Arsenal manager Unai Emery has refused to rule out starting Denis Suarez against Manchester City tomorrow.
The Spaniard only arrived on deadline day but the Gunners boss feels the midfielder could be ready to make an instant impact:
“I am thinking about all the players. If he starts, I have confidence in him I know the player. He started training yesterday individually and today with the group.”
“He is good. He is one player with the quality and he can help us with this quality and also with his ambition to do something important here.”
Fans on Twitter feel putting Suarez in straight away would be the right move:
Start him!!!
— WaYnE GuShaz (@Waynegushaz01) 1 February 2019
He should, better than most of our players
— Harry (@HarryAFC17) 1 February 2019
He must
— NUNGUA MEEK MILL (@iceses_gh) 1 February 2019
He is starting
— Lacazette (@Lacazetteboy) 1 February 2019
Of course he should, he should replace iwobi in the starting line up
— Peter Ebere (@PeterEbere8) 1 February 2019
Why not if nothing is wrong?
Or
Did u buy a bench player?— altojnr_39 (@Altojnr3) 1 February 2019
better than iwobi and xhaka so why not
— Sadiq Osman (@SadiqOsman9) 1 February 2019
This is Unai’s Ramsey replacement. I can easily see him playing btw Auba and Laca
— Michael Olatunji (@infomichaelniyi) 1 February 2019
Yes. Hopefully in the place of the liability Granit Xhaka!!
— Daryl Turner BA MCSI (@DazLegend) 1 February 2019
Unai has worked with him before so he may trust him well enough. But it’s the EPL, so he may feel it’ll be tough for Suarez.
— Henri (@alxm001) 1 February 2019
One of the concerns that Emery will have is Suarez’s match sharpness. The 25-year-old may have only played his last competitive game for Barcelona a couple of weeks ago but he’s played just eight times all season.
Playing in the Copa del Rey is a vastly different proposition than the intensity and speed of a game against City at the Etihad.
Emery does seem to think he needs better players on the wings so it appears he could be selected wide on the left or wide on the right tomorrow:
“He can play right, left 10. I am going to use him in all positions in the attacking third. At Sevilla, he played more as a left winger, at Villareal more a right winger and at Barcelona, he was tucked more inside.”
Whether that means the Arsenal manager will move away from the diamond formation he has used in midfield recently, we shall have to wait and see.