Pain in the Arsenal
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Arsenal: Major Changes In Predicted Starting XI To Face Sunderland

By Josh Sippie

ST ALBANS, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 21: Granit Xhaka and Shkodran Mustafi of Arsenal during the Arsenal Squad photos at London Colney on September 21, 2016 in St Albans, England. (Photo by David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
ST ALBANS, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 21: Granit Xhaka and Shkodran Mustafi of Arsenal during the Arsenal Squad photos at London Colney on September 21, 2016 in St Albans, England. (Photo by David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images) /
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Arsenal, Granit Xhaka
(Photo by Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images) /

Granit Xhaka and Francis Coquelin

Just… please let this happen. Cazorla does not need to be risked. Not when his Achilles tendon is at stake. There is far too much to lose and far too little to gain. Plus, his absence gives Wenger an excuse to get creative. Which is like, one of the seven deadly sins of the Wenger regime, but hey, a guy can dream.

Xhakalin could be dynamic. It could be everything we have dreamed of since Vieira and Gilberto split up and went their separate ways. A powerful, brutish midfield that is scared of no one? If you had told us two seasons ago that this was a possibility in the here and now, we would have (well, I would have) cryogenically frozen myself to wake up this season.

And I would have been disappointed because it has yet to be utilized.

The results are not a sure thing, but there is one thing that is for sure. Arsenal would control the midfield without a shred of a doubt. And that is a victory.

More questions the further up that we move.