Quantcast
Home   >   Opinions   >   Walcott Starts, Ramsey Out: My Arsenal Starting XI To Face Monaco

Walcott Starts, Ramsey Out: My Arsenal Starting XI To Face Monaco

By on March 16, 2015

Theo Walcott Arsenal

Arsenal will look to pull off a miracle when we take on Monaco in the second leg of our Champions League last-16 tie tomorrow night. This is the side I’d like to see Arsene Wenger go with…

Ospina has now established himself as our No.1 and while I’m still not 100% convinced by the Colombian yet, he certainly looks more assured in goal than Szczesny right now.

Gabriel is back in training but I wouldn’t expect him to be fit enough to start so I’d stick with Koscielny and Mertesacker at the back. Let’s hope they put in a much better display than they did in the first leg.

Bellerin got a rest on Saturday so he should come back in while I’d go with Monreal at left-back. He’s been excellent in recent weeks and is more solid defensively than Gibbs. It’s important we keep things tight at the back so I’d give Nacho the nod.

Midfield is going to be interesting. Ramsey was back to his best against West Ham but perhaps controversially, I’d leave him out tomorrow night. No doubt Coquelin and Cazorla will start so it only leaves one place left in the middle.

I’d personally opt to play Ozil in the free role behind Giroud with Walcott starting on the right wing. Theo’s finishing was awful on Saturday but the key thing is his runs got him into those positions to score and as we need at least three goals, I think Walcott is one of our most dangerous outlets so has to start.

The alternative would be to have Coquelin, Cazorla and Rambo in the middle with Ozil out wide but I think we’ll be far more balanced with Theo on the right. Let’s just hope he has his shooting boots on this time.

Here’s the team I’d go with:

We’re back in great form and this side is more than capable of scoring three goals against Monaco. Let’s not forget on another day Giroud would have bagged a hat-trick and we’d have easily beaten them at home, so we know we can create opportunities against them.

It’s all about getting an early goal and giving ourselves a chance of pulling off the miracle comeback.

4 Comments