Arteta vs Man City weds night

Our City performance is going to be defined/decided by ONE selection. Real simple one here folks:

If Ozil starts, we lose and it's just a matter of how badly. If he doesn't then we might just be able to field an 11 with enough heart and fight in it to at least make a game of it. If we can do that, then with our front 3 we always stand a chance of pulling a swifty and snatching a win against any team. But we HAVE to have 100 percent effort, BOTH WAYS from all 10 outfielders. Which means NO OZIL!

This match really is the benchmark for Arteta's judgement IMO. If he starts Ozil then he's clueless how to manage this team. Only a fool would start him in this fixture. City games are one of his favourite disappearing occasions.

* Shown up for one, two at most, in 6 years

Amazing that Arsenal have lost less league games than Man City this season.

comment by WB2 (Emery'll Get Me Killed) (U8276)
posted 10 hours, 8 minutes ago
Our City performance is going to be defined/decided by ONE selection. Real simple one here folks:

If Ozil starts, we lose and it's just a matter of how badly. If he doesn't then we might just be able to field an 11 with enough heart and fight in it to at least make a game of it. If we can do that, then with our front 3 we always stand a chance of pulling a swifty and snatching a win against any team. But we HAVE to have 100 percent effort, BOTH WAYS from all 10 outfielders. Which means NO OZIL!

This match really is the benchmark for Arteta's judgement IMO. If he starts Ozil then he's clueless how to manage this team. Only a fool would start him in this fixture. City games are one of his favourite disappearing occasions.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
And who do you suggest he picks instead we’re have exactly been creating tons of chances this season at least give him a chance to show what he can do with his own players

All these Ozil out articles but who is the replacement?

comment by Castor Troy (U8700)
posted 6 hours, 51 minutes ago
All these Ozil out articles but who is the replacement?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You don't know until you try other options and even if other options only had a minimal impact that would be no less (and likely more) of an impact than Ozil has been having of late.

Even with the assist against West Ham you simply cannot in anyway shape or form justify his selection. Also people spouting statistics about distances covered are talking out of their 'arrises, you just need to watch him to know that his closing down is laboured, ineffective and still half-hearted.

We could try Pepe or Lacazette there behind Aubameyang, we could try Willock there or we could push Ceballos further forward which i where I think he should be anyway and use Guendouzi/Willock next to Xhaka.

*only have a minimal impact

*which is where

and when I say "of late" I mean for 2/3 years now...

No matter how Arteta approaches the game we are 100% guaranteed to lose. It’s just a matter of keeping the losing margin down. This will be City’s easiest game since their trip to the Emirates

comment by Castor Troy (U8700)
posted 4 days, 3 hours ago
All these Ozil out articles but who is the replacement?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Already told you CEBALLOS! He's not a DM or a CM he's a bloody CAM. People keep talking like Ozil is the only CAM at the club, he's not. Not as easy to do now as it would have been with Torriera fit however (Arteta fecked up big time missing that trick). Torriera, Xhaka, Ceballos is what we should have been playing with as the MF three the last 5-10 games. No doubt at all that Ceballos WOULD have performed BETTER than we've seen from Ozil, had he just been given the run of games to settle into doing so. Relentless flogging of the Ozil dead horse has meant he ain't got a look in. Meaning now to do it we'd have to risk Xhaka behind a hotheaded Guen or play Luis at DM. No

Point is Castor, IMO Ozil himself is that much of a handicap, that it largely doesn't matter who you replace him with. As long as they're good enough to play PL football and got some determination and commitment, ANYONE will do. Ya could put the reserve goalie in there and he's likely to give us more than Ozil. No he won't silky pass all day but I guarantee you he'd run his heart out and make a defensive nuisance of himself. Essentially, we're in team strength credit, so to speak. Off putting any player who gives a sh!t in the team instead of him.