A Yankee Gooner reader has a strong opinion…

We’ve just lost 3-0 against a team which has reached Champions League’s form at exactly the right time.
‘Pool, City are out of our league, no need to lose too much sleep about it. We were 0-0 ‘til the moment when we were made to play without Luiz, Xhaka, Smith Rowe, Saka, and Tierney, i.e., probably our 5 best/most consistent performers since the season started; against in-form scorers, and painful as it is, I don’t see why it should come as a surprise that we crumbled eventually.
Tierney/Luiz won’t be available Thursday, so it might be a good idea to reverse to 3-4-3, as during our successful FA run of games last year, something like – with a few bold changes (Xhaka, Saka, …):
Leno
Chambers Holding Xhaka
Bellerin Partey Odegaard Saka
SmithRowe
Lacazette Aubameyang

But, I also think a 4-4-2 XI like the one below:
Leno
Bellerin Chambers Gabriel Saka
Partey
SmithRowe Xhaka
Odegaard
Lacazette Aubameyang…could do a very good job.

And lastly, it would be nice if twittos/so-called Arsenal “fans” could stop maligning our lads … but that’s only wishful thinking, I know that too.
But really that “Laca-Auba can’t play together” nonsense (or, to put it, otherwise, “in order to win more games/score more goals, we need to take out of the team one of our two best goal scorers”) is really exhausting. Having said that, I would have nothing against bringing Martinelli in, earlier in the games.

COYG