Arsene Wenger is Dead Wrong to Say Arsenal Have Nothing at Stake Against Galatasaray

Given the injury predicament that Arsenal find themselves in, it makes sense that players have to rest from time to time. Arsene Wenger has already stated that Alexis Sanchez and Laurent Kocielny aren’t even traveling with the team to Turkey, and those are two of our most crucial players. No doubt he would like to rest as many starter’s as possible, but is he right to just mail this game in?

The only starter who I could see marching out there is Aaron Ramsey and that’s because the Welshman is rarely ever tired. Luckily (strangely enough) Calum Chambers will be available and should suit up given his unwarranted red card that will keep him out of the weekend clash with Newcastle.

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Wenger himself came out and told the Arsenal website: “A few players [will not travel] because there’s not a lot at stake and we have given a lot in the last two weeks.” That makes me a bit squeamish because there is a lot at stake in this game.

For starters, Arsenal was just embarrassed by Stoke City in a game that saw all momentum and all positives come to a screeching halt. Arsenal need a win as soon as humanly possible. So while Alexis and Santi Cazorla will be resting, maybe giving Lukas Podolski and Tomas Rosicky a start instead of a slew of academy players wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

Secondly, Arsenal can still feasibly win this group, and it would be nice to go into the next round without having to face Barcelona or Bayern Munich.

Borussia Dortmund are struggling mightily and Anderlecht could pull the upset card and defeat the German squad. If that were to happen and Arsenal drop the match against Galatasaray, I’d hate to be Arsene Wenger.

Resting some everyday starters is fine, but marching a team out there composed entirely of academy products essentially guarantees a loss. I’m not a fan of that prospect.

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