A Little Rotation For Sunderland?
May 19th, 2015 by 'holic
The penultimate fixture of an eventful season sees Sunderland visiting the Grove seeking a point to ensure Premiership survival, while the Gunners require all three to keep the remote possibility of second place alive and mathematically secure their hold on third place at least. It is probably fair to expect a very defensive set-up to start for the visitors.
We will certainly need to be more incisive and ruthless than we were in last Monday’s match against Swansea, who arrived with similar priorities to those which we can anticipate from the Mackems, and who pinched the points against the run of play.
Arsenal are still without Mathieu Debuchy, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Danny Welbeck. Worse still is that Laurent Koscielny will be monitored on the day as he is recovering from flu-like symptoms. If he is ruled out Gabriel should be promoted from the bench, but could there perhaps be another change or two from the starting line-up for our last six Premier League fixtures?
It would not be a surprise to see Santi Cazorla rested, so off colour was he at Old Trafford on Sunday. Aaron Ramsey showed his quality in that role in the closing twenty minutes of that match. That would free up a right wing slot for Theo Walcott to fill? With Lee Cattermole a booking away from a record fifteen yellow cards in a Premier League season I would expect Francis Coquelin to hold his starting place ahead of Jack Wilshere. Arsene assessed what lies ahead perfectly.
“I expect them to be well organised defensively, sound at the back, and to try to use all the counter-attacks they can. We have to put a high rhythm into this game and play with a high level of energy to win.”
The visitors have Bridcutt, Gomez, and Brown missing, but Rodwell is back after recovering from a hamstring problem. They close their Premier League season at the bus stop in Fulham on Sunday, so that point is a tough ask, although they may be encouraged by Chelsea’s performance at West Brom on Monday night. Be warned though, they have been involved in eight scoreless draws in the League this season, and won their last away fixture at Everton.
The ‘holic pound
Last season’s corresponding fixture ended in a 4-1 triumph for the Arsenal with Olivier Giroud bagging a brace of goals. I have a sneaking fancy he may repeat that, and Arsenal enjoy a similar winning margin, although the pound this time is ventured on 3-0, available from Paddy Power at a market leading 8/1.
As usual I wish those of you going a performance to savour, and for those confined to television or stream coverage a decent reception.
Have a good one ‘holics.
85 Responses to “A Little Rotation For Sunderland?”
No Drinks?
Don’t mind if I do have one or two. 🙂
3-0? I’ll take that!
Holic
Lovely set-up as ever
3-0 would be excellent but I feel it will be a narrow 1-0. I’m on a hot streak after Sunday but hope you’re right.
I have to be in the West Country at a board meeting tomorrow but will see the last two games. I like Gabriel so have no concerns there and would love to see Santi and Ozil rested with Theo and Jack brought in. I also have a feeling we may see Kieran Gibbs back by way of rotation.
I hope all Gooners enjoy a joyful evening . I will actually be at a dinner with a Sunderland fan. I hope I enjoy it more than he does
Dunno about 3 nil but 3 points would be nice.
Anything to stick the knife into wee fat Dick. 😎
Cheers H! And well in the folks above. Some quality drinkers resurfaced on the last set of drinks. I’m old enough to recognise things move on (not senile just yet!) but it was truly magnificent to see their like again.
Uply. What can I say? Not a lot. Just sort of sorry for your huge loss and that. If I did prayers you would be in them. Keep on keeping on Dude.
Another fine preview Guv’nor. Can it really be only two more to go? This season feels to have gone quite quickly; here’s hoping the summer passes as quickly.
I’d prefer to see Sunderland stay up rather than Newcastle – a combination of the Mackems I’ve met and Alan Shearer – so I wouldn’t be devastated if the match ended in a draw.
However, in my saner moments, I appreciate that Hull are likely to lose to Manche$ter Rowdies at the weekend so it doesn’t matter how badly Sunderland get stuffed tomorrow night. 3-0 and another win for the ‘Holic pound would do me nicely.
COYG
Cheers H.
I have a feeling he might swap Santi for Wilshere and put Gibbs in. No idea why.
3-0 sounds lovely.
Cheers Holic !
3-0 would be just fine. Quite looking forward to a few changes, to be honest. We look like we need a little freshening up and some squad players advertising their qualities before the Cup Final could work quite nicely.
Hope Clattermole doesn’t do too much damage – I can really see him going for that record.
Daughter is with me tomorrow night so really looking forward to it.
Needless to say I would welcome your rotation suggestions, ‘holic. Just a couple of matches late, imo.
3-0 looks good too. Let’s hope we can all end the season in accord. 3rd place and another Cup win (we would then be alone with the record for most FA Cups) would make for a satisfying step forward in the history of our great club.
It actually started with an FA Cup win for me. 1950, and I was asked (as a 7yo) what team did I support? Living in Surrey with the non-League ‘Tanners’ as my local team, I chose ‘Arsenal’ as my reply and have supported them now for 65 years. Still waiting for that elusive CL win, and maybe I get a little grumpy at times (the entitlement of all pensioners, okay!) so apologies to those I may have irritated or bored along the way… 🙂
Öskar
Good man, Oskar. 🙂
Nice post, Oskar.
Good preview, ‘Holic. No place for worrying about the bottom of the table tonight. Three points is the order of the day and 3-0 would do nicely. We should be able to rest tired legs and still have more than enough to beat a poor Sunderland side. If there is the slightest doubt about Kos’s health, Gabriel should play so Kos is 100% for Wembley.
Trev@9: Good to hear your daughter is able to be out and about. Enjoy the game, both.
Otd@10: Nicely put. If you can’t become a curmudgeon in your old age, what is there left to look forward to?
Pangloss: Hull have double the reason to hope we win tonight as that not only keeps Sunderland in the relegation battle, but also makes Sunday a dead rubber for ManU which probably would make Hull’s job a little less difficult.
Absolutely crucial to get a point at least tonight. Three would be brilliant!
😀
Thanks guys, I’ll try to be more restrained with my opinions in future … but in a curmudgeonly way of course.
I have mentioned it before but here I go repeating myself 🙂 by adding that, despite my distant Surrey beginnings, my Arsenal DNA is in fact quite genuine. While researching our family history a few years back I not only discovered ancestors living for generations in the Finsbury Park / Holloway district, but also that, in 1886 when the club was founded, my maternal grandparents were living in Griffin Road, Plumstead just down the road from Woolwich Arsenal in one direction and Plumstead Common where the club played its first games in the other. That’s proper DNA … eat yer heart out Cesc. 😉
Öskar
Newcastle fans are planning to “occupy” St James’s Park after the game on Sunday*.
Going to a home game and not leaving early? The revolutionary BASTARDS.
.
.
*This assumes they haven’t all buggered off home in disgust at half timwith the team 5-0 down.
I am sure can all get behind Cattermole to cheer him on to that remarkable footballing milestone of 15 yellow cards in a season. In fat Lee, don’t stint yourself or hide your talent, go for the full 16 yellows.
Still in New Zealand, didn’t rain today but more forecast for tomorrow.
I’m happy with 3-0 and forecast a Giroud hat-trick.
UTA.
Oskar you are an inspiration to all and sundry.
I do not like sunderland and dislike hull so i want both of them relegated which is not possible. I wanted Burnley to stay for they play the game in the right way.
I do hope there is a lot of changes tonight with theo, gabriel, jack, gibbs and maybe even woj to get starts. 3-0 sounds fine and hoping for the same.
Cech rumours afloat and usually such news ends in the drain. I would not mind him being at The Arsenal, solid reliant and most importantly commanding.
Once again I am touched by all your kind words at this difficult time – you really are top notch – the lot of yer!
Should be a comfortable win tonight unless the mackems have the same amount of outrageous luck they had in their last away game at Everton, along with us having another evening of passing the ball back to their keeper. 3-0 seems a good call holic.
Have a great evening to all those going.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150520/wenger-theo-has-a-special-destiny
I do hope he stays!
We’ll need all the depth and options we can get come next season.. we’re going to challenge on all fronts… really!
😀
I would love a 3-0 but any sort of win will do and please let us have better fare than the turgid display last Monday, at least we won’t be on the last train home tonight.
I agree we need some rotation. A run out for the PIG before Wembley would be prudent. Last year AW gave Fabianski a game at Carrow Road preventing Chesney taking sole possession of the Golden Glove .
Ramsey needs to be back in the middle with Jack, Theo and possibly Gibbs promoted from the bench. If Kos is off colour then I would welcome Gabriel into the side but we all know AW is reluctant to make too many changes, lets hope he makes the right ones.
Its jolly chilly in NW Norfolk so will gear up for a cold night hopefully warmed up with a sparkling display of Wengerball. Well I can hope!
COYRs
A hat-trick for Giroud would be great. One for Alexis too please.
*checks fantasy league team*
Jolly chilly should get the boys off their arses, hopefully. 🙂
Rotation for Sunderland? Not so sure about that. How about ROTISSERIE for Sunderland? Slow grilling in the first half and then turn up the heat.
OTD, a nice brace. And not a word about either Ozil or Theo
Cheers H.
I gave up long ago trying to second guess AW as to his line up for any given match, but I’m pretty confident that any team we put out should be able to handle Sunderland.
Hoping for a more enjoyable spectacle then our last two outings, we need to play ourselves into a bit of form for our trip to Wembley in ten days time. Nothing more to add save……….
COME ON YOU GUNNERS.
I’m really fed up with those Wearside morons and their eternal struggle. Let’s kick ‘em out especially as Defoe is “aiming to silence Emirates”. Poor sod.
Although, Blixa said that silence is sexy.
Evening all.
Just on the train on my way to the game and taking the time to catch up. Nice preview Holic. I’m hoping for a big and emphatic victory tonight. No excuses. The last two performances have not been great but that should be no excuse. We should have more than enough to beat a poor Sunderland side. 3-0 I’m hoping is conservative.
Does anyone know what has happened to Debuchy? He is out for months. Then, very bizarrely he is eased back into the first team with 120 at Wembley. Then, nothing? All very strange.
I have now had a proper chance to catch up. Uply, my deepest condolences for your loss. I can’t even think to imagine the pain at this time. My thoughts are with you and your family.
Clive. How wonderful to read your posts again. They have always brought a smile to my face and I have missed tales of The Ramblers and other assorted gems. I trust you and yours are fit and well.
To those going tonight, enjoy. Especially those attending with their offspring.
Up the Gunners.
The manager and players spend half a week talking up the Coq. “First name on the sheet” says the Ox.
Guess who is left out?
The boss must really be excepting a defensive Sunderland.
I mean, a ball winner isn’t just there to protect your goal but also help you win the ball back quickly and help you score by doing that.
Not saying this is wrong. Just interesting. We’ll see!
howdy ‘hol
howdy all
.
here’s to a goodun
.
fire roarin’
dinner bubblin’
stout flowin’
.
would freeze the balls off ye here
hope them thats goin’
have their foot-thick asbestos drawers on
.
now
come on de fuck fellas
.
RIP ROARIN’!!!!!!
Or what cba said…!
Arsenal: Ospina, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Ramsey, Cazorla, Wilshere, Ozil, Alexis, Giroud
Any and all spelling errors are entirely down to autocorrect.
Hey Noosa — I invited you round to watch the Yanited game — no reply was the answer
Still raining?
You must be on the South Island — been good here in Auckland –its winter though mate, sounds like the usual Aussie grumbles — if its not 40C with raging bush fires you guys just aren’t happy are ya?
If you are in the Auckland region for the Cup Final feel free to join me for a pint and a moan.
Always in the right, drinking through the day and shagging through the night…
Come ooooooon!
Coq dropped!?
Does this mean that AW feels that he is the one player that we can\t miss in the final?
Your guess is good as mine.
I have ten lagers in the fridge but am addicted to fiery ginger beer. It’s rotting the guts out of me. Can you die of Fiery Ginger Beer Syndrome?
As for the football, I expect nothing less than rampant victory. Won’t get it, but them’s the breaks.
cynic
yes
yes you can
but
upside
ye’ll leave a christmassy fragrant corpse
IF @ 36
I replied almost immediately to your offer for the Utd game, thanking you for the information and your kind offer. You must have missed it.I also mentioned that I would be in Kerirkeri where it has indeed been raining since we arrived.
All good though and still expecting a Giroud hat- trick.
As for moaning Aussies, I wouldn’t know – my two passports are UK and NZ! Thanks again for the offer.
UTA.
COME ONNNNNNNNNN!
Another attempt to make Ramsey/Jack midfield work, looking forward to it, Jack looks hungry as of late and Aaron is always at his best while playing through the middle. Come on!
sunny ?
fuck
COME ON YOU REDS!!!
cba – I’ll make sure to have a Xmas pud as well before succumbing to the gassy loveliness.
Had a wager on 4-0.
So expect Sunderland to score first.
cynic
how’d you arrive at your ‘hol moniker
😉
Any suggestions on streams..please post
http://www.livefootballol.com/streaming/english-premier-league/20-05-2015-arsenal-sunderland.html
http://www.fixalen.tv/20150520/vv-1075806-football-555ba6332ba862.60002515.html
Too much tippy tappy through the middley no attacky the boxy play so far.
Bus Parkers!
Swansea all over again…need muuuch more urgency…and hit the target ffs.
Well, here endeth another incredibly dull half of football.
Let’s hope for something a bit more productive second half.
Need to get behind them and around the back. Playing far to central and far too slow. All looks very laboured.
If you have a team with five players in it whose game is all about little dribbles and intricate passing, you are not going to get shed loads of goals against a team, no matter how poor, who are there to defend.
Need more direct play.
Why does Cazorla take three touches to put the ball where you know it will go, and where he could put it with one touch?
Tip, tap, tap, pass.
Control it, give it. Keep the tempo high.
Agreed Cynic, we need to up the tempo, make the field as wide as possible and pump crosses in to OG, he is brilliant target man so if the tippy tappy thing obviously is not working, try something else….both Gibbs and Bellering are capable of putting in much better crosses than they did so far.
Gibbs looked our best player, uncoincidentally.
All a bit MEH.
Better second half please.
We need to win this game and get this third place done and dusted.
Steve T @ 55 –
“Need to get behind them and around the back…”
Good advice when trawling for slimmies as well. 😉
BMBD
That’s right.. use the flanks…
COME ON!!!!!!!
OOooossspina!!!!
COME ON!!
Okay..proper heart in the mouth moment …come on boys!
Finally Ozil out Rosicky in.
Whoa
Third??
Should be third.. unless we lose and MU win by a wide margin..!
ARGGGGHHHHH!
SHould have finished it off here!
Not good.
Way too many players runing on fumes out there tonight. At least three of them shouldn’t of been on the pitch to start with and definetly not after 90 mins. AW definitly missed a trick by not freshening up the team…….. and that is not hindsight.
I still feel that all three of Santa/Ozil/Alexi shouldn’t have started. Rosciky made a difference in the last ten minutes. We have not scored in the last three home matches, not good enough. Well at least we have secured third place with this result.
Is the next match away or home?
Home v WBA
More concerned about our momentum ahead of the final…
BMBD
The exact reason why we are million miles away from winning the title. 3 games in a row we have failed to score. 2 of them mediocre teams. No game plan. Training session type football. Average striker. Midfielders playing on wings. Hard to see us winning FA cup with these tactics
Is it not bit strange that we always have the last fixture against WBA..or I’m I the only one to notice this? Seem to remember two occasions where we played them.. Koscienly goal,something like that.
We are dragging ourselves over the line a bit. Fatigue — physical and mental — as well as I suspect a bit of conservativeness in 50-50 challenges anticipating the Cup Final are to be blamed.
Santi has nothing left in his tank, and despite all the running around Alexis is not better off. The tiredness can be seen in their touches and their decision making. Had thought this would have been a perfect game to start TR7 alongside Rambo. Alexis should have been rested a few matches back for a couple of weeks for him to find the zip back again and make the telling difference against tired defenses in this stage of the season.
Hopefully in the weekend all of Santi, Alexis, Ozil and Koscielny would be rested.
Theo and TR7 both looked very sharp. But as Jack showed today after a long injury it is much harder to maintain consistency playing for 60+ minutes than in cameo appearance. Still hopefully we start with both Rosicky and Theo against the Baggies.
Pubis is going to relish doing the same thing to us… We can’t seem to buy a goal at the moment. Santi looked woefully out of form which is strange after that virtuoso performance against hull where he was picking passes from the half way line. He did seem to have picked up a knock early on today which might have affected his performance tonigh, but he wasn’t great against United either…
Walcott did make a big difference with his directness which might be the way to go against teams who park the bus. I also feel that Giroud’s threat is nullified against such teams because his lack of pace means defenders don’t have to worry about him running in behind… Welbeck in the centre and Walcott or Ox on the right wing will be an ideal combination of directness and pace against bus parking teams. But injuries to both Ox and Welbeck at the same time suddenly means a lack of options for what we all believe to be a deep squad.
Unfortunately these past three home games would have given Villa quite a clear idea about how to stifle the Arsenal. The second half tonight was better from us and we did create quite a few chances but we cannot let first halves of games pass us bye the way it has happened in the last three games. There is a jaded look to the way we are playing and the manager has a tough decision to make regarding the playing eleven for the last league game and more importantly the Cup final. Still feel wojcieh should play the game on Sunday and so should Mozart. He was fantastic when he came on tonight and it’s baffling as to how little he has been used off late by the manager.
We lacked a little bit the rotation.
I would keep Ospina in though, I see no point in changing him for Woj. This idea of swapping players out in key positions because they’ve played in earlier rounds is daft.
Pick your best team, win the cup.
Giroud’s complete lack of form in recent weeks is a concern though.
Tg @ 74: When you have not much to play for (no matter what one says it is hard to motivate at the end of a season to fight for a very unlikely #2 when top three is all but guaranteed) — it is worth noting once that Chelsea 0-0 happened the legs started to go out more easily — and at the same time a Cup final you hope to stay fit for this type of drop happens. That doesn’t make it right, but it doesn’t suddenly make the team “million miles away from winning the title.” A bit of rotation would have probably made the team look sharper, but not of Ox or Danny — two pacy operators — at this stage also had hurt us somewhat.
When we had to win final matches to ensure top 4 in the last few season we always found enough.
So, not that depressing, all things considered. 🙂
@75: Last year the Baggies were our last home match, our last match was Norwich away. The year before it was Newcastle away. The year before it was WBA away in that must win 2-3 match, Pat Rice’s final match with us. The year before that it was Fulham away. 🙂
Cynic @ 78: Agreed about Giroud’s form. Today he looked a bit better and a goal would have definitely helped (that was a super save from Pantilimon)…I think he is also being used more as a decoy at this stage of the season. His runs opened up couple of our goals against Hull and today too Jack and Ozil both should have done better on their volleys.
Worst nightmare…had to listen on Talk Shite…
How much do they hate the Arsenal ?
Pathetically bisaed.
And congratulations to Theo on on 300th game for us! Good performance too.
Thank you Dr F. Must have been that 2-3 result that stuck in my mind. Great result given what was at stake. Thankfully we are saved from that kind of torment next weekend,unless…unless we lose by 3 goals and united win by a 4 goal margin… That would be something,right?? The odds??
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