Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Arsene Wenger took the big decison – perhaps gamble would be the better word(?) – to change three of the back five against Reading on Saturday.
Wojciech Szczesny, Kieran Gibbs and Mathieu Debuchy were all brought in – rather unsurprisingly, I suppose – for David Ospina, Nacho Monreal and Hector Bellerin for the big occasion at Wembley.
It’s a difficult one for Wenger to juggle; Bellerin may well have inadvertently become our first choice right-back after Debuchy’s two long-term injury lay-offs, Szczesny has well and truly been dislodged as the man between the sticks – a lot said David Ospina would’ve saved Reading’s goal (personally, think that’s a bit harsh, slight deflection made it hard for the Pole) – and Nacho Monreal deserves to be our Player of the Year.
I’m sure a lot of Arsenal fans were a bit concerned by the performance put in by Gibbs – Debuchy’s wasn’t top notch either but given his time on the sidelines, it can be forgiven. The England international was less than convincing – epitomised by his tentative attempts to prevent Reading’s equaliser – and even his attacking presence (an attribute that was key to his inclusion over Nacho Monreal in previous campaigns) was wide of the mark.
There’s not much doubt in my mind that Nacho Monreal will return to the starting XI for Chelsea this Sunday and, given his consistent and solid defensive performances throughout this campaign, that will be a welcome selection.
Have we reached a surprising end with Gibbs?
I was rather ‘annoyed’ with the replacements at the Reading match. It beats logic why the manager wanted to change a winning squad. For that gamble Arsenal nearly lost the semi. Let’s hope A.Wenger will not do the same for the final. For the coming Chelsea game, winning it will shut up the taunts Arsenal have had received from pundits and the opponents’ fans. COGs!
What’s the logic? To keep a happy squad he has to rotate the players. Wenger has to decide, we have no inside information as to the players’ sensitivities, but he does. He picks the team, that is overall better for the whole squad. i would suggest that Wenger’s logic is way beyond your understanding!
Bit harsh though I see your point in why change a winning side, though Pole was always going play in FA cup and really our “Second Players” should beat a championship team, if that’s not the case then we should replace them -they shouldn’t be there to just make the numbers they should also be able to replace the quality equally of the first players (or there abouts)