So with Andy Carroll, Andriy Yarmolenko and Winston Reid his only injuries this weekend the manager finds himself, as he puts it, with “real options since the start of the season.”
And that opens up all sorts of intriguing possibilities for the match against Saints on Saturday – a team whose recent record shows them as having drawn their last two games and lost and won the two before.
The boss – of course to go out with a win in front of the London Stadium crowd – saw a brilliant team performance against Spurs last weekend and although he may love to, it’s going to be hard for him to mess too much with the team that did the business.
With Issa Diop and Fabian Balbuena reunited at the heart of defence, things looked far better at the back and I would expect – with Zaba having played enough games to trigger the newly signed contract – Fredericks to continue down the right.
In the middle of the park we can expect Lanzini to come in, probably for Snodgrass and Carlos Sanchez and Jack Wilshere will presumably be on the bench as possible later subs for Rice and Noble as it would come as a surprise if Pelle doesn’t take the chance of having a look at them ahead of pre season.
Given the power that Arnie and Antonio brought to the party last weekend it would seem likely they will form the front two in a starting X1 which one imagines will look like this:
Fabianski; Fredericks, Diop, Balbuena, Masuaku; Noble, Rice, Lanzini, Anderson, Arnautovic and Antonio.
I think Nasri has to start if he has any chance of signing on for next year. I would prefer Lanzini to replace Snodgrass as that would be the likely formation for next year with the possible exception of Noble for a more box to box midfielder alongside Rice. Noble will still be needed for the big games and his leadership but will only be able to play half of the games.
Nasri is also available, I would put him in the team instead of Lanzini, give Manu a break until the end of the season to recover fully. Other than that the team that played Tottenham should be given another chance, last three games we have started with the right intensity so lets keep it up, we have to win both games if we want to finish in the top 10.