The great debate

Your opinions...who should start and why?

tricky...

Is Arteta the captain or is it Mertesacker? Flamini has been solid and provided leadership but Mikel is great for us.

I've said it in other threads, but these are the problems that are good to have.

Flamini got cautioned by the FA for threatening to Blind a stoke player who nearly injured Wilshere

ok for now Flamini, Arteta can come in slowly

Flamini has done well, no reason to drop him now, he is Arteta's replacement anyways right?

I think both will start somehow, and Jack will be given more rest now.

They should rotate often. lts better that arteta doesn't play too many games. But for big games Arteta should get the start.

Unless one of our CBs isn't healthy. Then move Sagna to CB and play Flamini at RB

the midfield is a bit tricky now. i think aginst more pressing teams we could play both.with ramsey in front of them. otherwise they must rotate with arteta getting the large chunk of play. we need jack in the team as he plays with passion. eish. bt flamini has shown great responsibility and leadership which we greatly needed.

It's the same for everyone. As long as Flamini plays well, he starts. Don't worry about Arteta, he'll get his chances and prove once again what a great player he is. I'm just glad we can play a good defensive game even without Mikel once in a while.

I think they could work well together, Jack needs to be rested so I'd bring in Arteta to play Jack's role. Flamini is a great guy to have just in front of your back 4 who can help break down opponent attacks in the middle third, Arteta has curbed his instincts a little and now works well as that holding player but he's still a great asset going forward and having Flamini alongside him would allow him to get forward more and join the attack of Ramsey, Walcott, Ozil and Giroud - quite lethal. I see Arteta and Jack as being quite similar so I think they'll rotate well.

this debate is going on in all forums.. some of my opinions..

how fast everything changes in football.. Flamini goes vocal and has a couple of good matches, everyone forgets who is Arteta and what he has done.. my point is the entire team is playing better and all in midfield bossing.. so Flamini is in an easier situation.. Arteta was the only man organising the game last season and oppositions targeted him.. He withstood it most of the time but on occasions it affected is gameplay.. Flamini has not faced that and is unlikely to face it considering the midfield we have now.. so Arteta should perform even better playing with our midfield this year, if he can play atleast like last year..

For me, it isn't a discussion tbh, Arteta is brilliant, but we're winning games with Flamini and that's all that should matter.

Absolutely no reason to drop him.

Arteta has been our most influential player for the last 2 seasons and is our captain.. and we should play the best 11..
so Arteta deserves to go straight to the first 11 when fully fit.. i cant tolerate him waiting in the bench..

Boys, why not play both? Finally Arteta will be free to go forward.

a midfield consisting of Arteta-Flamini and Eisfeld would do just fine against west Brom imo.

not sure Arteta would be better than others offensively.. the best midfield should be Arteta, Ramsey and Ozil with Cazorla as the extra midfielder in one of the wings..

For now, there's no need to change anything. Flamini has settled into the midfield with ease and is contributing towards the team winning games, while Arteta is just returning from an injury. At the moment, we can ease Arteta back in comfortably.

In the future, though, my preference would be Arteta because I think we keep the ball better when he's in the side. Flamini brings something new to the midfield but he isn't going to control the tempo of a match and end a season with some of the best passing statistics you'll find anywhere. I think he's superior tactically as well.

The beauty of this situation is that it doesn't have to be one or the other. You could easily see the two playing together and creating a very solid base for the team, which I feel will be very important at some points with the addition of Özil to the side. Also, Arteta's ability to position himself well would allow Flamini to press higher up the field, which could be extremely useful in situations where we need to assert ourselves more on the other side.

There's all sorts of situations where we can make use of these two.

VendettaRed07 wrote:They should rotate often. lts better that arteta doesn't play too many games. But for big games Arteta should get the start.

Unless one of our CBs isn't healthy. Then move Sagna to CB and play Flamini at RB

You given up on Vermaelen? And I like what I've seen from jenkinson this year.

I know Flamini has been doing well but Passteta should start once he fully is fit. Anything Flamini can Passteta can do and more  

Chemistry!
I actually do not think that anyone coming back from a long term injury should just be dropped back into a starting role. You take the chance of messing with team chemistry. Take the time to ease them in and see of their play warrants moving back to the starting spot.

All that said, When was the last time that we were able to sit back and NOT say we need player X back from injury. I still think that we are short of proven quality at CF and both wings. The addition of Ozil and Flamini has turned into some brilliant business that provides tremendous coverage and options.

This is the problem we should always have. Rotating depends on form/ fatigue/ injury and opponents, bamp. At least we don't have to cry about why Coquelin was sent out on loan.

I think the saying of 'don't fix what isn't broken' applies here, Flamini has been fantstic since he has started and that should not be changed until he has a dip in form. Obviously we should rotate him and our other star players so they don't burn out and get injuires but Flamini should be a starter as he has been nothing short of brilliant.

Agreed. Like I said before, Arteta can come in ahead of Jack whilst he's still finding his form.

But Jack has been playing left mid, I don't think Arteta can play there.

Well Jack roams a lot, I don't think it would make much difference to our attack whether we had Arteta or Wilshere.

I think you could easily swap out Arteta for Jack in the below set up, Arteta will now have more freedom to move forward knowing that he has Flamini as cover and we've already seen that Jack has preferred to play from deep as opposed to the "number 10" role that we expected of him. Both he and Arteta are great at picking the ball up deep and moving it forward with quick, to the feet, passing.

Szczesny
Sagna Verm Kos Gibbs
Flamini
Arteta
Walcott Ozil Ramsey
Giroud

I think Arteta is best suited to dictating play from a deeper position, he isn't dynamic enough with his passing to play in a forward position. I am not saying he can't play in a much more attacking role, if he played there he'd be average.

Arteta is a pretty versatile midfielder. He even used to play on the wing sometimes for Everton years ago. Arteta is a natural midfielder who you can play almost anywhere - he is creative, tactically aware and of course a phenomenal passer of the ball.. I am unsure about his capacity to play a more b2b role as he ages but he still seems pretty fit to me.
I don't agree that he would be 'average' further up the pitch. Although I agree we have become used to him as the deep lying playmaker I don't see why he can't be deployed elsewhere whilst Flamini is playing well.

Anyway as most people are saying I think it'll be a case of easing Mikel back into the team - which should come naturally given his talent. Flamini was signed on as a more defensive option for midfield and also as cover for sagna where required. Nothing has really changed - Flamini still may get preferred to Wilshere, Ramsey or even Arteta depending on the opposition and form on any given day.