Are things finally taking a turn for the good for Arsenal after enduring the first six months of the season with half their first team players on the treatment table? Theo Walcott finally made his return yesterday and should be able to play the whole 90 minutes next Sunday against Stoke City.
Now a report in the Star is indicating that our 42 million man Mesut Ozil will also be returning to the squad for the same match, although it is unlikely that Wenger would risk him for the full game.
Arsene Wenger is sure that Ozil was carrying his injury from his exertions at the World Cup, and although Ozil may have missed around half of this season with problems, the player himself is sure here is still lots of work for him to do in the remainder of this campaign. “I worked hard.” Ozil said. “I finally want to go back on the pitch. That I could only watch with an injury was very difficult for me.
“I want to help my two teams to reduce the backlog – at Arsenal and in the national team.
“In the Premier League anything can happen, a lot can also happen in the Champions League, and Germany are still involved in the European Championship qualifiers.”
Although Arsenal fans may not have been overly impressed with Ozil’s performances since his arrival, hopefully he is now fully fit and rested and ready to return to the fantastic form he showed at Real Madrid before he came to the Emirates. If nothing else he could help to give Alexis some well-needed rest after the Chilean has carried the team on his own for the first half of the season. And just imagine if have a fully fit squad with Ozil, Walcott, Sanchez and Giroud all playing together?
return twinkle toes against harlequins fc? sounds risky
am very curious about le coq tho, hope he keeps up his form
last time he played against stoke at home was his emirates debut and got 3 assists that day
an since then they have beaten us twice.
an ozil has been largely inconsistent
Roll in the dislikes!
haha – exactly what i thought after i wrote it
I’ve noticed the truth doesn’t do too well on this site
Certainly not your version of it.
I don’t understand the comments against Ozil.
People say he should be able to play in any position etc etc. He is not one of those players who is going to fight, so no point judging him on how much he runs etc.
But think for a second if Bergkamp or Fabregas played on the wings?
Keep on playing Rosicky i say, awesome footwork, Santi is killing that freedom role in Cam.
Theo is coming back, Ozil will blend back in and hopefully be an absolute beast.
We got an awesome squad.
Wenger will just buy a young unknown, quite good defender, and i think he believes he has Le Coq as a Dm
What you reckon, he will spend 11 Million tops.
“if my players (defenders) are fit, i will not bring in any players in january”
-Wenger, earlier this season.
lots of stupid comments going on this forum of late. Some people don’t reason before they log in and type shit.Thumbs up if you have ever kicked a ball in your life and played any tournament, thumbs down if you have only kicked a ball with your hands on FIFA
Lol totally agree. Admin need to raise the bar…..perhaps 20 Arsenal or at least real football (rather than fifa15) related questions to become a member….think the inane comments would reduce dramatically.
Thing is stoke cant play rugby like they do at home. When we play them at the emirates they are poor, they lack technical qualities, Ozil would be perfect in my opinion, but the question remains, start Ozil ahead of Cazorla? Don’t think it will happen since the later one has been in a great form. Coquelin is going to start the game thats obvious. Put Welbeck on the right wing and sanchez on the left and Giroud upfront. No walcott because he’s not quite fit yet. Ospina or Szczesny? Ospina in my opinion.
He should take his rightful place on the bench.The number 10 slot is currently owned by Carzola.
whoa!!did I say something wrong?? 8 thumbs down already!! butthurt ozil lovers perhaps??
Just show what a piece of $hit you are. Get used with it. Every supporter is happy that one of their players is coming back while you just slam the door in his face.
You are overreavting with that Sh*t thing, but very spot on with the comment. This is not a competition god damned. Ozil vs Santi, Ramsey vs Wilsher. We shuld be thankfull that we have players to choose from who are all good, the problem with us is that we miss key poz where competition is non existant.
Cb, Dm, striker
I do, I agree, I can’t change it. It is frustrating to see our own supporters turning against the players. I understand turning against manager, is normal, manager is the ultimately responsible person for the results. Wenger does not receive credit when we win and gets the stick when we draw or lose but that’s another story.
Turning against the players when they actually gave all they could on the pitch it makes you anything else but a supporter.
Budd- why dont u change your name to but*head?
All I have seen you do is lick ar*Se! Give it a break man..put on your specs or lenses or whatever you need to see the reality !
Your reality? No thanks, I’ll pass.
That would be because you showed your lack of understanding of football.
Just because Ozil doesn’t run around like an idiot and fall over you can’t see what he brings to the team.
We win more games when he plays at #10, fact.
An attacker shouldnt be rated by his defensive skills and workrate. If we need every player on the pitch to work hard in the defense, there is something groundbreakingly wrong with our back four and defensive midfield. How many top world class attackers do you see working significantly more than Özil in defense?
Ronaldo – nope
Messi – nope
Zlatan – nope
Robben – not really, but naturally because he’s a winger he’s down more often.
Aguero – nope
James Rodriguez (the player Özil is most naturally compared to) – nope.
You make alot of sense and made a brilliant comment. Our
DM and defenders have to do their job better and not make the kind of silly mistakes we see time and again.
We all should be happy to have ozil in our team, when on form he’s the best CAM you can get, ofcourse it wont help his confidence when wenger puts him on the Left wing…. The few games he played as CAM he was superb, lets hope wenger reads this and puts him as a CAM. Cazorla could be playing as a CM against lesser sides when we’re playing at home maybe, he did great last time he played in that position.
After a Long Lay-off…….WeLcome back oziL……….(In wenger’s voice) *back to the wings boy*
We don’t need new players as HIM COMING BACK IS LIKE A NEW SIGNING???????
If his fit and he has super tough shin pads with him then give him some time towards the end. But Santi should start as his earned the right through his performances.
Let Ozil prove from the bench that his fit and ready to contribute/impact the game like Sanchez has since his arrival.
For me Ozil to date has done o.k nothing more.
Will finally be great to have mesut back in the team! Would be even greater if he scores against stoke on his return! Welcome back mesut ozil! Coyg!
Tbh play the lad where he should be played. TW back as well is great news but they have both had bad knocks. All this I here on sky about a French CB 29 year old is just so much like AW. Cand understand him and he is going from a god to crap on our boots. Any manager would come to arsenal and rid of 12 to 13 players. Then buy a few world class and then good back up players. No German players are coming to arsenal now coz he treated iPod like a little boy. COYG and for the love of God put speakers in the clock end so the players can here there 12th man
For me I don’t think Ozil has done crap since he arrived at arsenal during the world cup he played on the wings for Germany and his performance were better. Maybe he is better through the middle I am sure he used to play there when he just got to arsenal. I think ozil needs to adapt and start putting performances together in order to regain his place over santi who is a better player defensively and offensively in my opinion.
For all those of you saying that mesut ozil hasn’t been impressive at arsenal. Have a read of this http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/definitive-5-stats-show-arsenal-4413823
(I’m not talking about this season when he was playing on the wings and carrying an injury)
For all his problems defensively he remains an exceptional talent.
His detractors and haters will not stop slagging him on a subjective basis, his body language, doesn’t sweat enough, not enough emotion blah, blah, blah. They are not interested in some cold, hard, ultra-impressive stats over a prolonged period – it doesn’t register in their closeted and prejudiced world and never will.
If you look at Ozil in the world cup he tracked back and chased down as well as creating chances. And he is fast as well when he wants to be. We will play much better with a fit Ozil. Look at the first half of last season. I was expecting him to be player of the league this year but his injury put paid to that, but if fully fit he will be awesome for the next 5 months. It’ll be great to have him back.
I for one will be extremely happy with Mesut’s return. He gives us more creativity & options. While I haven’t been as critical as some have been of his form I also realize his constant playing on the wing is definitely not his strong suit. However Wenger loves to do that to players to teach/force them into learning to be more defensive like he did with Rambo.
I read into things (maybe more than I should) and Mesut saying “I finally want to be back on the pitch” could be a “lost in translation” or could actually be that he for a time lost that desire to play and him having been injured & unable to play I hope has been a wakeup call for him and we see his best when he returns.
Let Cazorla’s wonderful run continue while it lasts. Cazorla and Ozil together are like two swords in one sheath. One will always be useless if played together.
If Ozil plays against Stoke and doesn’t perform well, please remember that he has been injured for ages. Give him a few games.
Also, if Wenger puts him on the Wing, then blame Wenger. Ozil is best as a central attacker. Ozil was put in the centre against Aston Villa and Galatasaray and performed very well. Ozil’s statistics at Real Madrid were excellent. The only reason he plays Wing for Germany is because they have so many talented attacking midfielders and forwards.
I honestly believe that if Ozil plays regularly in the central role (#10), he will be brilliant especially with Sanchez and Walcott on the wings.
In fact if we added a top striker like Cavani we would have the best attack in the PL
…………………Cavani
Walcott……….Ozil……..Sanchez
Swap Walcott and Sanchez
Indeed. Alexis’s preferred position is on the left.
Would love to see Mr Burns put his hand deeply in his pocket for Cavani but I can’t see it happening with the kind of prices involved. We live in hope.
And yes, this forward lineup would strike fear into the hearts and minds of our opponent for sure. Pace on the wings that can cut in or deliver wicked crosses with Mesut/Santi pinging balls through the middle for Cavani to thunder into the net.
Back to life, back to reality: David Carroll wouldn’t cost much;)
Who is David Carroll?
I am surprised anyone on here holds on to the notion that we play with “wingers”. Look at the heat maps for our 3 behind the front man in any given game and it is often difficult to tell what position they were “assigned” on the team/formation sheet. I think Walcott and formerly Podolski are instructed more than others to largely stay within their channel down the length of the pitch but others like Sanchez, Carzorla, Ozil and even Welbeck turn up all over the pitch. Think we get too hung up on the issue.
must agree carzols is very underrated….that guy can use both feet。。he plays much better in the middle
hes good at the wings but lacks the accelerating pace
So Winston Reid and Loic Perrin presumbably to bolster the fragile Arsenal back line, typical penny pinching board and Le Douche.
If Varane from Madrid is seriously available for around 20M and Fabian Scharr for around 12-15M Arsenal could cement their future CB pairing in this window. Hell throw in WC, SK, MS, or VM for another 15-20 and the spine of the team is set for the next 5-10 years.
Why, other than transparent greed, is it so difficult for the board and the deluded one to see.
Good to have Ozil back. He should be given some minutes off the bench if possible in the next game. Stoke is no team to field a player coming from a long term injury on, it might just hinder his progress.
OT: Wenger should consider releasing Diaby and sending Sanogo on loan this January in order to create room for new recruit’s (CDM and CB preferably).
The moment Ozil was off, we started to play a diff game, and even Germany started to play bad without him by losing many games aswell.
He is indeed one of the best complementary players in the world. Without WC players around him, he doesnt shine as he can do – and without Özil, the WC players dont shine the same. Özil is by far a good purchase, but he might not be the type we needed at the time back then.
Imagine how Özil, Suarez, Sanchez and Walcott with Fabregas/Ramsey behind would wreck the defenses around in premier league 😉
Ah well, not that im gonna complain on girouds performances.
Glad to hear that Ozil is back! Due to Cazorla’s good form I would ease Ozil back from the bench. If he does enough to deserve the No. 10 spot then give it to him. If he doesn’t, then keep Cazorla in. I care about results and good form. I’d love to see Ozil come back flying. With our luck Wenger will ease Ozil back and then use him or Cazorla on the left wing.
With le Coq or a better transfer pickup playing as a DM, maybe the long run answer is to play Ozil as # 10 and le Coq and Santi as CMs. Ramsey and Wilshere need to fight for positions too, and to me it is far from given that either in current form would be better in the lineup than Ozil.
DeBuchy Chambers Kos Gibb
le Coq Santi
Walcott Ozil Alexis
Giroud
Then there’s squad rotation again — whoever’s in better form gets to play city and Chelsea, the other gets to start against the likes of QPR and West Brom, as well as FA cup if we draw a lesser opponent. We might even be able to give Alexis at least half a game off — in fact maybe start Campbell against Stoke at LW and bring Alexis on at the half. The lack of rotation is what bugs me most about Wenger; we all worry about Alexis getting hurt. This squad isn’t nearly as bad as some say, but it is horrendously misused.
Every player needs to play like Sanchez, why shouldn’t they? Ozil should be benched for Santi until the latter is fatigued and needs to be rested. Maybe Ozil can play the last 15 mins of the games.
Has anyone seen loic perrin play? He is 29yrs old; is he any gud, is he a tireless worker n a midfield destroyer we r looking for??
Good news guys I seriously doubt we Weill see ozil on the left wing anymore what with giroud/welbeck up front alexis left wing and Walcott on the right.
Earlier on in the season I actually think elsewhere was trying to field the team that put the strongest names on the field.
This is very similar to what England did in the early 000s with Gerard, lampard and scholes all cams but scholes was ‘sacrificed to play left winger.
1st of all so sorry to see Lukas go out on loan!
2nd so many people here slated giroud before the season started! Two faced twats!
3rd just how good was ozil before theo’s injury? How will he be with both Sanchez and walcott’s pace! HOT…..
4th we do need a dm preferably another gilberto… But who knows may be coq will come of age, he’s in the last chance saloon
5th we need defensive cover! Kos and per have been great until this season because of injuries, alot of our big losses last season tv played as kos was out!
We won’t win the prem but we are due a run and for once a bit of luck the likes of Manu & especially chelshit get………
COYG 🙂