Unai Emery tried another new set up today for Arsenal’s game at Bournemouth, and although it wasn’t pretty and a very tough game, we still came away with three points. One of the big talking points was that the Boss left our Mr Marmite, Mesut Ozil, on the bench. Now after the game Emery said that Ozil was left out because we needed a formation that could handle the Cherries’ ‘physicality and the intensity’.
He told Arsenal.com: “We thought how we can be better in the match today, which is very demanding with the physicality and the intensity, but every player is important,”
“[Bringing Ozil on] depended on how the match was going, how it is going in the 90 minutes, and I decided for another option. In the beginning of the season we were speaking every day about being organised and competitive – and it’s the same today.
“Also today we tried with three centre backs like we’ve done at some stages this season, and it’s another possibility for us to improve and find our best performance.”
Emery knew we needed lots of defenders, and he obviously thought that Xhaka and Torreira, and even Mhki, were more likely to be useful in this game.
So does that mean that Emery thinks Ozil is a wimp?
Darren N