With Arsene Wenger currently having to do without the brilliant Alexis Sanchez and other key players like Santi Cazorla and Francis Coquelin, his chances of guiding Arsenal to the Premier League title are resting even more heavily on the talented shoulders of the German international play maker Mesut Ozil.
Despite that, Wenger is planning to give our number 11 some time off according to a Daily Star report. While Ozil is in the form of his life, the manager would clearly love to keep him in the side but although the German is showing no sign of fatigue, recent events appear to have given the boss no choice. After all, Cazorla was showing no sign of fatigue and neither was Francis Coquelin.
So imagine the uproar that would be caused if Ozil was to pick up a long term injury as well? In that way you could say that Arsenal cannot afford to not give Ozil a decent break from football, and Wenger is planning to do it over the busy festive period when the fixture list makes an injury even more likely.
The question is though, can we afford to rest such a key player for this crucial period of games? I would suggest that it all depends on a certain Jack Wilshere, as according to the injury prognosis which you can see on the Just Arsenal special injuries page, the England star is expected back in action before the end of the year.
In theory that means that Jack will be available for the trip to Southampton on Boxing day. Wenger must surely keep Ozil in the side for the game before that against Man City but after that he could be set for a couple of weeks off. That would see the German miss the games against the Saints, Bournemouth and Newcastle and if the boss wanted to give him three weeks off he could miss the FA cup clash with Sunderland as well.
Alexis Sanchez is due back about the same time as Wilshere, but will these two be able to help Arsenal stay on track while Ozil has a break?