It’s Lille tonight under the lights for The Arsenal, and it’s a return for 40-year-old Olivier Giroud to the Emirates turf. Of course he’s been there before with other clubs, notably Chelsea, but there’s been enough time that has elapsed since then that I think most Arsenal fans can look relatively positively on his time at the club. Six years, over 100 goals; he was never the elite finisher that we wanted, but he did his bit, and I think he was a solid player for us.

He spoke fondly of Arsenal in the pre-match press conferences yesterday, also reflecting on his Puskas goal against Crystal Palace all those years back. That will live long in the memory for sure, but as he put it, I don’t think we’ll see one like that again, and very unlikely for lightning to strike twice tonight.

Lille will prove a stern challenge, however, having kicked off their season with four wins, a draw and a defeat, and alongside Giroud there will be a pantomime villain in the shape of ex-Scum player Nabil Bentaleb, who played for them for four years before moving abroad to Schalke.

Apparently, accoridng to the internet, they are an aggressive pressing side who will go direct, and you’d expect with somebody like Giroud in the team, they’ll be looking for rapid players to buzz around him as the target man, which means that whoever has the man-marking job this evening, can stifle a lot of their play if he can win the duels against the Frenchman. Here’s what David Ancelotti (son of Carlo) said with regards to his footballing philosophy:

But my idea is: during the defensive phase, a compact defensive line must be built, whether it’s high pressing or low block defense.

To me that says that Lille are going to try to low block us this evening, so we better be prepared for it, because you don’t normally see too much of that in the Champions League. usually you’re up against teams who want to come at you, but if Lille are playing for a point in North London, it could be a frustrating one for us I think.

I do wonder if Arteta needs to do a bit of rotation to freshen it up, on that basis, you know? I would have said “how about Zubi in midfield?”, but as confirmed in the press conference last night, he’s out. As is Hincapie, and that one doesn’t sound good. Apparently he had to be carried off the pitch after Leeds game by Meslier, and Arteta seemed to back it up that it doesn’t look great. He’s such a good footballer, but much like Calafiori (although maybe not quite a bad), he’s had a fair few injuries now since signing for us. It’s only because Arteta loves a left back, that we have always had options, and you do wonder if we’ll start to see a little more rotation with Myles in at left back to protect the Italian’s legs.

I’d do that tonight, actually, and give Myles the left back role, moving Bruno in centrally, so that you can reward him for his good performance and splendid finish to win us the game on Saturday. I thought that, goal aside, his overall play in changing the game was good too, so I’d like to see him take to the pitch from the start this evening.

And I do wonder if Mikel might change it up again in attack. Noni was alright overall on Saturday, even if he did have some iffy moments, but I’d be tempted to shift him right, give Saka a rest, bring Eze in on the left. I’d also have a think about Gyokeres, but I think a complete shuffle of the front three is probably unlikely by Arteta.

Unlikely, but not completely impossible because let’s face it, we weren’t exactly sparkling against an admittedly well-organised Leeds. He sort of called out the attacking too, saying last night:

But I think we’re certainly getting in some great, great, great positions. We need to be more clinical now to finish more actions.

I think that was the only problem from the Leeds game, but we also need to recognise that Leeds had only conceded three goals all season, and hadn’t conceded two since god knows when, so perhaps I/we need to be less harsh on the team. And perhaps that extends to tonight; Lille will be a tough nut to crack, they’re full of confidence given they’re second in Ligue Un, so a probing approach will probably be Soup Du Jour for those going along tonight.

I shall be one of them, hopefully not losing my voice like I did at the weekend, but a lot of that will be predicated on how the team gets on. My hope is that we see a slightly rotated side, because I do think Arteta needs to ensure he leans on to his squad more, to try to mitigate fatigue-based injuries. But also to keep those Arsenal players on the fringes of the team engaged. If you can’t give players more minutes when we’re easily playing two-to-three times a week, when can you give it to them? That’s what I think we need to see tonight, and hopefully Arteta does that.

So my side for this evening would look a little like this:

Raya

Timber – Mosquera – Gabriel – MLS

Bruno

Odegaard – Rice

Madueke – Gyokeres – Eze

There’s enough freshness in there, we have options on the bench, we also have the goal machine that is Merino if we want him to start, so I’d also potentially think of him instead of Big Vik. But I do think an element in rotation, in putting some more faith in the squad, is what you can do for a game like tonight. Let’s see if Arteta agrees.

That’s yer lot for today – back tomorrow with a Champions League debriwef, to see if we’ve maintained a 100% record in the competition. See you then.