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TEAM: My Preferred XI To Face Swansea – Arteta + Giroud Out

By on March 25, 2014

It’s time to put Saturday’s disaster behind as Arsenal welcome Swansea City to the Emirates tonight. Here is my preferred starting eleven for the game.

Goalkeeper: Szczesny was disappointing last week and there have been rumours Arsene may drop him tonight. But I don’t really see the point in disrupting Wojciech to play Fabianski when he’s not even going to be here next season. We need to give Szczesny a chance to redeem himself and prove his doubters wrong, so I say start him.

Defence: Laurent Koscielny has picked up a calf injury and is now facing two weeks on the sidelines so Thomas Vermaelen will come in alongside Per at the back. Kieran Gibbs is available after seeing his red card rescinded by the FA yesterday. The defence was awful on Saturday but on the whole they’ve been excellent this season – particularly at home – so there’s no point panicking and making too many changes.

Midfield: I’ve said it many times before and I’ll say it again, Mikel Arteta doesn’t have the legs to play the holding role anymore, especially in the big games. He was badly exposed again on Saturday and with Man City coming up on Saturday, I think we need to rest him tonight and bring Mathieu Flamini in. I’d also play Tomas Rosicky alongside him as his work-rate and energy can be well utilised in the middle.

Attack: The Ox was shocking against Chelsea but it was a rare blip in what’s been a promising few months for the youngster. I personally don’t think he’s ready to play in the middle on a consistent basis yet, so I’d prefer to play him on the wing for now. Particularly as Theo’s out and we lack pace in the final third.

With Ozil, Wilshere and Ramsey all out we have few options to change things up, so I’d stick with Santi in the middle and Podolski on the left. The German gives us a vital goal threat and is easily the best finisher at the club.

Striker: Giroud looked shattered on Saturday. Either that or he was extremely lazy. Either way, I’d go with Yaya Sanogo tonight and give Oli a rest ahead of the City game. The youngster will work hard and put a shift in, and let’s face it, he can’t do much worse than Giroud did against the Chavs.

What do you think of my team? What line-up would you play?

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