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Confirmed Arsenal team to take on Man United – Ozil in

Unai Emery has made the bold decision to include Mesut Ozil for a key match for the first time in his tenure, with the big challenge of a revitalised Manchester United in front of us.

The Red Devils are in a rich vein of form since former striker Ole Gunnar Solksjaer came in to try and heal the wrongdoings of Jose Mourinho, and his side have gone unbeaten in the league so far, as well as overturning a 2 goal deficit in the Champions League this week. They will obviously be confident of some sort of result today, but Emery has shown he is not to be underestimated.

Emery has made the bold move to throw Ozil into the mix today, as well as appearing to field five defenders in the team (possibly with Kolasinac or Maitland-Niles playing a little more advanced than in a back five however.

United have also made the decision to throw Diego Dalot into the team as a winger (at least on paper), which has to be named as Ole’s first outlandish decision since joining the club.

Both teams look like they have goals in them, but which one will score more? Will United be blessed by their extra days rest or will we rain on their parade after their CL triumph? Obviously we are hoping for the latter…

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  1. I love the lineup but I’m gutted I won’t see the game. I’m currently out, I had an appointment to attend to, this is the first league game I’ll miss this season. Goodluck to the boys

      2. Sue isn’t it?? No worries though, I’m sure I’ll be watching it on here.. Have you taken a moment back to study this blog during match games? Every important lil detail gets posted on here, with someone either whining or being cool…So I’ll watch it on here, I just need people on here to type it, then I’ll picture it in my head??

  2. We are due some luck against this lot and with this line up id say we need fast start to put them on the back foot.
    If we get it i can see us winning 3-1 or more Utd are due a bad game.

    1. With little effort Man Utd were cutting through our defense.If not for some fantastic last gasp defending we would be drawing at half time.
      Kudos to Xhaka for being the best player in the first half.kolasinac,Ozil and Aubameyang have to up their game and decision making.

    1. I feel we will better if we change to a back four in the second half and introduce Iwobi for Aubameyang.Kolasinac has been left isolated when in attack and his combinations with Ozil and co haven’t good.Hopefully Iwobi comes on because this Utd side are there for the taking.Iwobi can help us do more damage in the second half with his dribbling.

      1. So bring iwobi on to play where ,because the game I’m watching kola is easily our best player .

        2. I’m implying that his combo with Iwobi would’ve been deadly.Utd are there for the taking.Iwobi has a lot of pre-assists of which Kola was on the end of the ball to make a cutback for a tap in.Utd aren’t that good and Arsenal imo should be winning this match.

          1. Please stop using the word pre assits ,it’s not a stat ,not even sure what it means to be honest .does it mean everyone as a pre assist because they touched it before it was scored ?

            1. I never said pre- assist is a stat nor am I using it to hype Iwobi or something.Im speaking with respect to this game only.I term a player who makes a pre-assist to be the one who passed to the ball to the player who made the assist.I just shared an opinion and if you feel were better off without him in this match then alright.After all we win with him and lose with him so it’s normal.

        3. Not saying Kola hasn’t been good and imo Xhaka has been by far the best player of the half and even made a goal saving tackle.I think two supporting one CF would be good rather than Ozil being the one to support both.

        1. Can we just have one match where we haven’t got to watch iwobi doing absolutely nothing ,I just wanna enjoy
          Watching postoperative players on the pitch for a change

          2. Iwobi usually causes a lot of problems for the opponents, opens the space for the others to score and assist

            He is Arsenal’s Dirk Kuyt or Okazaki

          3. I can name about two to three players in this match that are doing nothing and have not all season but fortunately the stats will save them possibly today too.

  5. I can see the substantial height difference between Arsenal’s and Man United’s players when they walked through the alley

    It would be hard to defend against those big monsters in set-pieces

  6. Good start for us but we must be cautious of their counters. Ole gunnar is just using the same thing his mentor Ferguson taught him. Stay low and hit at pace.

    1. I think Utd are there for the taking.Im not saying I know better than the coach but I think the 4-2-3-1 with Kola and Iwobi on the left side would’ve wrecked havoc on Utd and created several cutback type of chances for the other players.

  12. This Ref is giving some funny funny calls , even the linesmen are giving wrong offside calls against us…. I hope Arsenal can score the 2nd goal before halftime. The guys are playing well so far. I just love the way Socratis is keeping a close check on Lukaku. COYG

    1. Funny calls? I had to double check if it wasn’t Wenger vs Ferguson again with the biased referees. Is that Mike Riley over there?

  15. …when lukaku comes off – which hopefully will be 10mins into the second half, that maybe a good sign that they’re running out of the idea of bulldozing there way to a result. It high time Ozil saw a way to punish this lot.

  16. The defense is still horrible, shown by the three Man United’s golden chances. Fortunately the lady luck is still on Arsenal’s side, otherwise the match could have gone differently

    Sokratis could single-handedly ruin Emery’s plan again tonight. I hope he keeps his cool and supported by his teammates in the back

  17. The officiating is as depressing as the expression on Maitland Niles face! Linesman is out to ruin the game for us. I hope the boys hold on and even score another.

  18. Good performances all around but can’t believe it’s just 1 nil ..AMN too weak for this game out of his depth … Bring on torreira ..l and just don’t get aube .. Would add miki …something to prove ..a nervous 45 ahead

    2. Torreira is suspended sadly and Auba has been
      a liability in recent fixtures. Agree on Miki, love
      to see Miki stick it to his old squad.

  19. Oh Leno double save vs spurs, superb saves vs Manu. Add cech brilliance vs rennes and we have had a week of exceptional goalkeeping.

  27. Lacazette immediately signaled to aubameyang this one’s for you. You needs guts to take back to back high pressured pk after missing the previous

  33. …anybody else appreciate what kolasinac brings to the squad? before he came there was a patch wherein teams used to run through us… but not anymore. He got backbone..Same with Sokratis…

    1. Yep kola MOTM today for me ,and his form has been really good recently ,this is the team I wanna see every week with him on the left .

      2. …this is wonderful it has made up for the uber-sh**t week we have had to suffer these last few days. Happy for UE, happy for the squad (we did it without torreira) and glad for the fans

    1. You make me laugh..so two faced
      Thanking him now
      Not long ago and you had him sacked
      Anyway…
      Onwards and upwards
      Well done boys

  36. 4 points from Spurs and United games. That’s not something we would’ve accomplished the past several seasons. And the spurs performance should’ve been more too. Well done Mr. Emery. We fix the Rennes tie mid-week and keep pushing on. COYG!

  37. Absolutely buzzing!!! Their winning streak is over!! ?
    We were superb! Leno was brilliant… nice penalty Auba ?

  38. All round team performance …small chinks … But no complaints and its up to us now in the run in …,thought kola sokratis and monreal were excellent as was Leno and laca didn’t get the goal his performance deserved …

  39. Rennes watch your back, we are coming for you. Am a very happy gunner today. We are finished with our big games. If we can win all our remaining games then we will 100% finish top 4.

  40. Unbeaten against United & the spuds… doesn’t get much better than that!!
    Kolasinac was awesome today (apart from when he was hurling ?) hahaha! He’s still so fine though ?
    Everything was spot on today, no complaints! I’m a very, very happy gooner!
    Thank you AFC….. ?

    3. Thank you Sue for your undoubted support even when things are thick.Today I am glad we can’t outrightly name our man of the match which means there was an exceptional performance out there.Special mention to Kola,Leno,Amn,Lacz&Koz the boss.I hope I won’t take one too many,am over the moon..

      1. Brilliant Cliff!! What a feeling! To be the first team to beat OGS… I’m so happy, can’t wait to watch it all again on MOTD2 ?

  42. In Rennes when a child is being bad and not going to bed they get sung this by their parents:

    One Two Emery is coming for you
    Three four you better lock your door
    Five six which Arsenal player will score a hattrick?
    Seven eight don’t stay up late
    Nine ten we better not dive again

  44. A clean sheet against the highflying giant killers ManUnited is no mean feat, especially after a day to forget in France.
    COYG♥♥??????????

  45. Great game.
    knew we were gonna give them a fight but didn’t expect such a positive result.
    We traditionally do well against United but get sucker punched in the end. Not so today.
    Good to hear former United great Neville blaming De Gea for the Xhaka thunderbolt. No goal keeping clinic today for Degea, the savior of United.

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