TEAM: Ramsey & Cazorla Out – My Arsenal Line-Up To Face Galatasaray

By mac14 on December 8, 2014

Arsenal have travelled to Turkey this afternoon ahead of tomorrow’s Champions League clash with Galatasaray.

Arsene Wenger has left out key men such as Koscielny and Sanchez while youngster like Zelalem, O’Connor, Maitland-Niles, Akpom, Bellerin and Hayden have all made the trip.

The boss has hinted he’ll make a number of changes as he’s pretty-much sees this as a ‘dead rubber’ as we’re unlikely to qualify in first place, and I think he’s right to give some of the key players a rest as we’ve got some huge fixtures coming up during the hectic festive period and we’ve already got a lengthy injury list to contend with.

Szczesny is back in contention after recovering from a hip injury so I’d bring him back in. Let’s face it, he’s going to be our No.1 so needs to get back in the swing of things ahead of Newcastle on Saturday.

There’s rumours that Debuchy is in the squad but I’ve seen nothing official yet, and even if he is then I’d only use him as a sub. Therefore, Bellerin should start at right-back again despite the fact he had a mare against Stoke.

Unfortunately we have little option but to stick with the same back four as Saturday. Gibbs will need to start as Monreal is still out, and unless we want to through a youngster into the cauldron away at Galatasaray, we’ll have to go with Per and Chambers in the middle. Let’s hope they do better than against Stoke!

Flamini will have to continue in midfield but I’d give Rambo and Cazorla a breather. This would see Rosicky come into the side for a rare start with The Ox moved into the middle to accommodate Joel Campbell on the wing.

Podolski should certainly start this game while I’d give Sanogo the nod up top and rest Giroud and Welbeck. This would be the line-up:

The team is a mix of youth and experience, and although winning would be great to get us back on track and give us a slim chance of qualifying top, I think resting some players is more important.

***UPDATE*** Arsene Wenger has just named his starting eleven for the game tomorrow. It’s not too dissimilar to the side I’ve selected, in fact it’s only two players different with Debuchy at right-back, Bellerin moving to left-back and Ramsey in for Rosicky.

What would your team be for the game?