Arsene Wenger made nine changes to the Arsenal starting line-up for the FA cup match against Burnley on Saturday, but it was still a pretty strong Arsenal side and two of those changes were first team players making their return from injury.

We also saw Mohamed Elneny make his Arsenal debut, while Per Mertesacker was banned after being sent off against Chelsea, so all those changes were not really down to the boss playing a weakened team. So if the boss does make the seven changes that I expect him to for the visit of Southampton today then he will still be selecting his strongest 11 players.

I think that Coquelin and Alexis will keep their places and I think that our German centre back will return to partner Koscielny, with both full backs also changing, even though Gibbs and Chambers both had very good games. It is great for the boss to have these strong options but with the cup game having only been three days ago he will want freshness as well as quality on the pitch.

That is why I think Wenger will go for Joel Campbell instead of Walcott, with Ozil and Ramsey coming back into the side and Giroud and Sanchez keeping their places.

Cech
Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal
Coquelin, Ramsey
Campbell, Ozil, Alexis
Giroud

Is this the right Arsenal team to get revenge on the Saints?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.