Cardiff City Vs Arsenal
November 30th 15:00 BST
Cardiff City Stadium
Referee: Lee Mason


The only way is Up

Although many did predict a comfortable victory against Marseille on Tuesday, it was a genuine relief to see that we were not that complacent ( we were a bit tbf ) and did the job up to the standard to claim all 3 points. That means that Arsenal are 90% qualified to the next round of the CL and only a defeat of a 3 goal margin would kick us out. This goes hand to hand with our Premier League form. Arsenal are 4 points clear of the 2nd placed team and like the CL, we are going up nice and steady. Our form has been pretty good and after a difficult home game against Southampton, we travel to Wales to play against a side that have beaten Manchester City and drew against Manchester United. Hence why our form should come in handy when we play them and why we can't be complacent. It's always difficult to play a side that have had a week worth of rest compared to our 3 days and along with a side that is very high on the morale and confidence. This is why it makes such an interesting clash. Can Cardiff City, the giant slayers do to us what they did to City and United? and nearly Tottenham? It is something to look forward to but Cardiff are one of those teams Arsenal have to beat to continue going upwards. It is not a choice but a necessity.

Cardiff

Malky Mackay has done really well with Cardiff this season. A side tipped for relegation and not boosting any star players, they currently sit 15th in the ever so tight Premier League and will be fighting to get any sort of result so they can stay where they are or even go above instead of falling further down and go in a situation which makes it difficult for them to climb back up. Cardiff have won 1 and drawn two of their last 6 fixtures. They are strong on set pieces and like to play long balls. They are also the sort of side that never gives up and will not go down on morale if they concede and will try to come back in the game. Their weakness is the lack of genuine quality and they find it hard to play against a team like Arsenal. Which obviously suits us lol. Medel will try to stop Ozil/Wilshere/Cazorla/Ramsey/Arteta from playmaking but he is a bit stupid and rash so i don't see him doing much apart from fouling and maybe getting sent off.

Team News

For Arsenal, Gibbs is back in the squad after illness. Walcott should be more fitter and hopefully sharper. Might even start. No other injuries

For Cardiff, there are no injuries.

Probable Arsenal Team

-------------------------------------Szczesny---------------------------------------

Sagna---------------Mertesacker------------------Koscielny------------------Gibbs

------------------------Arteta--------------Ramsey----------------------------------

Walcott-------------------------Ozil-----------------------------------Cazorla-------

-----------------------------------Giroud--------------------------------------------

The problem with that team is that Wilshere is in amazing form. Walcott at this point needs game to get back to his best. What would you do?

Cardiff Probable team

--------------------------------------Marshall---------------------------------------

Theophile----------------Caulker--------------Turner---------------------Taylor

Cowie-------------Medel---------------Mutch-----------Whittingham-----Odemwingie

---------------------------------Campbell--------------------------------------------

Match Facts (BBC)

Head-to-head

• This is their first league meeting since 17 March 1962 - a 1-1 draw at Arsenal.
  
• The most recent encounter was a 4-0 FA Cup fourth-round replay victory for Arsenal in February 2009.

Cardiff

• Cardiff have yet to lead a game at half-time this season.
  
• Only Manchester United and Aston Villa have gained more points from losing positions than Cardiff this season (five).
  
• Three of Cardiff's six home games this season have been decided by goals in the 87th minute or later (W1, D1, L1).
  
• The Bluebirds have only lost three of their seven games against top-half opposition this season (W2, D2).
  
• Peter Odemwingie has scored in two of his three Premier League starts against Arsenal.

Arsenal

• Arsenal have the best away record in the Premier League (W4, D1, L1).
  
• Their last away game, a 1-0 defeat at Manchester United, was the only league match they have failed to score in this season.
  
• Jack Wilshere has four goals in his last eight games for Arsenal.
  
• Aaron Ramsey has made more tackles than any other player in the Premier League this season (57).

Final Say

A win would be nice

Great job RG.

Everyone is almost fit, cant see us losing this game. Our away form will continue, going with a 3-1 win.
Its going to be tougher, we must win our next few games.

great preview.. we haven looked near our best for a while now but still managed some very good results.. i have a feeling that this will be easier than expected..


not sure about Raptors team there..
why should Monreal start over Gibbs and Flamini over Arteta ?
and i think considering the form of Wilshere, he will be started in the wings ahead of Walcott who is not matchfit.. and may be Rosicky dropping to the bench for Cazorla..

we are playing very well i think it will be 3 - 0 to the good

Don't think id bench wilshere for Walcott right now, particularly because Walcott is spectacularly bad when hes not fully fit

But he needs game time to improve on his fitness and sharpness. Is it better to wait for Hull at home to start him? I can see Arsene going with that.

I was going to say rest Ozil but fantasy team needs him so don't do that lol.

Ramsey will likely get boo'd, but it won't be out of spite. It'll just be the Cardiff fans having a bit of fun.

This game is the start of an important period for us and how well we manage and rotate the squad will be vital towards whatever success we'll have. Gibbs, Arteta and Cazorla will likely return to the starting eleven, but at who's expense I can't say. We know Wenger likes to have Arteta and Flamini together in these sorts of games, Ramsey is undroppable at the moment, Wilshere is finding form and it's unlikely Ozil will be rested with Hull to play on Wednesday. The only thing I can say with some certainty is that Walcott will probably be on the bench again.

Whoever starts, though, I'm confident of a win. The bigger sides have gone to Cardiff and have found it tough, but we've proven many times recently that we can overcome these sorts of challenges quite comfortably. They're strong at set-pieces, but we've been good at dealing with those, and you'd like to think that we can handle whatever they can throw at us in open play. Their defence isn't that great (it's given up the most shots on target this season, iirc), so I don't see scoring being a problem for us, either. I can see a 1-0 or 2-0 win for us.

Of course, now that I've pretty much ruled Cardiff out they'll have the game of their lives and get a win.

Great work RG

I hope Theo uses these next 2 matches to regain his sharpness before more tricky opponents come around


regardless of form we should manage our resources well and dont risk overloading anyone

so i hope we see a bit rotation (2-3 players) for this and Hull matches cant start same XI every game

Rozza-Jack-Gnabry-Nacho fitness matters alot in this period

lets get solid win here

I do hope we can rest Ozil. I am sure we can manage fine with upgraded Ramshere and Cazorla. But Arsene knows best

Rest ozil against hull not tommorow

Arsenal cannot afford to rest Ozil for Cardiff. It is imperative that Arsenal win these type of "gimmie" games if they want to be in prime position in January.

As Urban stated it's better for Nacho to start.Other than his consistency,there are also rumors that he might seek a temporary move back to Spain,to enhance his chances of playing as a starter for Spain in WC next year.I feel its high time AW starts to rotate Gibbs and Monreal a li'l more now that we've a couple of fixtures where we can do a fair bit of rotation.

I'm not in favour in dropping Jack, and I also would like Walcott to start. So I say we should rest Özil and play Jack behind Giroud.

It would be so lovely if we win this match. Just to extend the lead, plus we've got a really tough run coming up after the Hull game in midweek, which we should also really win.

So C'mon Arsenal!!!

Citrus wrote:As Urban stated it's better for Nacho to start.Other than his consistency,there are also rumors that he might seek a temporary move back to Spain,to enhance his chances of playing as a starter for Spain in WC next year.I feel its high time AW starts to rotate Gibbs and Monreal a li'l more now that we've a couple of fixtures where we can do a fair bit of rotation.

Well it isn't just as easy as that.

Sure bringing in Nacho every now and then is good. But not like every second game or so. Because Gibbs has been very, very solid this season and he is just improving. So dropping him like regularly won't be that good. It'll have to be managed wisely. Nacho will just have to understand, and fight for his place in the team.

El Gunner wrote:

Citrus wrote:As Urban stated it's better for Nacho to start.Other than his consistency,there are also rumors that he might seek a temporary move back to Spain,to enhance his chances of playing as a starter for Spain in WC next year.I feel its high time AW starts to rotate Gibbs and Monreal a li'l more now that we've a couple of fixtures where we can do a fair bit of rotation.

Well it isn't just as easy as that.

Sure bringing in Nacho every now and then is good. But not like every second game or so. Because Gibbs has been very, very solid this season and he is just improving. So dropping him like regularly won't be that good. It'll have to be managed wisely. Nacho will just have to understand, and fight for his place in the team.

How does he fight for his place when he performs well and still gets benched? He's been playing well filling in for Gibbs at LB and when he comes on as a late sub at LW. He can't be satisfied with playing only when Gibbs is injured and in the last 30mins of games at LW.

In the last few seasons we've had to rely on the same 14-15 players all season because of the lack of quality and it burns the players out. Now we have some decent options on the bench. If we don't start rotating now in periods of tough games and tight schedules then the players will be tired towards the end of the season and will likely see the casualty ward fill up as well.

Bendtner has been dropped from the matchday squad, apparently. Bench could be:

Fabiasnki, Vermaelen, Monreal, Flamini, Rosicky, Gnabry, Walcott

Not bad

gtfo Bendtner.

Theo makes defenders shit their pants lol.

CardiffCityFC XI: Marshall, Taylor, Caulker, Turner, Whittingham, Medel, Campbell, Kim, Mutch, Cowie, Theophile-Catherine.

Szczesny; Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs; Arteta, Ramsey; Wilshere, Ozil, Cazorla; Giroud