Unless Arsene Wenger is indulging in a bit of kidology with his rival manager, I am surprised to see that the Frenchman, instead of keeping his cards close to his chest like he normally does, has revealed a lot about the Arsenal team that will start the EFL cup match at home to Reading, as the latest team news on the Arsenal website has reported.
The former Manchester United and Netherlands defender Jaap Stam is the manager of Reading and although Arsenal should be feeling confident ahead of this match at home to lower league opposition, I reckon that Stam will be feeling a bit more confident knowing which players his Reading team will be coming up against.
Wenger said, “Cazorla will not be available, but it looked after the game that apart from some tired legs and disappointed minds, we had nothing else to declare.
“I think Olivier [Giroud] will be included, but for Aaron [Ramsey] it is too early although he is back in full training now.
“It will be a similar squad to against Nottingham Forest. We will have Gabriel, Holding, Jenkinson will be back and will play. Jeff Reine-Adelaide will play, otherwise I think Iwobi, Lucas, Oxlade-Chamberlain will also play. Gibbs – who captained the team at Forest – will do it again on Tuesday.”
Reading now know what our whole back four will be and they might just use that knowledge to their advantage, and they might also prepare a bit differently knowing that Giroud and not Alexis Sanchez will be leading the Arsenal attack, so do you think Wenger has made a mistake by revealing his team news early?
Bob.
Not really a surprise, was an obvious team line up!
They can prepare all they want, we will also prepare for them. If we play our game and take it serious I’m sure we’ll win. The problem with Arsenal is that sometimes we just don’t show up and make the opposition look like they ‘out tacticed’ us. But in reality we just don’t play to our level sometimes, like in the game against boro.
Well whether wenger said it or not the fact that 10 of the under 23 side were pulled out of their game with man United last night to prepare for the match with reading pretty much gave it all away. Macey, Bielik, sheaf. M.bola, zelalem, maitland-niles, c.willock, mavididi, Nelson and malen all trained.
Obviously, martinez and adelaide are EFL cup players this season as would be akpom if he was fit. The remaining first team players he has mentioned obviously need match time, though I am surprised the well used iwobi is in that group and nor in the group that needs a rest.
I think it is safe to say that if Debuchy and Sanogo are not involved tonight, they will be leaving the club in the January window.
All he has said is who will play not who will start. The starting line up picks itself in most areas so should not be a shock. Gibbs captaining the side is no give away, Holding and Gabriel are no shocks. The one weakness at the back might be Jenkinson because he hasn’t played in a long time- Reading might choose to attack down the right to take advantage of this (if he starts!)
The rest of the line up other than Ox, Lucas and Elneny are unpredictable. At best, Reading (and Arsenal fans) can go by the Forrest game line up….