Arsenal vs Arsenal Sold XI: Who will win?

The Arsenal Team: Goalkeeper: Wojciech Szczesny. Defence: Carl Jenkinson, Thomas Vermaelen, Per Mertesacker, Kieran Gibbs. Midfield: Theo Walcott, Santi Cazorla, Mikel Arteta, Abou Diaby. Forwards: Lukas Podolski, Gervinho. Substitutes/Unfit: Jack Wilshere, Olivier Giroud, Aaron Ramsey, Johan Djorou, Andre Santos, Alex Chamberlain, Laurent Koscielny, Bacary Sagna, Marouane Chamakh, Andrei Arshavin, Tomas Rosicky. The Sold XI Dream: Goalkeeper: Jens Lehmann (we had to pick him… he was up against Manuel Almunia). Defence: Emmanuel Eboue, Kolo Toure, Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole. Midfield: Samir Nasri, Patrick Vieira, Cesc Fabregas. Forwards: Thierry Henry, Robin van Persie, Emmanuel Adebayor. Rest of them: Gilberto Silva, William Gallas, Eduardo, Mathieu Flamini, Alex Song, Philippe Senderos, Gael Clichy, Jose Reyes. [caption id=“attachment_425145” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Henry, Hleb, Flamini, Fabregas, Reyes… the dream team? Reuters[/caption] Whenever Arsenal visit, there’s a famous chant which rings the stadium: ‘Same old Arsenal, always cheating.’ But this terrace chant seems to be threatened by another one: ‘Same old Arsenal, always selling…’ The way Arsenal are currently heading, you could soon hear rival fans singing the latter rather than the former. And tell you what, Arsene Wenger would prefer the latter than be blamed for making his team a feeder club. It all started with the sale of club captain Patrick Vieira in 2005/06. That was followed by the sale of another club captain Thierry Henry, Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole in 2006/07. Then went Jose Reyes, Gilberto Silva, Alexander Hleb and Mathieu Flamini in the next two years. Arsenal, by this time, were already weak and depleted. The double sale of Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure to Manchester City made it worse. Eduardo and Philippe Sanderos did not wait for an invitation to leave and this was followed by the morale-degrading sales of Cesc Fabregas, Gael Clichy, Samir Nasri and Emmanuel Eboue. Then came the nightmare: Robin van Persie to Manchester United and Alex Song to Barcelona. The obvious question every Arsenal is asking right now is ‘what if they were all here’. We took it a notch higher and decided to as our readers for their teams too. Here are some of them. @OptimistikPrime: Almunia, Senderos, Toure, Gallas, Clichy, Eboue, Song, Fabregas, Nasri, RVP, Adebayor @IAm_D_Man: Lehmann Eboue KToure Gallas ACole Hleb Fabregas Viera Nasri Henry VanPersie @AniketJotwani: Jens Lehman, Kolo Toure, William Gallas, Gael Clichy, Fabregas, Viera, Alex Song, Samir Nasri, Henry, Adebayor, RVP.(3-4-3) One must feel for Arsenal fans. A team which was consistently vying for top honours and made the Champions League final in 2006 has remained trophy-less for what seems like forever. The argument of financially sustaining the team is also right in it’s own way, but there is not one soul attached to the club which will think about a team which could have been. Heck, they could have made two teams from the players they’ve sold in the last five odd years. P.S: There have been many players bought and sold, so feel free to suggest their names in case we’ve missed out.