Declan Rice is missing from the squad of 20 named by manager Manuel Pellegrini last night.
It’s not known at this stage whether the teenager has sustained a knock but unless the boss has a late minute change of heart the defender/midfielder will be missing from today’s squad.
And never mind about a final line-up, the question is who will be left out of the squad of 20 for the game against Bournemouth today (Sat).
With an entirely fit squad apart from the long term absentees Winston Reid, Andy Carroll and Manu Lanzini available, the manager has named 20 which must be whittled down to the final 18.
Quite who will be excluded is a real guessing game but as you address the question bear in mind the manager is set to name an attacking team with a 4-4-2 formation – or something like it.
So here are the 20 the manager has named as his preliminary squad:
Adrian, Fabianski, Noble, Zabaleta, Fredericks, Masuaku, Diop, Antonio, Ogbonna, Obiang, Ogbonna, Yarmolenko, Chicharito, Arnautovic, Wilshere, Snodgrass, Cresswell, Balbuena, Anderson, Sanchez and Perez.
Doubtless injuries will intervene later in the season but it’s many years since we went into a game with such a powerful squad.
Now, who are your two exclusions?
Chrikey Hugh one Ogbonna is bad enough. I exclude one of them from the squad. Obviously a typo
I never took much notice of Perez at Arsenal. One website says he played only 265 minutes of football ( scoring 1 goal ) during that season, and I missed it.
It seems though from other opinions, and from stats shown recently, we could have unearthed a gem. He seems to be a striker in the mold of Johny Byrne, who can create and score goals. Last season in Spain he came second only to Messi for the number of assists.
It could be he plays in the 10 position behind Arnie, where he could do enormous damage. That would mean Wilshere playing in Rices place to accomadate him.
I totally agree Perez #10 with Arnie up front Anderson and yarmelenko on the wings ,noble and jack holding midfield
An absolute disgrace not to see Rice in this squad, he is just so far ahead of a player like Fredericks. In relation to Perez, I would not be getting too excited about this guy, he did not even make Arsenal’s match day squads.
Would be nice to see Perez or Hernandez up front to help Arnie.Oxford looked good against Spurs for the U23s.Would it be prudent to get him around the first team and get some of that spark back.Big game today and i think a better game to judge where we are in the grand scheme of things this season.