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Confirmed Arsenal XI to take on Brighton this afternoon

The teams are out for today’s Premier League clash at the Emirates Stadium, where the below Arsenal XI will take on Brighton.

The Gunners will be desperate to get back to winning ways and keep our foot on the pedal as we look to close in on a return to the Champions League, and the manager has reacted to his latest injury crisis to drop Granit Xhaka in at left-back, with Martin Odegaard and Emile Smith Rowe likely to drop a little deeper than they would like to make up for the absence of the Swiss and Thomas Partey from the middle of the park.

This could be deemed an interesting decision, with and one which will definitely come under scrutiny if it backfires, but Xhaka has operated in the role previously, although it could be a weakened midfield for today’s clash.

Patrick

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175 Comments

  1. I’m not comfortable with this starting XI. Holding should have been brought in to allow Cedric play left back

  2. Our undoing to the end of the season is having a thin squad
    Tierney out of the season.
    Partey back mid May..

    Hoping we don’t suffer from another injury to vital players..

    I understand Arteta not trusting Taraves at left back at the moment but I was thinking holding would have come in while white play rb and cedric play lb. Well, arteta knows better. We need the three points badly…

    With games remaining, I think Spurs are favourites for that 4th position but nothing is impossible. We can go on a decent run and grab it provided we don’t have major injuries anymore…COYG

  3. Good attacking intention by having Smith-Rowe and Odegaard flanking Lokonga. Xhaka would likely stay behind to protect Martinelli, so our left wing would be safe

    My only concern is Trossard’s and Welbeck’s pace. Brighton obviously want to play a counter-attacking football, so White’s long ball will be needed to split their defense

    1. Basically 3 5 3 formation when on the attack with xhaka and lokonga in the hole ahead of a three men defence ,with five attacker ahead of the lot.on the defence , xhaka joins moves to left back .Very offensive formation like you rightly said. Xhaka will need to work his socks off today and he needs to cover a lot of grounds to make this work. hopefully we get a win.

      1. I think Arteta chose to take higher risk because we play at home and Brighton had difficulties in scoring

  4. Dont agree with xhaka at left back, i think Holding should have played and the midfield looks a bit lightweight. Arteta persisting with his 433 is a bit silly, he is shoehorning players in, instead of fitting the team around the players he has for a certain formation. We should still take care of Brighton but i am again confused into his thinking.

    1. Even if its not the best we could do, the lineup would make a lot more sense with saka left back, xhaka in midfield and ESR at rw. Playing xhaka at left back is a massive, unnecessary risk imo. Concerned that esr, Sambi and Ode will be outplayed in midfield as well…

    2. Reggie if only he used 3at the back instead of shoe horning players. Wilthout your top full backs, revert to 3at the back

      1. Zamind, it seems logical to me. We have both our fullbacks out but have 3 good CB and players to fit in any formation we want ahead of it.

  5. If we fail to win today it will be down to one thing: terrible finishing.

    Looks like Man United will be out of top 4 soon enough.

      1. I always knew we had only spurs to contend with for the 4th spot.united is will be completely out of contention come end of the month.

  6. I will take elneny over lokonga. But Arteta knows better.

    Arteta should do us a favor and drop lacazet for once.

  7. Personally I’m a bit disappointed that Tavares isn’t starting at left back and Eddie isn’t in for Laca but happy enough with the team selected that declares a very positive approach and I believe we will get the result needed today

    Enjoy the game all

  8. I did say Tavares is finished at this club. Anyway, Xhaka at leftback is a walking penalty. I would have preferred Saka there and Pepé on the right.

  9. Brighton have only score 1 goals In 7 games so far..I hope we don’t make them look like world class today

      1. Exactly. And it has to be against Arsenal. Hoping to turn things around because Brighton are closing us down

  10. Interesting choice from Arteta. Either praised for creative midfield that can score (if we win), or terrible midfield that gets ran through by defense and Xhaka on toast at LB.

    My 2 cents would be Tavares at LB and Xhaka sitting back to cover him and help Tavares defend.

    3 points and Arteta is a good manager, a loss and his man management is poor and hasn’t improved.

    The end result will determine the wisdom of his decision

  12. I also am not sure about the team selection but Arteta is the manager and picks the team. Teams are going to win games and lose games between now and season end, manu just lost and Tottenham will lose games ( to us I’m sure) Come the end of the season Arteta has been given ample time, money and opportunities for us to be in the top 4. His decision making, team selections strategies have to be assessed and not being in the top 4 this season is a fail for me. If we do not make top 4 he should go. But if we make top 4 he should be offered a new contract.
    Let’s get 3 points today!
    COYG

  14. Seems to me that MA has opted to keep as close as possible to his ideal formation -(assuming no injuries, which of course we do have) – and that is why he has put Xhaka as LB and kept in Laca.

    I WOULD HAVE BROUGHT IN HOLDING, WITH CEDRIC TO SWITCH SIDES, White as RBM kept Xhaka in his usual place and played Eddie for LACA, WHO IS NOW BASICALLY A BUSTED FLUSH, IN MY VIEW.

  15. Basically 3 5 3 formation when on the attack with xhaka and lokonga in the hole ahead of a three men defence ,with five attacker ahead of the lot.on the defence , xhaka joins moves to left back .Very offensive formation like you rightly said. Xhaka will need to work his socks off today and he needs to cover a lot of grounds to make this work. hopefully we get a win.

  16. The heat is one Arteta…u sold auba and let go of guenduoze for lokonga and no reasonable back up for Tierney and inquiry prone player…it’s time to access whether you were wise to let all of them go…if we are short in any department,it has no effect on top4..you and Edu had the time to fix ur mistake..I pray we make first four but if Arteta fails…he should just take the last game and honorably live arsenal for good.

  17. The heat is on Arteta…u sold auba and let go of guenduoze for lokonga and no reasonable back up for Tierney an injuiry prone player…it’s time to access whether you were wise to let all of your backup go .if we are short in any department,it has no effect on top4..you and Edu had the time to fix ur mistake..I pray we make first four but if Arteta fails…he should just take the last game and honorably live arsenal for good.

  18. I think it should be Elneny instead of Lokonga.
    Lokonga is too weak, will be bullied far too easily.

  23. Tough to see what this team is about … but being outplayed in first quarter of a home match against a bottom half of table team is pretty worrying

  29. Could see it coming, we’ve been playing backwards football. Where was Xhaka for the cross?

    2. DaJuhi absolute pathetic performance. I was beginning to change my tune on Arteta but this is one step forward 3 steps back! I think this club is too big for him.

  35. This is the last for the road after suffering for many years..😁😁even the most supportive of the process think no more process..proceed to sack the manager.

  36. Need Xhaka in midfield because Odegaard and ESR pairing is too weak.
    Looking to pass backwards too often, and no threat from either FB going forward.

    Bit rich anyone blaming Lokonga or Tavares last game when neither played in months.

    This one will come down to tactics and seeing if Arteta can counter Potter’s game plan.

    So far we haven’t risen to the challenge when the pressure is on in the fight for 4th.

      1. God we are flaky and bottlers as always……we don’t know the meaning of consistency.

        Throw a few injuries into the mix and we all fall apart!!

  38. We looks spent and this is looking bad with our weak bench. We need to play smart and bait brighton aggressive players into yellow cards to stop their dirty fouling. Saka and gabi being targeted specifically.

  40. Full credit goes to our manager , he dreamed of top four challenge with this thin sqaud, no back up strikers he trust the injury prone players like partey and tierney, .lower teams have more quality back strikers than we have, our starting eleven striker is shit then we have nketiah thats says it all

  43. What on earth does Pepe need to get into the team. These are the kind of games he thrives on as Brighton play expansive football.

    What Xhaka is doing playing left back is beyond me. Must we always play a left overload tactics?

    Instead of chopping the team playing Xhaka in LB and Odegaard playing too deep, we should switch to a right overload tactics.

    Xhaka should return to the midfield and Tavares should start but with Xhaka dropping deep to help him defensively. Elneny has more experience and should be starting in place of Lokonga. This frees Odegaard to play further up the field where he is more effective.

    This means Pepe/Saka and the left and Martinelli on the right. Pepe needs to get some minutes at this point and Saka needs some rest.

    Enough of this inverted winger shit. Play them as wingers and use the full width of the pitch. The way the season is going reminds me of the 2018/19 season under Emery when we couldn’t string together a decent run of games, at the business end of the season, with only a win needed to secure Champions League football.

        1. Hope you have a good time there. And the team somehow wins this to make it worth your’s and other home supporters’ while.

  51. Wow
    All that’s wrong with VAR in a nutshell right there ,4mins to come to that decision .
    I knew Mike Dean was going into the VAR room full time ,but did t think he had started yet

  52. Var was supposed to be for clear and obvious mistakes but if it takes 4-5 minutes it’s not clear or obvious

    1. No not for offsides, clear and obvious is used for penalties and red cards, not offside. They use lines on positions of players and see what gap there is. The time was trying to find where Cucurella was. It was offside, i called it as soon as i saw it. Yes it took too long but it was correct. People may not like VAR but it is what it is and it was offside.

  53. Was it Brighton who had scored only once in the past 7 or so games? What a surprise they lead against us

  54. shamful desicion. if there is no clrear angle to confirm offside, you have to go with the reff initial desicion and allow the goal. insane and unlawful.

  55. I thought VAR was meant for clear and obvious errors, how can 4 mins to make a decision be deemed as clear and obvious? At this point it seems like VAR is working overtime each game just to stick it to Arsenal.
    I’m actually starting to lose my appetite for football, with these kind of things happening almost on a weekly basis, absolutely fuming!

      1. There are set distances. He would have been offside, nothing to do with clear and obvious.

        1. Yeah I guess you’re right, I’m probably fuming more from the crap football we have played and seeing us lose a chance to go level, no urgency.

  56. We lost many 50/50 challenges

    Lacazette and Lokonga, our main pivots, didn’t play well either. Lacazette couldn’t hold the ball at all and Lokonga made some bad passes

    If I were Arteta, I’d replace both pivots with Nketiah and Elneny after 70 minutes, if they keep playing like that. I believe Lokonga played ahead of Elneny because Elneny’s contract won’t be extended

  57. Whatever happened to this team after the international break… This is not Arsenal at all.
    I don’t know what Lokonga and Lacazette are doing in that pitch.

  58. Well that was like watching milk curdle.

    No bloody urgency in the first half and there I thought after the debacle at Palace we would at least turn up.

    We have reverted back to the slow, predictable and uninspiring football that we were showing at the beginning of the season.

    Scary thought is that I’m looking at the benches and I see nothing on ours but BHA can still bring on Maupay and Lamptey. Smh

    Arteta needs to tell a few home truths to the troops or that is top 4 gone.

  59. If what I saw from this team in the first half repeats in the second half, Arsenal is losing with not less than 3 goals.
    I hope the play change drastically…

  60. Despite the poor performance, I stand firmly with this young team. Now is the time they need our support the most. COYG.

  61. I can’t believe we sacked Emery for this wannabe guardiola. What was he expecting when he gave away all our players for free. Niles would have played well in that middle today and don’t get me started on Lacazzette

  62. still to come; Westham, Spuds, Man utd, and Chelsea….

    Based on this performance and injuries, top four is a very long way to go for us..

  63. It’s only half time. Let’s keep the judging till the end of the match. Ah. Sometimes I wonder!

    1. Even if by a miracle we win this match, be honest with yourself, do you really see this fraud of a coach taken us anywhere

  66. We need Villa to do us a favour later, otherwise our game in hand advantage will be gone at this rate.

  67. Brighton players only stopping us with dirty fouls and a couple of elbows to gabi at the moment but watch this crap ref send odeggard or saka off for a bs foul

  68. Top 4 rival loses, we don’t take advantage and lose as well. Opponents struggling for form. We give them a leg up. So typically Arsenal. Still hopeful though!

  69. Top 4 race is wide open once we loose this…
    I hope we don’t but it looks like we would..

  70. This game is really exposing the limits of ourplayers and tactics … but above all the idea we could remove our one goal scorer keep a tired has been who has done nothing in his time at club was madness that too many fans absurdly welcomed

  71. Graham Potters always outclass Arteta tactically in every match..
    So it’s no real surprise…

  72. Still some 26 minutes left, but funny thing is with no movement up top because of the ‘hold up’ player, I think thats for naught. At best a draw and the race opens up even more for the last CL spot!

  74. What a bloody disaster this performance is
    It’s like they’ve never played together before

  75. Lol this coach is really clueless. Remove a player (Smith) that can still at least score and leave Lacazzette 🤣🤣🤣

  76. Game over
    There goes your top trophy away from Arsenal..
    It’s not because Tottenham has good squad but because they Conte..
    Conte is finisher and he really knows how to win dog fight

  78. No excuses for this team or manager they’ve been playing 1 game a week. Same old crap. Bottle jobs. The whole club needs resetting.

  79. If your two full backs are injured and you have Holding what do you do? Play 3 at the back, you do not destabilise what’s is left of your midfield by switching Xhaka to left wing and pay without defensive midfield.

  80. Yeah time to go Mikel.

    Cup runs a disaster and Top4 was saving your job, especially since we have had so many opportunities to run away with 4th but mess it up as there is no plan b or a squad to do so, as he let half them walk for free.

    Still Chelsea, Utd away & Spurs away. Top4 is gone now its Top6 if we’re lucky, on this form we may slide down out of the European places altogether

  81. Arteta can’t be retained even if we finish in top 6… hrs had 3 years and we end up playing like this .. shoukd be enough for any true fan

    1. Yeah I agree, with ten Hag off to utd we HAVE to get Vieria from Palace.

      Arteta has no answers when pressure is on, and for a tactical genius he is out smarted for the 2nd game in a row.

      Imagine giving Vieria over £200 million to spend on transfers. Arteta should feel the heat and worried as the season ends.

  82. Still love this coach? Wow, bad decisions week-to-week. Anybody who steps up and says this wasn’t about the coach is kidding themselves. I’ve turned the game off at 10:32AM in the USA. Just hate watching what happens next. Pretty sure I won’t spend cash on Arsenal next year no matter how much I love them. Grocery shopping time at the HEB.

  83. We lack depth and experience. We actually lost it in the January transfer window. It pains but we got to live with another lost opportunity to succeed.

  85. Two players lost to injury in Tierney and Partey and the team collapses completely, that’s our top 4 hope gone I reckon.

    1. I’ll be waiting for anyone who can defend arteta now when we all know he is so so far out of his depth it is now quite laughable.
      How far does our club have to sink before it acts and gets rid of this clown

  86. Unfortunately Arteta was speaking about if we get EL for next season and what players might come in ,so it looks like even if we do miss out on top 4 we are still lumbered with this manager for the foreseeable ☹️

    1. Even without EL I still think the Kroenkes will give him a new deal Dan, the club is a mess.

      1. Agreed. I wish I only ever heard “The Spaniard” in my favorite movie of all time….The Gladiator….

      2. He seems to be immune to any kind consequence.
        Even if we do get top 4 I’ve seen enough of him to know that we do not have the next Klopp on our hands.
        Tired old tactics which he’s trying to copy and paste of his buddy pep while being backed more than any previous manager .

        1. Yeah Dan perfectly summed up! I foolishly thought we were improving but same old story and looks likely we’ll be watching this crap for a while yet.

  87. Spent most in league, most rested players as we did not have Europe and even with poor results most backed manager. All this for what this LOL! With all so called troublemakers now out of club who will the fans blame now?

  88. Dont see us scoring a goal here let alone 2 needed. Really hoping this young squad isn’t cracking in the final run-in.

  89. Game over. I can no longer watch it

    As I said many times before, the 6th place finish is the most realistic expectation

    1. The way this lot are playing and with the fixtures we have top 6 looks unlikely too. 150 mil spent you wouldn’t know it.

      2. Even top 10 is a journey. How do the kids ever sign up again for this. Just stop for one minute, and picture yourself in the clubhouse, and they announce Xhaxa is starting left back. What’s your response?

      3. We still have some games to finish in the top six

        The first step should be replacing Lacazette with one of our CFs, because he seems to reduce his efforts after the international break

        His contract would most likely not be extended, therefore he might’ve been thinking about his future

        1. 150 mil spent 1 game a week and top 6 😂😂😂 our fans have extremely low expectations and fully accept mediocrity.

      4. We do not have the squad to compete when it matters, I knew we lost it after the Jan transfer, its sad&painful.Arteta is not our class,we can do better.

  90. After all the optimism by alot of fans then they throw it all away, players included. One match a week for gods sake and now we are littered with injuries to our top players defensively.

    This isn’t acceptable after the nad seasons we have had plus now this one. Time for Mikel to go to wherever he wants and bring us in a proper manager

    1. Agreed. I’ll admit I’m the most pessimistic of them all…maybe except for Dan Kit…and I really hate the caps of Jon Fox…but…GET A REAL COACH!!

  91. shambles of a club utter shite Arteta go away take Cedric white xhaka etc etc etc with u no gameplan no hope

  92. Gai with no European football, and only 1 match to play in week, this team should be getting top 4
    Conte won PL when Chelsea was not playing In Europe few years back..
    I know Chelsea had much better squad but we have decent squad to finish in top 4 with just 1 game in a week…
    I tell you that next year when we will be having either EL or CL commitment we won’t be even performing this much better the way we have this season…

    1. Conte always has a strong CF, namely Vucinic, Costa and Lukaku. Now he has Kane, one of the best CFs in the world, at Tottenham

  93. I think he think he is playing fifa where he can start the same eleven every week, if there is any injury in fifa it can heal with the consumables but not in real life especially injury prone players like tierney, martinelli, partey, in the team and i dont mention lacazette, nketiah beacuse they are’nt goal threats in lower divison league , only we have the strikers who are not scoring for the team

    1. The top four was lost in January when the board were told to reign in the finances after the summer spending.Arteta probably did not have any choice but to go along with it as no manager would want his squad reduced to the numbers he has got.However Arteta was at fault in my opinion in the summer when he did not strengthen the midfield,kept Xhaka and ignored the striker situation that was developing at the club.I am worried that some of our younger talent will look elsewhere as the club just lacks the knowledge and ambition in getting the club back near the top.

  95. Officialy i stop every arsenal rwlated news.. Better focus on something else. Bye arsenal.. Till we meet again

  100. What a response from Chelsea after last week’s defeat and what a response from Arsenal after the defeat.

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