Official Arsenal team for crunch Man City encounter with Ozil absent

Arsenal travel up to Manchester to take on Man City today, with our club hoping to cement our place within the top-four for next season.

We have a three and four point advantage over City and Man United in the fourth and fifth positions, and with only two matches remaining, we will need two points to secure our place in the Champions League places, and a win today would confirm that.

City come into the match distracted, and will do well to pick themselves up after a disappointing week. The Citizens come into the match having lost two matches within the last seven days, having lost 4-2 to Southampton last Sunday, before being eliminated from the Champions League in midweek.

Arsenal are hardly in top form either, but we remain unbeaten in the last seven matches since losing to Barcelona in mid-march, and our record at the Etihad in recent seasons has been decent. We have two wins and a draw from our last five trips up there, and won by two goals to nil there last season also.

Today we will need to come out strong and fast, with our opponents likely to be jaded from the CL exploits, and we should try to hit them before they can get into their stride. Having lost Ozil to a minor knock today, Wenger has had to tinker with the side a little today, and has chosen both Welbeck and Giroud to start.

Confirmed team:

Cech
Bellerin   Gabriel   Koscielny   Monreal
Ramsey   Elneny
Iwobi     Sanchez     Welbeck
Giroud

Subs: Ospina, Gibbs, Chambers, Wilshere, Cazorla, Campbell, Walcott

I know many will complain about the inclusion of Giroud, but maybe he has been impressing in training and his selection is warranted. Campbell should have gone in his place personally, but we will have to see. I still don’t think we will lose, although Ozil is of course a huge loss.

Tags Arsenal Man City Ozil

104 Comments

  1. Once again Ramsey displaces an impressive Coq…….. I’m not surprised

    In other News….. The saints are opening a doorway for the 2nd place claimant….. So The “Finish above spuds” philosophers can all start jubiLating!

    On OziL’s absence, i’m not surprised…..its Arsenal and her normal injury romance……what did u expect?

    (Just one game left to try and do the assist record thing)

    1. dont get it what has coq done ?
      elneny an his lil coq were fine
      all we need is a draw.

      yes spurs lost but they still have superior goal difference
      just need a draw

      come on lads

  2. WHY GIROUD??????????????????? Welbeck upfront, Campbell left, Sanchez right, Iwobi mid and it’s all sorted! WHY THE HELL ARE WE STARTING GIROUDDD

      1. Top scorers on the team, great passer as his assist last week got the team the points, and the best set piece striker in the league.

        1. Don’t forget best set piece defender too:)…Note that despite his woeful form off late, Giroud got his starts back right after carroll hatrick shocker at west ham.(despite us scoring 9 goals in the previous 3 matches including 3 in that game)…..doesn’t that tell you something?…..anyway I am glad for Giroud because he finally come through for AFC in this match with his Motm performance….But the lesson here is AFC need to buy top quality tall and pacy centerback and tall powerful dm to defend set pieces against the likes of west brom and sunderland next season rather than playing a striker who is clearly off form to compensate/cover such weakness.

  3. Really would have preferred to have Welbz upfront and put Campbell on the left, for me that would feel like a team who would work harder to close down the opposition straight away… rather than that lumbering fool Giroud who only puts effort in when he wants to, not when we need him to.

    Time to go round mates to watch match now, let us hope for a good victory ^.^

    1. Yes that was a nice break by Steven Davis. .. I mean brace,
      I was more of a jimmy white fan myself but hey! .. as long the spuds got snookered, I’m happy ?

      Come on Arsenal, this is a great opportunity to finish second in the league and in Wenger’s terminology that’s as good as winning it! … Especially when he considers that we have finished above everyone else, except for Leicester, of course, but wenger will still say “Look.. we are the only team who has beaten Leicester City twice, so in theory (Wenger’s theory) we are the Real champions!” ???

    1. win , lose or draw, we’d still be behind the spuds at the end of today!

      Surprised?….find out why!

  4. i am just shocked and appalled that he has not found space for theo … with their defensive injuries and theo’s blistering pace and positional sense … oh just a minute that was 2013 … there is zero creativity in this midfield … wenger going for the draw but a loss and CL position will be on the line …

  5. Was not expecting this line up. I thought we’d go with two def mids, I thought Welbeck would play up top on the counter. Ozil is a big loss, he’s so good at finding pockets and making chances. He also began to give better efforts towards goal. I swear, if I see Ramsey misplacing passes when everyone is forward, or staying ahead of the ball without making runs into the box ..well, there’s not allot I can do, I swear Ill be pissed though. Hoping for a quick energetic display without many mistakes, make them earn it because a draw is ok for us. Hopefully we’ll be more clinical, need big performances from Alexis, Welbeck, Iwobi and double pivot. Giroud? he better not be wasteful because allot of fans patience is worn out. Agree with the author, Campbell should have started with Welbz moving forward. Hopefully the players will prove Arsene right.

  6. History has it that when a doorway is open to our advantage by some other team e.g spuds vs saints , we go on and bottle it in our immediate game

    will history repeat itself 2day?

    #UCL#
    #4thpLace#
    #FinishAboveSpuds#
    *cough….cough*

  7. Southampton (Koeman) have defeated all the big teams except Tottenham. He has done it today. The guy know how to organise his team and they put up a good fight against big teams

    Having said that, we can still finish 2nd if we beat manc and Aston Villa. Tottenham have a tough game against Newcastle fighting relegation so it will be tough

    But remember Arsenal have been bottling things up this season so I won’t be surprise if they bottle yet another chance today.

    Hoping we defeat Manc though..

  8. The problem with most of fans in this site is that; they don’t know and don’t want to know the reason why Giroud isn’t a good striker is not because he doesnt put efforts rather he is unable to keep the ball in his feet.

    A team like arsenal need a striker not only able to dribble but also able to score goals on his own. Giroud is far from those qualities.

    1. Or cross, cross cross. Goals goals goals. Change our thought process especially against teams that only defend.

  9. I’m more worried now Spurs lost giving us an opportunity to leap frog them. Why? Simply because every time we’ve had special incentives to play harder we crash the following match. This has happened all season long and the only way we can even finish above them in second is by winning the last 2 games and them dropping points again in their last. Besides that it’s not going to happen as the goal difference is too great for us to overcome based on our performances. The best we can do today is not lose away to City.

  10. its like someone dared Wenger to put out the worse team he could imagine. Ramsey and Giroud are in there for what reason? Why no Campbell still? Don’t have high hopes for this game. And couldn’t care less about St Totteringham Day since this season has overall been so poor. Wanted to EPL title, not to celebrate some holiday.

  11. If Ramsey does what he normally does, we could be in serious trouble here! ?

    Surely keeping it tight at the back, was the order of the day?
    And then hit em on the counter! .. it’s the second from last game of the season and still nothing was learned,
    except for the fact that wenger and our boy’s our specialist in bottling when the pressure is on.

    Joke of the day!
    HAS OZIL agreed terms with Barcelona? ? ?
    I heard that we are swapping him for vermelean ??

  12. Come on Arsene just get it through to the players we need at least a point here today and a win against villa. Finishing above Tottenham is the only positive thing we can achieve this season.

    Typical slow start, can’t even pass the ball

  13. lol, that sums us up. We can’t even handle 9 minutes of real pressure. Truly pathetic.

  14. Here we go again..i really hope we get something form this game..I want aguero in arsenal shirt.

  15. That referee is an absolute joke, Aguero pushed Bellerin out. and the referree gives them a corner… unbelievable, Welbeck is elbows in the face and he allows the game to go on…..

    Come on Arsenal lets sort these losers and the referee and the spuds out!!!!!

  16. Both team defending is DIABOLICAL..the winner will come from the one WHO SCORE MORE ..

  17. We have to wake up… We need a playmaker that we don’t have …. We need Cazorla in the absence of Ozil

  18. Yep – well done Wenger – send on a man who’s be injured all season, in place of the Campbell, who can supply some steel to the team.

  19. Can the ref get some yellow cards out, that traitor Sagna has already injured our only striker??????

      1. Maybe not, but their game plan seems to be to cripple us and the ref is paying no attention, yet penalises ever single infrigement of ours.

  20. Good substitution wenger, bringing on a man with 6 minutes play all season, well done supreme decision.

      1. what game are you guys watching, Ramsey is our anchor man in case u didn’t notice. He’s had a good first half, made more tackles than all teammates’ combined. why would you sub him off?

  21. yet another foul which allowed them to break ….isn’t pulling a man down with the ball by the shoulder a foul???????????

  22. WE need to get in at half time without conceding …. hopefully Wenger can make some improvements, but I’m not holding my breath….

  23. Ramsey is infuriating!!! I hope Cazorla can come on for him in good time and drop Wilshere back with Elneny.

  24. Arsenal can’t seem to keep the ball. if there will be any improvement in the second half, it has to be in this aspect

  25. First half, city are playing well, we are lucky to be level, lets hope for a better second half, either that or some luck.

    A draw away to man city is a good result in general, for this game a draw would suit us fine.

  26. Waiting for someone to say WTF was Koscielny doing standing there for the City goal instead of helping to close Aguero down. Like he was defending a direct freekick in a wall or something. That’s not the first time he’s done something of the sort either…

  27. Did wonger not see the game doing the week where Real put pressure on city. No, no, no wonger just wants city to attack attack.

  28. We could more easily get a win if Wenger would set up the team properly, rather than using his favourites

  29. What a jooooooooookkkeeeeeeeeee Cech to blame for that. They are pushing us all around in their penalty area, yet we don’t touch them

  30. Cech beat yet AGAIN from that distance. Shameful goalkeeping and defending.

  31. Come the f**k on Cech!!! Keep getting beat by these rolling shots at the near post.

    1. Remember Payet or Lanzini (can’t remember which) on the first game of the season?

  32. I really struggle to understand how we are behind… they are not a good team…. We have gifted it to them

  33. Just look at the way Arsenal players are easily falling all over the pitch……..who played more games than the other? And Cech at his near post again

  34. Is this game rigged? We allowed that second goal… That was completely embarrassing … Why did Bellerin pull away from de Bruyne and let him through?

  35. Cech is not himself since coming back from injury. Too many mistakes. Perhaps age catching up

  36. whyyyyy walcott ….
    why not campbell
    what the hell
    and sanchez moved to left this is s**t

    1. You couldn’t make it up…. that’s probably worse than getting a red card… has Wenger been paid off by Citeh?

  37. Wilshere looks impressive, way better than some players that hv been average all season

  38. YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now sing you Mancs, lets win this one now, and not back off……..

    1. Answer no …. why is Ramsey still on the pitch, or is he I haven’t seen him for the last 10 mins….

  39. Those who have a go with ALEXIS.WC players make differences..WHAT A GOAL..I wish we could have aguero – Alexis and Ozil in the same team..WHAT A PITY, IS NOT IT? Theo? Ramsey? Now the master will take El Neney and bring Le Coq..instead of Ramsey..

  40. Game like this El Neney has more dynamic than LeCoq who is far slower in the middle..typical useless subs made.

  41. If we had proper footballing people on the board, at least Wenger’s subs could be questioned, they are criminal.

  42. we lost the plot..dynamism in the middle as soon as El Neny went off..DM’s are to make it easy and he was doing it..LeCoq just made the difficult one..Unfortunately, this ws the chance as usual to take Sh*ty down too..

  43. Sorry but RAMSEY WASTED OF TIME SO IS THEO..dreadful to the least..we need better players IN.

    1. I think we could’ve won that, had we played Campbell instead of Ramsey. Citeh were trying to bully us, and Campbell can deal a lot better with that sort of play.

  44. AdmiN? have you got an issue with some people here in the site? Be honest and say it so I can go somewhere else where views are accepted and respected. WHY THIS?

    Your comment is awaiting moderation.
    we lost the plot..dynamism in the middle as soon as El Neny went off..DM’s are to make it easy and he was doing it..LeCoq just made the difficult one..Unfortunately, this ws the chance as usual to take Sh*ty down too

    what’s wrong with my comment? because im not pro wenger? i was until 5 years ago when he started lying to us on windows. Anyone back me up here? it is A SITE FOR PRO WENGERS OR FOR ARSENAL FANS?

    1. And if you don’t calm down you will go into permanent moderation okay. So chill your beans. …

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