One player he spoke about bringing back into the side was Oliver Giroud which left me with a twang of disappointment I must say, not because Giroud will be starting you understand, I am sure his previous sit outs will give him that extra spring in his step but I wanted to see Yaya Sanogo play against a team that wasn’t either one of the form title chasing sides in the league or you know, the best team in Europe/World. The thinking being that he had gave a very good account of himself in two very difficult games so perhaps in a game where we are more than likely going to have a lions share of the ball, perhaps Yaya might empty out a couple more tricks out of his locker. Given Sanogo’s freshness at this stage of the season, Arsène would normally try to shoehorn him into the team but I just don’t see how both Giroud and Sanogo can start together. None of them are really suited to a wide birth so maybe it will be impact from the bench for Yaya.

There is a question that I guess all Arsenal fans would like to know the answer to at present. How will the team respond to the Bayern Munich set back? Will we wallow in self pity and go through the motions or will we roll our sleeves up and hit Sunderland the same way that we hit Bayern for the first 15 minutes of Wednesday’s clash? That is most certainly what I took from that defeat, if we start games like we did in midweek, we will rip through most teams in this division, even during this rather difficult run we have.

But while we can do it, I wonder if the manager will want to do so, perhaps being of the concern that putting that much into every game will see us throw a grenade up our exhaust pipe and explode just when the games get tasty. Why do I turn to car metaphors almost every article?

We are not going to get the same thing in terms of personnel that’s for sure. Arsène wasn’t shy in telling everyone during yesterday’s press conference that there will be changes. He said something like ‘he doesn’t know how many’ suggests there will be a few.

One player he spoke about bringing back into the side was Oliver Giroud which left me with a twang of disappointment I must say, not because Giroud will be starting you understand, I am sure his previous sit outs will give him that extra spring in his step but I wanted to see Yaya Sanogo play against a team that wasn’t either one of the form title chasing sides in the league or you know, the best team in Europe/World. The thinking being that he had gave a very good account of himself in two very difficult games so perhaps in a game where we are more than likely going to have a lions share of the ball, perhaps Yaya might empty out a couple more tricks out of his locker. Given Sanogo’s freshness at this stage of the season, Arsène would normally try to shoehorn him into the team but I just don’t see how both Giroud and Sanogo can start together. None of them are really suited to a wide birth so maybe it will be impact from the bench for Yaya.

It is safe to say that Mesut Özil will be rested to the bench to recharge some mental as well as physical batteries (any other batteries than car one’s though) and Arsène will be flipping open his player fresh list. Tomas Rosicky, Mikel Arteta and Lukas Podolski aren’t bad names to call upon. All experienced players who can hopefully do what is asked of them with little fuss. Thomas Vermaelen would have been a certain starter for this one I reckon if he was available but it’s all gone very quiet on that front. You’d like to think that even if he was seeking pastures new he would still be able to give his all for the shirt but we’ve seen Arsène freeze out players coming to the end of their Arsenal careers in the past so who knows.

Kieran Gibbs is out following his midweek injury so Monreal gets another chance in the team. I actually think that Monreal is better suited to these games. Games where he is asked to stay high up the pitch and play as a winger rather than having to spend large parts of the game defending against fast opponents.

There were rumours that Oxlade-Chamberlain had been playing through injury against Bayern and that is why he was taken off for Rosicky. Arsène didn’t mention that yesterday but Ox while being one of our key players in recent games, has played all the very high tempo matches and could be asked to sit this one out.

Mean Lean’s Predicted Total Guess Work Line Up:

That line up could be complete rubbish, I just don’t know at this stage. Serge Gnabry being as fresh as a German daisy is an option for the manager should he want to continue to have pace in the side. I can’t help but feel that Sanogo will continue in the side. Why would Arsene remove a player who is just starting to get his groove on, especially a young player who needs games to ‘show what he can do’ as the boss likes to say.

Needless to say, getting back to winning ways is vitally important. We need to win these games before another wave of tough fixtures turn up. We may well have to be patient once again with Sunderland likely to come to the Emirates to defend for their lives.

Chelsea have a tougher home game against Everton at Stamford Bridge in the lunchtime kick off so that should be very interesting. Manchester City face Stoke City at home so you’d expect three points for them but hey, forget them, let us do what we need to do and that is to re-steady this ship with a victory.