I would love to see this guy again, think he’s a real gem. Arshavin, I don’t care how much he underperforms on the wing, he never advertised himself there so don’t moan when he isn’t the greatest. Give him a free role behind the striker where he’s always looked much more interesting.
Both of the wingers are fantastic one on one against a full back, give instructions to get it to them fast, isolate the full back and we will get chances. Make sure they know that its not about the times they lose the ball its about the times they beat there man and create the good chances!
Walcott up top really needs no explanation. Give the boy a chance, tell him to make runs non stop all night, whether that be passes from deep, through balls or driven crosses.
Just my two cents based on a diluted squad but not based on the squad he has actually taken to Greece.
Not sure Eisfeld is eligible?
Josh you are correct – Eisfeld has not been registered for the Champions League. I believe he could be added when we revise squad for knockout rounds.
After this squad, I.d like to say sack the board. Coz they surely must be the one making the selections.
And btw I expect no “jaded” claims from the team when we play westbrom. Arses in jaccuzis for the whole week then a whooping for brom is all!
Walcott’s contract has nothing to do with playing up top. There exists such concept as a “lie”. No matter what the media say (I know I know, Daily Mail is the trustworthy spokesman of Britain and a symbol of its majesty).
Mertesacker, Sagna, Gibbs, Eisfeld and Walcott aren’t in the squad.
no Eisfield in the squad?
Such a shame that Gnabry is injured and Eisman not eligible for CL :-\ would have prefered them rather than frustrating Gervais… id still go for Akpom instead of forehead
Ricky Gervais is a little old for Arsenal isn’t he?
I’d like to add that before people start complaining that “he doesn’t mean him” or “don’t you know anything about football”, etc… I do realise that he means Gervinho or Gervais Kouassi and not actually Ricky Gervais.
Is Gervais his name?
On fifa 12 i remember they either called him Gervinho or something sounding like Yaol Kouassi..
Gervais Lombe Yao Kouassi is his full name
We’re gonna get greeced!
sack the board!
Lets see how it goes maybe these young kids can show us all there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Shame about Eisman not being able to play !!!
can I boo about this decision ?
No. You may smile, nod and give a hardy clap.
Schezz
Karl,,,,,,squill….verm,,,,,meade.
Rosicky….coquelin….ramsey (free role)
Chambo…….arshavin (free role)
Chamakh.
Gerv can fuck off till further notice
I’d rather Zhervinyo start as the striker than Chamakh ,atleast he shoots wide ,Chamakh doesn’t shoot at all.
look at us discussing lineups and whatnot , No wonder we get pissed off when Wenger does things HIS way
Gervinho shoots?…..he shoots straight into an opponent that is.
Arsenal vs swansea. Gervinho didn’t master a single shot on target. That only is enough for chamakh to take gervs place.
N/b chamakh vs reading. That was one hell of a shot, so relax he might just surprise us.
Zhervinyo or our own little Zhivago … I’m quite optimistic.
Can we not just give the whole team a free role? Maybe not going as far as rush goalie but everyone just swapping positions everywhere on the field
I think we should play rush goalie all the time actually – including the PL. Would fucking do other team’s heads in and be better for a laugh than the shite we’ve seen recently.
Mmm…That’ll be the team Arsene has in mind, I think.
Or maybe if Rosicky isn’t fit enough, put Arshavin in the #10 Role and play one of the other winger kids on the right with Chamberlain left?
chamakh and arshavin finally be given the chance….try play 442 instead of 4231,wenger! midfield diaby wilshere carzola or rosicky arteta play role as creative midfield striker giround and walcott…
Such a shame Eisfeld can’t play. I would love to have seen him. Its unlikely we will finish top of the group even if we win so it will be nice to watch us with no pressure on the team and some fringe players and younger players getting a run out. I’m looking forward to it.
Sarcasm??
Let me rectify that.
Sack the scouts……….still not quite!
Somebody appropriate needs to be sacked, we’ll have to wait I guess
What a great squad we have!….NOT! A second string of kids, injury prone sick notes, players who only care about money and oh so average journeymen….
Errrrr, nice stadium though.
We’ll get stuffed.
Seems like a huge mistake to play chamack and squid in this match. They’ll be cup tied so all the major teams in the champions league like barca, Bayern and Madrid won’t come in for them in the January window.
Sack Gunnersaurus hes eaten all our brightest prospects!!
Gunnersaurus is fuckin embarrassing. Send him to the U11 team
That’s because they’re TASTY. Gunnersaurus wouldn’t touch the likes of Squillaci would he now…
I hope we meet barcelona next and end our misery. ….. It’s not like we are going to win the champions league anyway! might aswell give our players their mid week rest before they get a chronic case of abou diaby
I hope we play Barca next and spank the fuckers
End our misery? The fuck?
Why can’t we win it? Chavski won it finishing 6th, Liverpool reached two finals with worse squads that we have now.
Mind you, they both had fans who actually got behind the team.
believe me, i wil be the happiest man alive if that does happen, but you know how the things have turned out, we are more likely to make a silly mistake which will cost us dearly, so i’ve grown a bit pessimistic, need to see something fresh to regain hope
I was planning to do some wallpapering that night…. and I still am.
Yo chiiiillll, gonna scroe a hatrick, then do a double back flip, just relax trust the CHAMAKH!
Id still rather have the Chubs sorry
i think arsenal will win this match ,because arsene( REFRESH) the squad.He should always rotate betwen the players.
Why not take the under 18′s to Greece? They wouldn’t embarass us like that fucking shower did on Saturday.
I thought you were bullshitting and making up names during this part:
“As those senior players sat out training, youngsters like Martin Angha, Elton Monterio, Zak Ansah, Jernade Meade, Chuba Akpom and Sead Hajrovic all took part and could be part of the squad.”
Nice to see them get some experience and with the way we’re playing, I don’t think anyone’s expecting to get past the next round so we may as well get a game against someone good rather than go out to the Latvian champions.
So…Akpom is the next striker in line after Chamakh. Will be interesting to see how many injuries it takes for him to get a spot on the bench.
I got a feeling this team will win and surprised us. Well i won my FIFA 13 seasons cup against R.Madrid with all reserve team. No joke. Ok.. maybe im virtually fantasized about the winning. But would love to see them bring something to the arsenal team. Maybe their performance might be better so that the first xi will buck up their asses to play again ..
Damnit Eisfeld is not eligible. I really wanted him to play. Oh well, he will be put in for the knockout rounds. Im so glad Arteta cazorla Podolski, wilshere, giroud, can all get a week of rest.
A squad for the haters to dribble their bile over.
So much desire, skill and commitment in that squad I can’t wait to see them play all at the same time.
The only two names I care about is Rosicky and Arshavin. Former because we need him to get back to his best, and the latter because I think he still can have an impact. Andrey Arshavin this season; 2 starts, 1 goal, 6 assists. Clearly deserves a chance.
so no care for the captain of the club, interesting
we’re going to end up facing barcelona at some point, and losing… so who cares?
Fans.
I care.
Should be interesting. Wonder if Olympiakos will rest a load of first teamers too, after all they have nout to play for?
I boldly predict a 2-0 Arsenal win, Sebastian to shine bright like a squid glinting in the Athenian moon light. Come on you squidy squady squishy squashy squillful gunners!
+ I care too.
to be honest, they should use keep this squad for west brom game as well..
we cant go worse than what we have been all season and in any case west brom look like they have just hit the wall with 2 defeats in a row…Maybe youngsters with all the energy in the world just do the trick and get us those valuable 3 points..
Where the hell are Djourou and Gnarby?
They’re both injured, mate. #Crocked
i love thomas eisfeld!
than big fuuuurehead
duh!
Us gooners dont half talk shit sometimes, myself included. But we all moan about our players needing rest then when we do some of us are moaning about the squad we send. Tbh i dont care about the result wednesday, just the performance with the squad hes sent. Next round will be tough no matter if we finish 1st or 2nd. Thats not being defeatist. Just i think this game is irrelevant when compared to our domestic campaign and the 1st team squad thats strugglung to cope with it. Priority has to be PL. Now boys pull your fingers out! CPYG
Im shocked not to see young mr eisfeld amoungst that lot. For me hes the most complete of all our youngsters. I find it a little strange not to have seen him in any squads after his pre season performance.
Not that i think hes our saviour, just the best of our younger gunners. Rant over.
Maybe i shoild have read the earlier comments before posting mine. Doh. Not eligable it seems.
I’d like to see Arsene stick in le Coq from the beginning and then later on pull him off and then maybe we can have a look at his Chuba later.
Common chamack…..
Show these ppl how good u are
What the fuck happened to Miquel and Djourou? ! Did somebody drop a comically large anvil on them at training?
Whoooo?????? Lol
I’m not being funny but we are second in the group and we haven’t exactly been tearing it up this season so why not play your best side, top the group (all dependant on Schalke) and then they have 4 days until next weeks game with west brom!! For fuck sake they are footballers ago train for a living. Surely they can’t be too tired to play Tuesday and then Saturday! And knowing our luck in the last 16 we’ll get drawn with barca or Madrid and go out again because we didn’t take the last game seriously enough.
That said if we win tomorrow and top the group I’ll shut my mouth and prey we get drawn with a weak side. COME ON YOU GUNNERS
Repeat (somebody else’s) earlier comment. I hope we draw Barca in the next round and SPANK them
Benny Hill Theme
This is a mistake. Wenger has now thrown away any chance that we may have had of winning the group and probably avoiding a shit draw in the last sixteen.
Shalke might slip up, but now it won’t matter because we won’t be in a position to take advantage of it.
Well done, Wenger.
as Michael Cox says today on the website: “Olympiacos are guaranteed a spot in the Europa League. They can’t finish in the top two, nor can Montpellier overtake them for third position, so Leonardo Jardim has license to experiment”.
Surely there isn’t a better time for Wenger to rest players?
shut up fat gooner! Pretty much everyone whos connected with professional football has said the team looks fucked, and you want them to play this relatively pointless game so were even more fucked for the PL games coming up….fo me a favour, piss off and watch netball or something
You’re probably about 12, and with the attention span of a goldfish, so you won’t remember what has happened in recent years. so, dickhead, I’ll explain it slowly: WE COULD GET MUCH FURTHER IN THIS COMPETITION OF WE WIN THE GROUP – SO WE SHOULD TRY TO DO JUST THAT.
OK?
Only two of the squad look fucked Arteta and Santi. Maybe give them a week off but the rest should travel. We really should win this game and hope for Schalke to lose. Win the Group and take the highway to the final. Fuck it why surrender.
Where is Eisfeld?
My advice all along…play our players in their best positions & let them compete amongst themselves in that position…so that we hav ready replacement anytime (injuries, rest for forsteamers, milky shit cup, etc)
So for tonite game, play Chamakh upfront (he shld cover for giroud & NOT gervinho!!), arshavin in place of carzola (not play hin wide on the wings!!), theo RW…play a stronger def (looks unlikely now)…
12……now your even acting the dickhead….if you actually have a look at the standings instead of having an uneducated guess, you would see we would avoid alot of the big clubs. the likes of milan, madrid blah blah. like i said 1st or second, the last 16 will be full of clubs that can potentially win it. To be the best, you have to be the best. Even you can say hand on heart we got a chance. So, lets focus on resting our players and making sure we get there next season. If we go far this season then great.
12……now your even acting the dickhead….if you actually have a look at the standings instead of having an uneducated guess, you would see we would avoid alot of the big clubs. the likes of milan, madrid blah blah. like i said 1st or second, the last 16 will be full of clubs that can potentially win it. To be the best, you have to be the best. Even you can say hand on heart we got a chance. So, lets focus on resting our players and making sure we get there next season. If we go far this season then great. Stop being little bitch when you know thiz makes sense. Or at least more sense than your point you tried to make earlier. btw im 24, just incase you wanted to make anothwr childish remark.
by the time the games are finished on Wednesday night the A pot may be richer than you expect the cream will rise to the surface. B pot will have a couple of Portuguese Milan (shit) Real or Dortmund Schalke or Celtic or Galatasaray. We can beat all that and then Jack and Santi become heroes and we are all off to Wembley. Dream the dream mate Fuck WBA
Those clubs are second because they are not playing very well. For instance, Real Madrid are having a shit season and are miles behind Barcelona in La liga. I would prefer them than the Catalans in the final 16.
If we played our strongest side and then made it clear that they were playing for their places then a) it would create some competition, and b) we might actually win the game and top the group.
Get it?
Squid is still at Arsenal? How much are we still paying him a week?
i get what your saying. but really form is temporary and class is permanent. Madrid, milan and the others both have first teams full of quality which on their day smash most others. Above all else surely you agree prem comes first?? and if you do then surely redting the star players makes sense?? anyways onto the next story.
right now i would take a dignified, gutsy perfprmance 1-0 loss in Greece. A 1-1 draw would be fantastic…
forget about actually winning, i just want to see a good performance
What’s all the shit about resting players!!!!??? It’s psychological FFS! Walcott has never played more than 10 in a row!!! Vieira, Henry, ljungberg, keown, gilberto all managed 50 games repeatedly. Don’t think bergkamp was far off 40 games a season regularly if not more along with Lauren, Campbell etc. we need a core who actually have some balls to play when they’re hurting a bit. Lampard could manage 50+ games repeated for about 5 years in a row. Respect. Would wenger have got rid of Hargreaves like ferguson?