I may be reading a bit too much into the comments this week from the former Arsenal midfielder Ray Parlour and our current star Alexis Sanchez, but if I was Mesut Ozil I would be wondering just what I had done to deserve what seems to me like a lack of appreciation of the German international’s recent form and contribution to the cause.
You have probably already heard the statement to Arsenal Player from the Chile international striker whose two goals at the weekend sealed our progress into the FA cup final. He praised the quality at the club but made a special mention of Santi Cazorla. Fair enough I suppose as the Spaniard is pretty special but it was Ozil that provided the assist for both his goals against Reading. Maybe there is still a bit of Barcelona v Real Madrid rivalry going on there.
Then you have Ray Parlour giving his take on the crucial Premier League clash with Chelsea coming up this weekend, reported by Sky Sports, and our former star wants Arsene Wenger to play Alexis and Welbeck in the wide forward roles against Jose Mourinho’s side. He wants Ramsey to play deep with Coquelin so that would leave Wenger with the choice of Cazorla or Ozil for the CAM role and in that case it would be the German most likely to miss out.
Am I reading too much into their comments and do you think Arsenal should start with Ozil or not?
I think you are reading far to much into it.
Exactly that. The question was directly asked to Sanchez about what he thinks of his teammate Santi Cazorla so why would he divert into what he thinks about Ozil? Is the writer trying to imply that they are not comfortable or the 2 are more closer than Ozil and Sanchez are? I hope not.
Everyone has an Arsenal opinion. The only people I never listen to are Piers Morgan and Adrian Durham. It is physically painful to hear those two a$$wipes speak.
Sanchez never in any way discussed Ozil. Ray Parlour is still one of my fave Gunners.
I urge to to listen to his story of KoloToure’s first day at Arsenal. You will split a rib laughing. It is the funniest football story ever.
Please not not bring up the two fartboxes, Morgan and Durham in your blog.
Don’t forget Owen. I turn the sound down and put the radio on when his commentating.
Before Christmas I would of benched him . Now he’s one of the first on the team sheet along with kos alexis coq giroud and Cazorla , slightly off topic but does anyone else notice how hard Gary Neville and carragher find it to give ozil and praise after 18months of criticising . But di maria seems to get away with his awful performances for a British record fee
Has anyone watched Wilshere’s highlights of 2014-15 season ? He was actually really good and formed an impressive understanding with Ozil. He should be given a chance to play before the end of the season
Have you watched Diaby’s
highlights against Stoke U21’s.
He was a beast.
Lets give him a 5 yr contract extension 🙂
Must read..
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/apr/21/arsene-wenger-arsenal-the-martyr-of-islington
Di Maria has gotten away with murder from the press – the best they have come up with is that his house was burgled. United spending thick end of £1M week in wages for Falcao/Di Maria and RVP. Fellaini, Herrera and Shaw were all £30M give or take a few quid and nudging toward Alexis Sanchez money and moving near the same top-end “should be buying world class” as Ozil at £42M. Now there is a discussion to be had but Neville hasn’t gone near it. Haven’t heard Carra give us his view on a £25M Lallana, £20M Lovren, £20M Markovic – another story not being told. If you want to compare Rodgers and Wenger in the transfer market then perhaps one spending £15M on Joe Allen and the other spending the same on Santi Cazorla would be a good starting place.
Top comment. Here’s one thumb up for you.
Against Chelsea we should playOzil and Cazorla. Chelsea will not attack us, they’ll play only to defend and try and dig out a result, so Coquelin won’t need too much help dealing with their limited attack. On the other hand we need to be as creative as we can to break down Chelsea. Any team have a better creative duo than Özil and Cazorla?
Kasparov used the tactic in chess. Ali used the tactic in boxing and mourinho uses it in football. Damn even Hannibal of Carthage used it on the way to Rome.
You draw the opponents onto you. Once they are sapped out you go in for the kill.
They way you counter is by pinning them in and bombing them. Much like pep always gets the better of mourinho. Problem is that most teams don’t have the quality and confidence to do that.
Arsenal and Wenger know how to get the win but only now have the quality but do they have the confidence.
Last year Liverpool had the quality but they didnt have the confidence.
We need to play our fast players and that means in attack and defence.
totally pace pace and more pace against Chelsea’s 11 players parking at the post….
According to reports BFG looks like he might miss the game so that ones out the way.
hes a liability lack of pace…..we have a bigger problem if either Paul or Lauren gets injured we do not have an experience backup….
Anyone run past BFG in the last 5 league games?
Paul & Lauren! That’s my auntie &uncle
Absolutely rubbish article,
Writer has lost his head in a pub
Ray Parlour is behind the times.
Arsenal has an amazing
spine now.
Ospina
Kos Mertz Gabe
Le Coqu
Ozil
Giroud.
Add Ramsey Sanchez Cazorla Bellerin Monreal
and we are the best in the land
We could do without the drama! More positive news please! Coyg!
We have won nine games in a row in all competitions. GOYG make it ten 🙂
V Chelsea
Ospina
Bellerin Gabriel Kos Monreal
Coq Cazorla
Ramsey Ozil Sanchez
Giroud
why is Ramsay doiing on the wings?????
play a proper RW instead…
Theo maybe but only Wenger knows how good he is at the moment.
Ramsey drifts outside and causes Bellerin to pass the pass inside to him. He needs to drift inside, take the defender with him and let Bellerin beat the LB with pace around the outside.
We need fast and furious players on the pitch against chelsea on sunday! Coyg!
How does pace help against the bus? Instead we need pinpoint crosses for headers. We need clever wingers creating corners. We need dribblers who can get past defenders in tight spaces or create penalties. And we need a strategy of rapid build ups and numerous attempts on target.
We play Bellerin and Monreal they can go forward a bit more with the back up of Gabriel, Kos and Coq to cover them.
PS Gabriel, Kos and Coq = Get Knotted Chelsea 🙂
Willian and Hazard are deadly on a counter. We need pace to cover when they do.
Good point , my guess is they will go with Costa up front driving the bus with azpilicueta ivanovic terry Cahill courtois all along the back seat like the cool kids protecting the back window . Fabregas serving sandwiches to Costa and cool kids on the back seat. Hazard on repairs
How are u going to score from set pieces against Chelsea? Our best chance of winning is to pass and press them into submission. Then our players need to shoot at sight. With so many chelsea players in the box, there will be so many deflections which could cause handballs and penalties.
You’re reading too much into it
First of, Alexis has no reason to discredit/turn a blind eye to Ozil’s contributions to our season thus far. Infact I believe that he hasn’t and will never do that.
As for Ray Parlour’s suggestion that Welbeck starts on the wing, I agree with him 100%. Welbz has got incredible willingness and engine to perform dual roles. That makes him a worthy candidate to fill in at LW position -usually occupied by Sanchez whom I will love to see play from the right this time around for the fact that his relentless pressing and hassling will contribute to immensely limiting the supply channel (on the ground especially) to Hazard. This is where Ramsey comes in also. Ramsey playing right side of Coquelin means he can concentrate on helping out Sanchez in limiting Hazards supply channel.
For the reasons that Ozil is the more tactical player and is more capable of producing the one magical-game-changing pass, I will choose him over Cazorla for this game.
………………….Giroud………………………
Welbeck……Ozil………..Ramsey……Sanchez
………………..Coquelin………………………
Monreal……Kosc….Gabriel…….Bellerin
………………….Ospina……………………….
Will be interesting how Wenger approaches the game.
Liverpool are a lot weaker than Chelsea defensively, so pressurizing the defence with a hard-pressing game really shook them up and we cut all their supply lines effectively.
But Chelsea are Chelsea and I feel if we employ that same tactic it would be essentially playing right into their game-plan. They’ll absorb a lot of pressure and then counter incisively as they’ve been doing all season. zzzzzzz!!
Personally, I think this is a game where we need to invite pressure, similarly to the way we did against City in the 2-0. They’ll expect us to tip-tap it around, look for the holes as they patiently wait for their moment to strike.
I would personally line the front five up like this.
Coquelin Ramsey
Ozil Cazorla Sanchez
Giroud
I think that would maximize all potential match-ups. Fab’s been nowhere near his best and think the legs are giving out a bit from playing so much this season. Tell him he’s going to be running with Ramsey and see how that goes!! The added defensive ability in midfield will give Gabriel and Coq a lot more freedoms to focus on Hazard and Oscar, if you can keep them quiet Chelsea will have a very, very hard time. And I personally back Cazorla in the Central battle with Matic over Ozil, his final product isn’t as good but Cazorla is one elusive little man.. He’d slip him on multiple occasions with the form he’s in..
The only real sacrifice, and i’m aware it’s a potentially big one, is shifting Ozil to the wing. Ozil’s game is a lot more selfless than people give credit for. His delivery cutting in from the right would simply have to be accounted for and the other options in Welbeck, Theo or Ramsey out wide make clogging up the middle a lot more doable. It is a sacrifice and he would ultimately not have as many opportunities to influence the game. But i feel in doing so a lot more would open up as a result.
But Chelsea don’t play it out of the back or try and play football for that matter pressurizing there back 4 will not have the same affect it did against Liverpool.
And we can’t invite pressure when Chelsea don’t want the ball they will literally give the ball up or give it to hazard and ask him to do everything
This is a baseless article,Ozil is a good player and has been in good form,Sanchez just said what amazes him abt carzola,every1 has there fav.player.
Concerning chelsea,I think we just need to be clinical in recent years we always create chances against them buh we are not ruthless enough.IMo,Cazorla is our most complete number 10,but I want him and Ozil to feature in this game and at d same time I don’t want ozil or ramsey on the wings.whichever way the manager sets d team up,I jus want a win against Mourinho.coyg!!
I will be the first to stand up and admit I said Cazorla and Ozil could not both play in the middle. Both have adapted their game and become better all around footballers for it. There is no way Ozil or Cazorla should be dropped at the moment as they are 2 of the 4 top performers in the side currently. Ozil adds a quality to the team that nobody else can – even Cazorla cannot do what Ozil has the potential to do in a game. Ignoring Alexis as he wasn’t asked about Ozil, but Parlour shouldn’t be talking of dropping the German. He is wrong, but it’s an opinion so he can hold it if he wants.