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Official teams and preview of Arsenal v Man City

There is some very good news on the team front for Arsenal fans today, but it does not concern anyone on the Gunners’ team sheet. It is the fact that our opponents Man City are without their talisman and best player Yaya Toure. And of course the new boy Danny Welbeck gets his debut at centre forward.

Even without that news, Arsene Wenger had promised that Arsenal were going to go all out for the win so this will only encourage the players to really take the game to the Premier League champions. And the injury to Aaron Ramsey which we feared would put the Welshman out of action for a while has turned out to be so minor that he starts today. I just hope that Wenger is not taking a risk with him.

Somewhat surprisingly, Jack Wilshere also starts and so does Mesut Ozil, so I assume that the German will be played out wide again with Jack in the number 10 position. A bit strange if you ask me, but let’s hope it pays off. Monreal’s recent good form means that he has kept his place with the recovered Kieran Gibbs on the bench.

Szczesny
Debuchy, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal
Flamini, Ramsey, Wilshere
Alexis, Welbeck, Ozil

subs : Ospina, Gibbs, Chambers, Arteta, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Podolski, Cazorla

A few surprises in the selection, for me anyway, but still a strong Arsenal side and hopefully enough to get us a much needed win. COYG

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Tags Ramsey Toure welbeck

323 Comments

    1. Having a playmaker on the left will only aid our chances to keep the ball, which is our main aim.

      Can’t you realise already, Wenger moaners?

        1. Yep because passing the ball side to side is the way to win games I forgot.. And I forgot stoke beat man city hitting them hard on the counter attack

        2. Then you should’ve blamed whoever wasted each opportunity.

          Seriously guys, even other top teams play playmakers on the wings. You all just keep criticizing your team instead of trying to support.

          Ozil played on the left with Germany, he did well there. David Silva is a natural playmaker, he plays on the wings as well for Manchester City.

  5. Arsenal needs a master passer.A cutting edge chance creator.That selection just reaffirms that.A good line up but they are to prone to passing errors under pressure.Only Rosicky can do that in our entire squad and he is aging.
    Good luck

      1. Who said he wants to leave? We don’t see him in training everyday like Wenger. Be patient I’m sure if he’s good enough he will get his chance. It’s the 4th game of the season ffs.

  9. Arsene NEEDS to learn from past mistakes, Ozil is a central player. To me the boss has settled on the wrong team and I hope I will eat my words.

    1. Hear hear.

      Wenger expects a 25-year old playmaker who’s played all his career CAM to suddenly prosper from the left side. Wenger is ruining Özil at the expense of someone his favorite.

  12. wtf guys just support the team
    wilshere is improving each game
    wilshere and ramsey will both the mildfield vs shitty
    i think a legend will be born in this game welbeckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

    2. Yes Wilshere is improving but we’re not blaming him. Its managers choice to play our record signing out of position.

      Not only is Wenger ruining Özil but also increasing the hatred for Jack if he fails to perform at the expense of Mesut. Irony is that possible future hatred should be aimed at our manager.

  13. Why is it that everyone in the world can see the problem at LW? – everyone except Wenger.

    Wenger finally decides not to play Ozil and Cazorla together and he STILL insists on playing Ozil out of position on the wing. He is hopeless.

  15. I Hope Ozil won’t play on the flank. I prefer the following formation :
    SCHEZ
    Debuchy Mert Kosch Monreal
    —-Wilshere Flamini Rambo–
    ————-Ozil—————
    —-Sanchez Welbeck

  17. Last chance for Mert to redeem himself to me today, I have never been convinced he’s good enough/quick enough. Let’s hope I’m wrong today and he scores 🙂
    Ozil on the left just cant believe it 🙁
    No Campbell on the bench, what is Wenger seeing in training or with his attitude that he doesn’t like?? Feel for the guy!

  18. Wenger will always make a controversial decision in his team selection, let’s just learn to live with it. It’s painful, but thus Wenger for you….

  20. I’m not sure, but to me it looks like we could see a midfield diamond here, with ozil sitting behind 2 strikers? Wenger saying we will be taking game to city?

    This I would like to see! I just pray ozil isn’t wasted on the left again.

  21. Once again no Campbell, not even on the bench? Wenger doesnt seem to rate this boy. Monreal and Ozil on the left = weak link. Wenger is playing Ozil out of position for wilshere, that I understand but Carzola would have been more effective on the left flank, ozil on the bench if Jack has to play.
    Santi, Gibbs and Ox to come in as subs.
    Hoping for the best

  22. ozil’s form will only get worse if wenger continues to play him out of position , it’s sad but true. Anyways, hoping for a 2-1 victory

    1. He will destroy ozil, especially after what ozil said himself about being one of the worlds elite no 10’s. Ozil will start to resent Wenger and his performances will plummet. All due to wengers pride.

  25. Germany played ozil outwide to accomadate kroos and schwienstager which is totally justifyable and also played a Cb as Lb who just sat and didnt go forward to balance the team.
    We however play him out wide to accomadate jack wilshere and still tell monreal to bomb forward.

    Monreal and ozil vs zabeleta and navas is a complete mismatch why cant wenger see this???

  26. why play Ozil out of position. he will continue to lose form and eventually get fed up and leave.

    Why risk Ramsey?

    Play Jack for Ramsey and Ox on left

  27. I am yet to see the self proclaimed problem here with Ozil playing wide.Any modern day midfielder can play wide unless you are incredibly one dimensional in which case you shouldn’t cost 42 M pounds.David Silva and many others out there are midfielders who begin wide.they are not wingers and Wenger isnt playing Ozil as a winger.He is given the liberty of cutting infield.AFC midfield is not static.players move in and out of midfield.
    are people here predicting already that their darling will flop?

    1. did you watch the everton game?. i know silva plays wide too, but look at city’s team, they have solid midfielders to cover up and silva’s work rate is a lot higher than ozil’s. We need players that can defend on the wings cos our midfielders dont cover up spaces fast enough..Let not kid our selves ozil is very poor defensively.. it might work against smaller teams when we would have all the possession but i dont expect ozil to be playing wide against city.

    1. agree. Wish i could say I was confident of our own lineup, but i think we have a chance to win more because Yaya Toure is out… Lampard an obvious goal threat still. Thought we were done with that guy :/

  30. Here they come with their usual moaning dose. If ozil flops again then wenger is the culprit but moaning even before a ball is kicked is shit.why should i even be worried when i know that whatever said here changes nothing.

  32. After seeing the lineup we better be playing a 4-4-2, how can we pay so much for one of the games best CAM and push him on the wing??? Wilshere better put in a MOTM performance for sacrificing Ozil’s strength for his inclusion…

  36. draw will be a gift.every time I see mert I am thinking that Le Professor’s eyes were on the different part of the body when this lousy player was signed

    1. You are the bigger idiot here.so if we win he is still blind.i sense you are only trying to cover your blushes in case we win

      1. @tope,

        you loser…resluts are not the only thing about arsenal…we love our players and we want to get the best out of our players.and you i presume are equally blind as wenger.I never commented about the result..my subject had nothing to do with the result you blindy…

  38. If Wenger had signed Fabregas would Wenger have thrown him on the left too?

    Wish Ozil was in the middle setting up players or at least put Cazorla in the middle

  46. oh man! i would not want to defend this arsenal team! welbecks speed was a missing piece, i have freaking goosebumps, so much speed and energy, and still Theo to come!

  57. Where does monreal was ?? Yhea he was doing LW labours because Ozil IS NOT A GODDAMN WINGER

    2. that was Monreal’s fault. Gave the whole left side if the pitch to Navas and was too far forward. And pretty sure ozil’s been on the right for the past 5-10

  60. The guys are playing well with the exception of Ozil. Very sloppy on the ball. We are 1 goal down with lots of time left. Cmon guys dont give up

  73. ohh mesut – this season i fear people will lose patience with u regardless of wenger putting u on the wing

  75. Wengers stubborness to not bring in a decent holding midfielder and top centre back to pair up with kos will probably cost us again this season

  78. Ozil gives the ball away..doesnt work hard..and all other players on the team gets blamed except him..afc fans are a Special case

      1. even when Wilshere or Ramsey were on the flanks last season they have been playing better than Mesut, showed more fight than him as well. Ozil just has been walking around and making bad passes. Know there are some diehard Ozil lovers, but its just the truth. Okay, hes playing out of position, but doesnt excuse the poor couple of matches he’s been having. His last good game i cant even remember, probably May of last season?

  79. ozil, what is up with him, theres only so much i can defend this guy (left flank) but make that pass, and that shot earlier, get it target.
    Confidence is on a real low.

  81. why do we always concede first? F*cking piece of sh*t we need a fu*cking dm, why can’t wenger see we get fu*cked over on the counter

      1. Yes I agree, but I prefer Arteta over Flamini. The guy cannot stay on his feet, too much sliding

  86. I’d rather put ozil through the middle., who’s playing through the cam, switch with ozil. If no improvements sub him.

  87. What’s the point of playing ozil wide? Crosses? Dribbling skill? Defending instict? This false winger crap is becoming very annoying.

  89. Reguardless of ozil not playin hiz position he stills look like sh*t whats up wit this £42 mil signing he doesn’t even looks happy wtf man come on #11

  90. sorry but a city without toure an fernando- basically their strength in midfield …
    we need to win this game, not draw- win.

    take mesut off, wing or not, im curious to know if these rumours about him have any truth.
    he is looking a flop , doesnt track back,misplaced passes, still cant finish.
    no more justifying him by his big name-

  91. Thats the difference between PL champions and fourth place champions
    City: aguero, dzeko, jovetic
    Utd: falcao, rooney, Rvp
    Chelsea: costa, remy, drogba
    Us: sano-good, giroud, welbeck
    Let alone the rest of the positions

    1. i dont see how a striker is the problem today. Even if we didnt score in the first half no way we should have conceded.

      1. Because we hit the post and they hit the back of the net! It changes the game, city scored and got right back in the game….up until that point we was bossing the game and if our goal went in we would be buzzing and city wouldnt be on a high

          1. Mertsacker needs to get off the pitch, people can just walk past him he dont even look like he knows where he is

  93. It’s the left wing again.

    Only Monreal fault, why did he not chase ball down.

    A fit Gibbs and it would be 0-0

    Ozil doing alright, the odd sloppy pass but movement seems good.

    alexis what a player, single handedly dominating city

  94. If it were me I’d have Özil moved to the middle, that’d mean taking Wilshere off and bringing Ox on.
    I’d take Welbeck off, Bring Campbell on the left, move Alexis up top.
    Gibbs on for Monreal, he may just be coming back from injury but we can’t deal with Navas’ pace at the moment – we need Gibbs.

  95. Not worried. We’ve played really well on the whole. We had one lapse of concentration and the best striker in the prem now (Aguero) punished us. It happens. We have enough to come back and win this. I’d take off Özil and put Ox on the wing. Have Alexis on the other wing and pin them back. Few changes to be made, but we’ve been good so far.

  96. Am i the only person who saw how well özil played that first half? He makes a couple of mistakes and you’re all like vultures.

    Shut up.

  97. pellegrini is playing navas on moreal which any manager with coomon sense and footbal knowledge would do. monreal was, is, and always will be useless.
    We need a DM because for every game in the last five years that massive hole in front of our defense has not been filled.
    ozil is too slow for the PL and as much as some of you might love him if it doesnt work this season we need to count our losses and get rid of him.
    Sanchez Awesome
    Wilshere and ramsey fighting for evrything in the middle
    koncielny and debuchy good
    sczesny saved us from a second goal.
    welbeck very unlucky but is keeping their defenders busy.

  99. i feel that Ramsey is starting to do his old “get ball, spin 360 1st” again.
    he’s also shooting perhaps too much.
    i think he’s still not ready to have so much attacking responsibility.(currently box to box and starting plays.)
    He needs to get his head straight and stop thinking of being a hero.

    Ozil needs to be subbed, have Ox on.

    in fact i’d sub ramsey off too if he still plays like that for cazorla(given that Ox is on already)
    and have cazorla be the playmaker instead.

    Alexis is playing well, just a split second too long on the ball.
    Welbeck, if only that clear chance he had and scored instead of hitting post…so unlucky.
    And Flamini is doing the right things mostly, just don’t have the legs to keep up to navas and aguero.

    so totally need a DM for this team to pivot from.

  100. Its pretty obvious the difference, and Wenger has failed to address it the last 10 or so transfer windows. Flamini and Arteta arent bloody good enough!

    1. It’s more than the players, we need a defensive structure that works and defenders who aren’t lazy. I don’t know if it’s Bould or Wenger or both but to watch our defensive exposure week in week out and do nothing about it should be a sackable offense

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