Everton FA Cup

[MrT]

Martinez is no mug, like any forward thinking tactical manager he has done his homework on how to nullify our game, which is ridiculously easy to work out as professor crackpot never changes it.

Having said that I believe we will win this mainly for the reason that he will play a weakened side which funnily enough has more pace and width than our 1st 11.

[AkashGooner]

It's the same Arsenal story all over again as it has been now for a number of years......We, Arsenal fans, had the most torrid few years than most other BIG clubs......I don't know when Wenger will aim higher than the '4th place' trophy and inject some fresh world-class blood and depth into this squad......

[remigardeshair]

To all of you getting annoyed about the prospect of Wenger binning the Everton game in favour of Munich: do we actually have any in form attacking players at the moment that even makes this an issue?

There's only Oxlade-Chamberlain from the attackers that warrants a nailed on spot in this team at the moment. If he did theoretically rest/drop Cazorla, Giroud or Ozil for the Everton game for the likes of Gnabry and Sanogo, I'm not sure it would make much difference.

If he leaves out Oxlade-Chamberlain vs Everton I'd be annoyed, the rest are much of a muchness.

We all know he's still going to prioritise Munich and if that means throwing in a few wild cards like Gnabry into the mix vs Everton, I'm all for it, instead of another tepid performance by one of our more established players.

Agree entirely with this.

[DB10GOONER]

To all of you getting annoyed about the prospect of Wenger binning the Everton game in favour of Munich: do we actually have any in form attacking players at the moment that even makes this an issue?

There's only Oxlade-Chamberlain from the attackers that warrants a nailed on spot in this team at the moment. If he did theoretically rest/drop Cazorla, Giroud or Ozil for the Everton game for the likes of Gnabry and Sanogo, I'm not sure it would make much difference.

If he leaves out Oxlade-Chamberlain vs Everton I'd be annoyed, the rest are much of a muchness.

We all know he's still going to prioritise Munich and if that means throwing in a few wild cards like Gnabry into the mix vs Everton, I'm all for it, instead of another tepid performance by one of our more established players.

Agree entirely with this.

I also agree. The team that played the Mousers in the FA Cup looked far more up for it than the team that got raped by them in the PL. Dropping a few "established" players for the likes of Gnabry and Ox might not be a bad thing in the Cup tbh...

[arseofacrow]

Yep, play rosicky, oxlade-chamberlain, gnabry....get a bit of pace going.

As for up front, I couldn't care less. Giroud can't even perform ( ) his minimum function of holding the ball up effectively. Palace's Sanogo doesn't fill anyone with, well, anything and the other fat, danish guy - I give up with Wenger.

[remigardeshair]

Employing such a strategy will keep all supporters happy too

Win - *Arsene knows best, what a strong squad we have/*we won in spite of the manager

Don't win - *well....we only played the squad players, onwards to glory in Munich/*wtf did he play a weakened team, Wenger out

* delete as applicable

[Theoperator]

Find it impossible to predict this have a bad feeling but did VThe Scum and Mousers

One things for certain, if we lose
Hostgator WILL without doubt be coming

[OneBardGooner]

Sadly whether we manage to win this or not...inspector Clueless will be given a new shiney moolah soaked contract for another 3 years at least!....

We will either win by the odd goal..or they will give us a lesson in how to out (tactically) play an opponent...

Arsenal 2 - Everton 1

or

Arsenal 1 - Everton 3

Why can't we sign Martinez as our manager and get shot of clueless...?



I feckin' HATE this...Wenker leads us to yet another inglorious year

[Clash]

To all of you getting annoyed about the prospect of Wenger binning the Everton game in favour of Munich: do we actually have any in form attacking players at the moment that even makes this an issue?

There's only Oxlade-Chamberlain from the attackers that warrants a nailed on spot in this team at the moment. If he did theoretically rest/drop Cazorla, Giroud or Ozil for the Everton game for the likes of Gnabry and Sanogo, I'm not sure it would make much difference.

If he leaves out Oxlade-Chamberlain vs Everton I'd be annoyed, the rest are much of a muchness.

We all know he's still going to prioritise Munich and if that means throwing in a few wild cards like Gnabry into the mix vs Everton, I'm all for it, instead of another tepid performance by one of our more established players.

Agree entirely with this.

I also agree. The team that played the Mousers in the FA Cup looked far more up for it than the team that got raped by them in the PL. Dropping a few "established" players for the likes of Gnabry and Ox might not be a bad thing in the Cup tbh...

Wouldn't it be ironic - and bloody typical of how he gets lucky just when he needs something to save his skin - that Wenger could get a new contract on the back of what he does in the FA Cup ... when one of the reasons he might do something in the FA Cup is due to the fact that he didn't actually take it completely seriously.

[Chippy]

Not sure what depresses me most, the fact Wonga might pick a "weakened" team to rest players in the only competition we can win, or the fact that that "weakened" team might be better than the so called strongest line up.

[LeftfootlegendGooner]

Not sure what depresses me most, the fact Wonga might pick a "weakened" team to rest players in the only competition we can win, or the fact that that "weakened" team might be better than the so called strongest line up.

Tbh I don't think there's much in it, they are all much of a muchness and that muchness ain't much, if you get what I mean

[Sam59]

Not sure what depresses me most, the fact Wonga might pick a "weakened" team to rest players in the only competition we can win, or the fact that that "weakened" team might be better than the so called strongest line up.

Tbh I don't think there's much in it, they are all much of a muchness and that muchness ain't much, if you get what I mean

Agree. Only Mert, Koscielny, Szczesney, Ozil, Sagna are indispensable in a 1st choice team. Giroud a marginally better option than Sanogo. Santi looks buggered. We've been overrun in midfield lately, which (given we play up front with statues) is a huge problem as we rely on midfield dominance and goals to win.
Everton dominated our midfield in the home league game.
Hope the players realise that this is their season, and give everything.

[Its Up 4 Grabs Now]

Not sure what depresses me most, the fact Wonga might pick a "weakened" team to rest players in the only competition we can win, or the fact that that "weakened" team might be better than the so called strongest line up.

Tbh I don't think there's much in it, they are all much of a muchness and that muchness ain't much, if you get what I mean

Agree. Only Mert, Koscielny, Szczesney, Ozil, Sagna are indispensable in a 1st choice team. Giroud a marginally better option than Sanogo. Santi looks buggered.

As things stand, (after the keeper/defence) Chamberlain would be the first name on the team sheet for me every time. From the moment Walcott got injured and Ramsey had his "little setback", Ox became the most indispensable player going forward for us imo. Albeit he's not the finished article by any means. But I honestly cant remember one single run of starts he's had for us since he joined. Has he ever even had 4 or 5 starts in a row?

[officepest]

To all of you getting annoyed about the prospect of Wenger binning the Everton game in favour of Munich: do we actually have any in form attacking players at the moment that even makes this an issue?

There's only Oxlade-Chamberlain from the attackers that warrants a nailed on spot in this team at the moment. If he did theoretically rest/drop Cazorla, Giroud or Ozil for the Everton game for the likes of Gnabry and Sanogo, I'm not sure it would make much difference.

If he leaves out Oxlade-Chamberlain vs Everton I'd be annoyed, the rest are much of a muchness.

We all know he's still going to prioritise Munich and if that means throwing in a few wild cards like Gnabry into the mix vs Everton, I'm all for it, instead of another tepid performance by one of our more established players.

Agree entirely with this.

I also agree. The team that played the Mousers in the FA Cup looked far more up for it than the team that got raped by them in the PL. Dropping a few "established" players for the likes of Gnabry and Ox might not be a bad thing in the Cup tbh...

+1 from me Robin, pretty sensible rationale.

[northbank123]

A fair point, even if that isn't the rationale behind the team selection.

Everton are different to Liverpool and Spurs though. The latter two have more attacking firepower but we always enjoy quality possession with far more time on the ball and exploitable spaces and ultimately create much more. We have started to struggle against Everton a bit in recent years though, not many defeats but made hard work of beating them at our place.

Especially now under Martinez they are far wiser tactically and even better organised from 1-11 - not just sitting back and being difficult to break down like under Moyes (and like we often see with visitors to our place) but capable of really disrupting teams' play by pressing fast and high (thereby adding more of a counter-attacking threat by nicking the ball off us in dangerous areas).

I'm still glad we'll have a bit more pace and freshness but I worry that with the inevitable tactical predictability/rigidity we won't see the same benefits.