Debuchy Returns As Wenger Names His Starting XI In Advance Of Galatasaray Clash

Arsenal are in Turkey ahead of tomorrow nights final Champions League group game against Galatasaray hoping for things to go their way to progress as Group D winners.

Arsene Wenger has been speaking at his pre-match press conference this evening and has taken the unusual step of announcing our starting line-up well in advance of the game.

The Guardian newspaper journalist David Hyter was in attendance at the press conference and he announced on Twitter that Wenger confirmed his starting eleven, and the great news is that Mathieu Debuchy will be back in the side.

The Frenchman has been on the sidelines since injuring his ankle against Manchester City at the start of September but he returned to training last month and is now set to make his first team comeback tomorrow.

Debuchy’s return means that Hector Bellerin will move to left-back with Calum Chambers continuing alongside Per Mertesacker in the middle of defence.

We already knew that the likes of Laurent Koscielny and Alexis Sanchez would be rested, but it also seems that Kieran Gibbs, Santi Cazorla, Olivier Giroud and Danny Welbeck have also been left back in North London.

Joel Campbell and Lukas Podolski get rare starts in attack with the duo supporting Yaya Sanogo – who starts up front after recovering from a minor knock that saw him sit out of Saturday’s loss at Stoke.

This is how we’ll supposedly line-up tomorrow:

With so many first team players rested, it means that the bench will be filled by youngsters with Akpom, Zelalem, Kamara, O’Connor, Iwobi and Maitland-Niles all among the substitutes.

It’s certainly a brave decision from the boss but with an important game with Newcastle on Saturday and the hectic festive period on the horizon, it’s important some of the players get a rest, and let’s not forget than even a win tomorrow is unlikely to see us qualify as group winners, so the boss has made the right call in my opinion.

Unusual for Wenger to name his team in advance #afc

— David Hytner (@DaveHytner) December 8, 2014

#afc v Gala (4-3-3): Szczesny; Debuchy, Mertesacker, Chambers, Bellerin; Oxlade-Chamberlain, Flamini, Ramsey; Campbell, Sanogo, Podolski

— David Hytner (@DaveHytner) December 8, 2014

Six kids on the bench for #afc tomorrow v Gala: Akpom, Zelalem, Kamara, O'Connor, Iwobi, Maitland-Niles

— David Hytner (@DaveHytner) December 8, 2014