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Official Arsenal team for crucial home game against Zurich – Jesus and Nketiah start together

LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 20: Players of Arsenal pose for a team photograph prior to the UEFA Europa League group A match between Arsenal FC and PSV Eindhoven at Emirates Stadium on October 20, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

Yet again, we will have assume that we have no idea what sort of Arsenal team that Mikel Arteta will choose tonight, but the boss has revealed that Mo Elneny has returned to training recently, and with Bukayo Saka ais lso back to full fitness after having to be replaced at the weekend.

We also know that Oleksandr Zinchenko is back in training, but today is expected to come too soon for the Ukrainian. Emile Smith Rowe remains out. and we are still uncertain about whether Matt Turner is okay or not.

Arteta will be extremely aware that this game is one we cannot lose, so I am sure it will be a very strong team, and this is the team that Patrick decided on earlier today…

Predicted Arsenal XI:

Ramsdale
Cedric Holding Gabriel Tierney
Lokonga Xhaka
Nelson Vieira Nketiah
Jesus

So now we are just waiting for the official team to be announced by Arsenal.

And here it is!

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Tags FC Zurich

72 Comments

    1. How come nobody in Arsenal advised Gabriel Jesus to stay away from that cursed number 9 Jessy? Now dude can’t even score of from even a post with no goal keeper. This cursed number 9 Jessy has ended the career.

  4. I don’t think Nelson can be effective on the right wing. If he can’t produce anything, I hope Marquinhos is fit enough to replace him or Jesus in the second half

      1. I believed Nottingham Forest prepared a plan to defend against an inverted RW like Saka, hence Nelson’s arrival was likely surprising to them

    2. Really- he looked pretty effective to me when he played there on Sunday. Or am I missing something? Like two goals and an assist in 60 minutes?

      1. Phil please read my reply to Grandad above 👆

        Nelson could be effective as a conventional RW if he was as pacey as the prime Ryan Giggs/ Gareth Bale/ Adama Traore or possessed accurate crossing skills as Beckham’s

        I reckon he is pretty skilled, but not pacey and not a consistent long passer

  5. Hope now that Elneny is back, Lokonga can play more assertively and creatively. This is a big game for Sambi and a big game for Nketiah too. Eddie really needs a big game to woo the supporters back. A fairly strong side who should do the bizz.

    1. Ah and OZ back on the bench – even better, presumably they’re both going to play some of the game to get match fit.

      This might be a time to try OZ in midfield if we’ve put the game to bed.

    1. Very very sloppy and disjointed….am kinda worried for vieira, man seems to have lost all confidence on the ball….

  15. I can see that the 4 Arsenal regular 4 Arsenal game playing starting XI of: Ramsdale, White, Gabriel and G Jesus are all starting the march. But whim all I will preferred to see them rested for the very important Chelsea match on Sunday. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how the tridient of Nelson, G Jesus and Nkethia will perform in the match tonight.

    1. I’m not a football coach but I still wonder the reason why Nketia names still shows up on the team sheet

    1. To be honest Lokonga and Vieira are looking like 16 year old High school boys thrust into a senior team.
      Vieira just look so light weight and lacks self awareness. Still looks very Weak physically and panicking when in possession.

      The whole team just seems to be disjointed but still look way better than Zurich..

  20. Entertaining game. We were unlucky to score only one goal

    Tierney looked lively, although I think his dribbles and runs would be too risky for the game at Stamford Bridge. When playing against a smaller team like Zurich, we need an excellent dribbler like him

    1. Nelson also looks tidy out there. More mature in his demeanour.

      We seem a bit disjointed but we still look much better than Zurich. Should have scored more in that first half too..
      😊

  21. Not a good performance but I’m super happy for Tierney. Sambi and Viera are not controlling the midfield at all, thank God we have Elneny deeper.

  27. If we are stupid enough to draw, PSV will take the top spot as they have the better head-to-head advantage over us.

  29. We sorely miss the clinical ability of ESR in this type of games. I’m afraid Fabio Viera and Nketiah are not doing enough. We should have had the ball in the net at least twice in the first half alone.

    It’s really worrisome how our B team struggle to score at all or put away easy chances. I hope the missed chances in the first half wouldn’t come to hurt us if we fail to take the 3 points.

  30. Not the greatest game, but I do not know what the referee is trying to achieve with not calling all the fouls against Arssnal”s player.

  33. I seriously don’t understand the logic behind risking the first eleven for a match that we’re winning already….now tomiyasu has taken a knock…. these panic substitutions ain’t it at all

    The 2nd team needs some trust at least to see out bad games…

    1. I’m not sure I agree because a one nil lead was not a big enough buffer We had totry to improve our effectiveness

  34. What a useless game. Horrible performance by the team, injury scare and weak scoreline. Let’s hope we don’t carry this kind of performance into the knockout phase.

    We need a really quality squad depth. The kind of football we play requires quality and any drop in quality means we struggle to score and play good football.

    1. It’s going to take a few more transfer windows before we can have the depth in quality that MA and the fans want.

  35. We needed to risk first teamers as the selected team could not do the job. If we fail to win, we risk playing two extra games February 2023 and I’m sure you don’t want that.

      1. @SueP
        I keep saying it all over again.
        Our poor finishing is going to keep causing problems for us..
        It’s starting tk irritate me. We created a lot mainly in many first halves of most games but our finishing is absolutely terrible..
        With the amount of clear chances we create but only have to hang on with these 1-0 scorelines in the end.

    1. You expected us to get relegated from the competition after that PVS game?
      Your statement has no context.
      Sorry.

      1. In the game against PSV,the fringe/squad players who were given a chance to impress the coach,failed to do so.so how do you expect MA to trust them in games like tonight?

  37. Absolutely terrible game and players in this game.
    Even Jesus is starting to p!ss me off with his poor finishing..

  38. Ouch. That was painful.

    I’m pretty sure Nketiah is not the right man for the job – perhaps he was only ever meant to get us through to the WC and then buy in January.

    Trouble is… on his showings so far this season, who’d buy him on £100k a week?

    1. As I said before,if Eddie had decided to leave or we had not offered him a new contract.the club was due compensation decided by tribunal or both clubs could agree on a fee .by looking at different reports between 8-10M,which is if you ask close to his value,add to that his new contract costing Arsenal 31M.i’m sure that money could have got us a pretty decent striker, different style to Jesus.

      1. I must’ve missed it when you aid it before – and it’s the first I’ve heard of that. Is that tribunal approach due to something in his contract, or… ?

        1. I meant I said it before a while back😉.the compensation is because he is for the time and money invested in him.he is from our academy.

          1. I understood that you said it in the past, what I was trying to understand is the “compensation via tribunal” aspect.

  39. I don’t even want to mention Jesus as he’s starting to piss me off with his lack of clinical finishing. How he managed to block Viera’s shot that was goal-bound in the first half is beyond me.

    I feel he needs a breather for a game or two but we can’t afford to do that as we lack quality in every department like City.

    My main worry is Tomiyasu. We will be forced into some tactical change for Chelsea’s game. What I find eerie about football is how a player gets injured the moment a previously injured players returns.

    Zinchenko returns and Tomi is now out. What a shame!

  40. Well I guess Tierney is playing on Sunday against Chelsea then. Should not have brought tomi in, Cedric would have been the more sensible replacement for White.

  41. I can’t really blame Arteta for bringing in Tomi as he is by a mile our best defender. He wouldn’t have come on if the team had put the game to bed.

    Cedric would have been the logical choice if say we were 2 or 3 goals up, but we have a team who suck at scoring that we had to bring in defenders to secure the fragile 1-0 scoreline.

    Let’s just hope the injury is not serious and put this horrendous performance behind us. Aside Nelson who had a good game and finishing top of the group, I am hard-pressed to see any positive in the game.

  42. The truth to the matter in this ELC match encounter between Arsenal and FC Zurich is, Zurich almost ran ragged Arsenal in the match as the game paned on. But which subsequently saw FC Zurich out of the competition scoring no goal tonight in the game to collect no any points in the match. As against Arsenal who collected all 3 points that were at staked in the match. Which subsequently left them as winners of their group A. So, I congratulate the Gunners for this achievement that they’ve achieved tonight. And I also greet Kerian Tierney very much. Who scored the solitary goal in the match for Arsenal that won the match. And I hope that Tomiyasu Takehiro injury gotten in the matcb will not leave him on injury sideline for Arsenal in the Epl and Japan in the World Cup,

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