Leicester vs Arsenal (16/17)

Team news:
Arsenal: Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger admits he may have to "gamble" on the fitness of Laurent Koscielny, Mesut Ozil and Olivier Giroud, who all started pre-season late after Euro 2016. Aaron Ramsey and Alex Iwobi both face three weeks out because of respective hamstring and thigh injuries.

Leicester: Robert Huth returns to the Leicester squad to face Arsenal on Saturday after completing his three-match ban. Jeff Schlupp remains available despite interest from West Brom.

THE MANAGER
Claudio Ranieri’s title success last season ranks as one of the most incredible stories in the history of English football. The Italian was known as ‘the Tinkerman’ during his spell at Chelsea due to his love of squad rotation and tactical changes, but with the Foxes he settled on a simple shape and a regular starting XI.

Following last season’s success will be extremely tricky, but Ranieri has plenty of Champions League experience, can rely upon an excellent defensive shape and has only lost one major player with N’Golo Kante going to Chelsea.

FORMATION
While Leicester’s system is generally described as a 4-4-2, realistically it’s a little more complex than that. Jamie Vardy stays up front, but last season Shinji Okazaki played a significantly deeper role, contributing more in terms of work rate and ball-winning than goalscoring threat, so it’s more of a 4-4-1-1.
The Foxes also concentrate on staying extremely compact, to prevent opponents finding space between the lines, and are usually very narrow too: allowing space down the flanks, and defending crosses with two towering centre-backs.

STRENGTHS
Leicester’s counter-attacking speed last season was extraordinary, with Vardy chasing long balls over the top and Riyad Mahrez, PFA Player of the Year, dribbling dangerously from the right. The signing of Nigerian attacker Ahmed Musa, fielded alongside Vardy in the opening day 2-1 defeat to Hull, provides yet more pace.
Leicester’s deep defensive block and their excellent ball-winning skills contributes to their excellence at turnovers - last season, no Premier League side completed more tackles or more interceptions.

DANGERMAN
While Vardy is Leicester’s most prolific goalscorer, Mahrez is more of an all-round threat. Last season he was deadly in front of goal, created a succession of chances and, most crucially considering opponents are increasingly putting men behind the ball and playing defensively, he can dribble past players too.

AREAS TO TARGET
Last weekend, Leicester’s front four was comprised of four speedsters - Vardy, Musa, Mahrez and Demarai Gray - and they found it difficult to break down a side sitting very deep. They also lack height, and therefore can be vulnerable when defending set-pieces.

Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20160818/scouting-report-leicester-v-arsenal#opyDBMWXXdY1Je4q.99

Which Arsenal will be entertaining us this time?

It seems pretty set that Koscielny will come back into the team. In which case, it'll be interesting to see who partners him. Holding starting would be like a vote of no confidence in Chambers. Maybe we'll see Monreal play there this time.

I hope we don't rush Ozil and Giroud back, much as we might need them. Last thing we need is an injury to one of those two.

I'd be happy to see us park it and pick them off on the counter. Not only will that deny space for their speed merchants to use but it'll help protect our fragile backline, and we'll have wingers better suited for counter-attacking. But the Guaridan reckon this will be the team:

Cech; Bellerin, Chambers, Koscielny, Monreal; Cazorla, Xhaka; Walcott, Ozil, Alexis; Giroud

...which looks really weak defensively. I'd rather see:

Cech; Bellerin, Chambers, Koscielny, Monreal; Elneny, Xhaka; Chamberlain, Cazorla, Alexis; Walcott/Akpom

Jay29 wrote:Which Arsenal will be entertaining us this time?

It seems pretty set that Koscielny will come back into the team. In which case, it'll be interesting to see who partners him. Holding starting would be like a vote of no confidence in Chambers. Maybe we'll see Monreal play there this time.

I hope we don't rush Ozil and Giroud back, much as we might need them. Last thing we need is an injury to one of those two.

I'd be happy to see us park it and pick them off on the counter. Not only will that deny space for their speed merchants to use but it'll help protect our fragile backline, and we'll have wingers better suited for counter-attacking. But the Guaridan reckon this will be the team:

Cech; Bellerin, Chambers, Koscielny, Monreal; Cazorla, Xhaka; Walcott, Ozil, Alexis; Giroud

...which looks really weak defensively. I'd rather see:

Cech; Bellerin, Chambers, Koscielny, Monreal; Elneny, Xhaka; Chamberlain, Cazorla, Alexis; Walcott/Akpom

That would be my team as well. Need Walcott to step up his game as he did in his last game vs Leicester at their home. We will concede but we have the potential to score too.

Absolutely not looking forward to this match. No interest no hype. Will watch it like routine though.

Let's see if we can do something about this game different to last week

Rumours that Giroud is either starting or is on the bench

RealGunner wrote:Rumours that Giroud is either starting or is on the bench

Coquelin

I came here thinking Holding andz Coquelin would be dropped

We just about got away with the point there. Leicester were denied a stonewall penalty and we were really clinging on during those laste five minutes.

It was a frustrating performance, though. Our defending and ball retention improved from last week, but we made nothing in the first half and then failed to capitalise on some good positions in the second.

Alexis isn't 100% fit, and he wants to come to the ball all the time. We didn't have many runners from him to feed. I thought Cazorla was static in this sense. Ox rarely beat Simpson one-on-one and was pretty ineffectual. Walcott probably had our best chances but couldn't do anything.

So clearly there are issues in attack. Xhaka was excellent - no idea why he was subbed off. Coquelin is a liability when he gets yellow cards in the first half and he should have been sent off. Defence was actually really good, especially Koscielny, though Bellerin struggled against Musa late on.

Better than last week but still plenty to work on. I really want to see Coquelin out of the side next week. No idea what to do about our attack currently.

Not upset with a draw. Should have been a defeat but Clattenburg is a G.

Squad still unfit. Koscielny rescued us most of the time.

Ozil was great when he came on. Sanchez was awful.

We were handed that point. Awful performance

Wenger grilled re money: "Nobody speaks about performance of Holding. You should be happy, he's English & 20, I'm sorry he didn't cost £55m"

ffs

Wenger on clubs spending big money: "What matters to me is that you have 600 employees and can afford to pay them."

dead AF

No ambition by Wenger or Arsenal. None. No reason for neutrals to watch this team.

I wonder how long is it gonna take for Wenger to realize that Alexis is not a no. 9? Put him in the wing or partner him with a real striker up front.

We're already 5 points behind the title challengers. Which is very telling

Very lucky from arsenal. And I'm pretty sure if wenger decided to, you know, get an actual striker instead of playing Alexis as a lone striker things could work out

urbaNRoots wrote:I wonder how long is it gonna take for Wenger to realize that Alexis is not a no. 9? Put him in the wing or partner him with a real striker up front.

We're already 5 points behind the title challengers. Which is very telling

He's got the qualities we'd want from a 9 but he doesn't move like one. He basically needs to do a van Persie for it to work.

Then we have Walcott who moves like a 9 (albeit without the instinct) but doesn't have skillset we want.

Not only that but our movement from midfield was really poor yesterday. Cazorla was pretty much a ghost, and Coquelin is useless against such a deep defence. Ozil came on and got in behind Leicester's defence about three times. We really need him and Elneny in the side.

Wenger said alexis is suarez. No he is not. He has the attributes and skill set which is similar but there is another major thing we he doesnot have in common with suarez. That is the fact that suarez played about 8 to 10 years a central forward striker and has developed himself in that area over the period. Even in PSV suarez was becoming more and more dangerous. Meanwhile alexis is more helpful with the ball at his feet and taking on defenders. Alexis is more suited to partner a striker and link up.

The second question can alexis become suarez esque striker yes. Third question do we that time ??? The answer is no.

When i saw the team sheet i knew that sec it was going to be draw. I thought wenger would bring on giroud in the second half but he took it too long.

Again we lost a game because of tactical misuse. Coquelin hidden in the second half should have been substitute in the 60 min mark and replaced by giroud. Moving alex to midfield and alexis to the left wing. Where he is more used to platingplaying. The question of attack breaking down were not because of cazorla not doing enough. The defender always knew arsenal were playing little one two. Nobody bothered putting the ball in the air due to lack of airal presence. Arsenal did come close to scoring from aet peices.

One thing I don't understand is why arsenal want to play at 100 miles per hour. They need al to be on the same wavelength for that. Its the not the case at present because the team is still learning each other. Possession play and intelligent running was clearly missing even from Walcott.

You mean Ajax right boyzis?

I felt the same way after I saw the lineup yesterday which is pretty sad considering we're only two games into the season and motivation should be sky-high because of expectations and new chances.

Suarez was not prolific when he first came to the EPL but then eventually figured it out. But yes Alexis should not be played as a striker; we have 0 options to cross to when he's there and teams defend too deep in this league against us for us to exclusively tiki-taka around them (as well as us not being Barcelona). For him to figure out how to entirely change his game and play there in those circumstances is a lot to ask.

Yesterday we noticeably lacked a striker. If we had a striker out there, with the possession we had, we certainly would have caused a lot more problems. Giroud came on and made no impact as well, but I mean he's also not fit so whatever.

Ozil came on and we became approximately 12x as dangerous so at least that was promising.