Play Fantasy Wenger: Which Arsenal team would you choose to start against Newcastle?
Arsenal travel to St James's Park tomorrow knowing that a win could give us a vital points advantage over Aston Villa who have to travel to Anfield to take on in-form Liverpool on Sunday.
Arsene Wenger won't have another game to worry about for a fortnight, so there should be no resting of players: we should expect to see a full strength team turn out for the Gunners.
Unfortunately Theo Walcott became the latest player to end up on the treatment table this morning when he injured his knee in training. He joins Cesc Fabregas, Eduardo, Emmanuel Adebayor and Tomas Rosicky on the sidelines, although all four could be back in contention for a starting place in our next game against Man City.
But that's a different storyfor a different day.
The task at hand for you lot is to choose your strongest starting line up to face Newcastle tomorrow.
Manuel Almunia has been declared fit after his ankle problem and in defence, I'd go with the stable back four of Sagna, Gallas, Toure and Clichy.
Midfield, in my opinion, should be Arshavin, Denilson, Diaby and Nasri, leaving Van Persie and Bendtner up front to do the damage at the business end of the park.
Feel free to share your thoughts on our starting line up against the Magpies. For sake of comparison, here's who my squad who consist of:
Almunia
Sagna Gallas Toure Clichy
Arshavin Denilson Diaby Nasri
RvP Bendtner
Subs: Fabianski, Djourou, Silvestre, Gibbs, Song, Eboue, Eduardo
GM
Reader Comments (22)
Sorry but RVP has been well out of form recently. Song has been excellent so he would go into midfield to give us a defensive balance. Eduardo not ready to start yet, but maybe to come on later. Arsh to play behind Nik.
Almunia
Sagna Gallas Toure Clichy
Nasri Denilson Song Vela
Arshavin
Bendtner
Subs: Fabianski, Djourou, Silvestre, Eduardo, Diaby, Eboue, RVP
Almunia
Sagna-Gallas-Toure-Clichy
Eboue-Song-Denilson-Nasri
Arshavin-RvP
Almunia
Sagna Gallas Kolo Clichy
Nasri Song Denilson Vela
Arshavin
Bendtner
Diaby can go fook himself, he's way too lazy for a game against what will be a hard-working and dirty Newcastle side featuring Barton and Butt in midfield. I would play Song/Deni central. Eboue left, Nasri right, and AA behind Nikki B. The barcodes don't have any tall strikers so I'd play Toure and Gallas to counter Owen and Martins. I back us to shade this one 2-1.
i wouldn't leave song out of this. he's in his best run of form in red and white and i reckon he'll keep on improving. i hope he proves the doubters wrong. so im going to go for song instead of diaby. and i think eduardo might start. we all thought we wouldnt start against burnley but wenger surprised us by starting him. i wouldnt leave him out of the lineup. then maybe later on sub him forre bendtner.
almunia
sagna toure gallas clichy
nasri denilson song arshavin
RvP eduardo
Subs:fabianski, djourou, gibbs, vela, bendtner, eboue, diaby
Song has to play. He is so much better than Denilson I'm not sure why there is eve discussion. Better all-round than Diaby too, but you prob need his creativeness there.
interesting to see if barton will do anything about nasri's little trip back at the emirates. lol
Almunia
Sagna - Gallas - Toure - Clichy
Nasri - Denilson - Song - Arshavin
RVP - Bendtner
Bench: Fabianski, Djourou, Silvestre, Eboue, Diaby, Vela, Eduardo
Im a newcastle fan, i agree with eddie, any of your boys tht arent up for a 'dirty' (i prefer combative) match then get them out. We are fighting for our lives and every game counts. We will have hard working (granted some crap) players like Nolan, Barton, Smith, Taylor x2, Gutherie, Jonas, Butt and Duff available! We are going to look to make game as scrappy as possible and could see a massive upset if the "wenger boys" arent up for it!!
PS i hope it is a good match, and hope u lot stuff villareal in CL.
2-1 to the toon!!
First of all, i'd like to state that eduardo will be back for 2moro's game.
www.arsenal.com for more details.
Almunia
Sagna - Gallas - Toure - Clichy
Nasri - Denilson - Diaby - Arshavin
Van Persie - Bendtner
I would like to see almunia back in goal, and in front of him eboue toure gallas and gibbs, sagna and clichy find it difficult to send in a decent cross into the box, in the middle nasri song denilson arshavin, in front van persie will do with eduardo's ball sense and accuracy. We will character to tear down a newcastle team which will fighting with the last drop of thier blood.
-----------------Almunia------------------
Sagna-----Toure-----Gallas-----Clichy
------------------Song--------------------
Arshavin---Diaby----Denilson---Nasri
------------------Bendtner---------------
Give Bendtner a chance...he plays well with Arshavin, this formation will allow Nasri and Arshavin to streak up the wings and give Diaby and Denilson the opportunity to give Bendtner support, knowing Song is behind them...If Bendtner does not convert, bring RvP on at half time and Bring Vela on for Arshavin or Nasri after 60 min as they should be tired if they do their job and run their asses off...Give Ramsey a run after 75 min for Denilson or Diaby also...
to be honest ok van perise is kinda outa form but the only way he will get back in form is if he keeps playing!!!
Sorry, my post showed Eboue left, Nasri right - should of course be the other way around. Either way, not a game for shrinking violets, hence Diaby out. Also, I like Nikki B's bullish approach to every game. If he's up for it, with AA and Nasri prompting from midfield and Song, Deni and Eboue covering, we're in with a shout. Don't think Edu is ready for this one, too many bruisers in Newcastle's side.
Newcastle may be going through a tough period but that have quality players and the ability to pull a top performance from their arses when necessary so we'll have to be on top form to maintain our recent good spell.
Despite my "Fantasy Wenger" line-up, I'm pretty certain he'll go with RvP and Bendtner up front, and I wouldn't at all be surprised if he kept Arshavin on the bench.
I really think that with the arrival of Arshavin Wenger needs to seriously consider changing his formation.
Arshavin NEEDS to be central, supporting the striker and able to play accurate passes for the wingers to run onto.
However, we need to be careful as Nicky Butt may well man mark him, so it may be better for him to have total freedom.
I would play the following:
-------------------- ALMUNIA --------------------
SAGNA --- TOURE ---- GALLAS --- CLICHY
--------------------- SONG ------------------------
--------- DENILSON ------ DIABY ---------------
ARSHAVIN ------------------------------- NASRI
------------------- BENDTNER --------------------
OR THIS:
----------------- ALMUNIA -----------------
SAGNA-- TOURE--- GALLAS -- CLICHY
EBOUE -- DENILSON -- SONG -- NASRI
---------------- ARSHAVIN ----------------
---------------- BENDTNER ----------------
Almunia
Sagna Toure Gallas Clichy
Arshavin Diaby Denilson Nasri
R.V.P Bendtner
Gallas, Silvestre, RVP, Bendtner, Denilson, Diaby, Eboue, Rosicky, Almunia should not play at least for now.
----------------- ALMUNIA -----------------
SAGNA-- TOURE--- GALLAS -- CLICHY
------------ DENILSON -- SONG -----------
EBOUE -------- NASRI -------- ARSHAVIN
---------------- BENDTNER ------------------
We need Bendtner(even with his poor finishing) to hassle the NUFC CB to create space for the excellent Arshavin and Nasri and we need Eboue as he provide directness that we only seem to get from him, Vela or Walcott. I would play Song over Diaby as he has been excellent recently and with both Diaby and Denilson in the team we never have enough possession.
If things are not going well put Nasri on the right in a 4-4-2 and replace Eboue with Eduardo upfront to take that one chance we might get.
----------------- ALMUNIA -----------------
SAGNA-- TOURE--- GALLAS -- CLICHY
NASRI - DENILSON - SONG - ARSHAVIN
-------- BENDTNER ------ EDUARDO ------
If things are going well i would replace Arshavin with Van Persie and move Nasri out left in a 4-4-2.
----------------- ALMUNIA -----------------
SAGNA-- TOURE--- GALLAS -- CLICHY
EBOUE -- DENILSON -- SONG -- NASRI
------ BENDTNER ----- VAN PERSIE -----
As long as our rubbish soft DENILSON don't play then we will be ok.
DENILSON is so shit. Glad he did not play against Hull.
As long as our rubbish soft DENILSON don't play then we will be ok.
DENILSON is so shit. Glad he did not play against Hull.
All Gooners keep your eyes on DENILSON. HE IS SO RUBBISH.
-----------------------MANUEL--------------
BACARY------KOLO------WILLIAM----GAEL
------------------------ALEX--------------------
EMMANUEL E.--------------ABOU------------ANDREI
--------------------ROBIN----NICKLAS-------
Subs: LUCKAZ, JOHAN, GIBBS, SAMIR, DENILSON, VELA, EDUARDO
Fuck off AFSAR Gooner
Denilson has been the most consistent performer for Arsenal this season, and as a very yound inexperienced player has held our midfield together. Now with Arshavin in the team he has become more attacking (so has Song) and we look a force to be reckoned with.