Ozil’s best performance? by Dan Smith
People often use Ozil’s body language as a stick to beat him with. So, it’s only right we talk about his demeanour when it’s positive. He couldn’t hide his joy when he realised a free-flowing passing move was going to lead to a third goal. In a space of a few minutes we had produced the type of football which is his ethos, a style that he believes his how the game should be played.
Unai Emery put out a very good Arsenal team, although there was definitely some rotation included and the left back situation seems a bit strange. As usual the Gunners started very sluggishly and the first half was not at all impressive and no one was very surprised Leicester took the lead after half an hour as this has not been unusual for Arsenal this season, but that is when we usually start playing. The goal could be considered a bit lucky as Bellerin gave the perfect deflection for the shot to blindside Leno, but not unexpected.
Here we go for the big game tonight and I for one am very excited to get our Premier League run back up and running for our 10th win in a row!
Here is the team that i predicted in my Arsenal v Leicester Preview earlier…
So this is the big day. Arsenal are aiming for their tenth win in a row after just 12 games under Unai Emery, and this could be very crucial to our confidence going into a very hectic week. The Gunners have a very healthy squad despite the international break and the only doubt after that is Sokratis, but now we have even more defenders available in Maitland-Niles (if needed), and Kolasinac, Monreal, Lichtsteiner, Rob Holding and Mustafi are all fit.
When Arsenal replaced Arsene Wenger with Unai Emery we were all warned to be ‘careful what you wish for’, but now it seems like a masterstroke as the Spaniard has got everyone motivated and desperate to please the boss, which was obviously not the case under Wenger. Our most impressive performer in current form is Alexander Lacazette, who has got the latest Player of the Month and the Goal of the Month award, and looks as sharp as a button at the moment.
Unai Emery and his team must be revelling in Arsenal’s nine-game winning run, but this week will be our biggest test as after tonight’s game against Leicester, we then have to travel to Lisbon on Thursday and then across London to Crystal Palace on Sunday. Emery insists that all we can do is take it one game at a time.
The new Director of Football at Arsenal, Raul Sanllehi, has spoken out on his thoughts of buying players in January, and he is of the opinion that it should only be used to fix “unexpected problems”. Last January Arsenal went all out and bought Aubameyang for £50m but when asked if there would be money like that for Emery to spend in January he made it clear that only if there are funds coming in to cover the costs. He said: “We have a self-sustaining business model that is very robust and we are convinced we can be successful under that business model. Today is not the day when we are going to go into lots of detail about transfer planning. Every decision we make involves all the experts at the club and we will always make the right decisions for the long-term benefit of the club.”
The latest Arsenal transfer rumours are saying that the Gunners have decided to try and get Malcom, who we were linked with for quite some time last year before he moved to Barcelona, on a loan deal after the Barca manager Ernesto Valverde has not become enamoured by the Brazilian. The Express reports today…..