There are still doubts, apparently, over the fitness of the Arsenal and Germany international midfield star Mesut Ozil, who has been ill with some bug and has not played for the Gunners since the 5-1 drubbing by Bayern Munich in Germany on February 15th.
As reported by Arsenal.com this week the manager has suggested that he may still not be ready to face the National League side Lincoln City as they look to continue their amazing FA cup dream with the biggest giant killing yet against the Arsenal.
The boss said, “I haven’t decided yet, he still felt not too well after the game. I will see in training how he feels and I haven’t decided on the team that will start the game on Saturday.”
Even assuming that the German is fit enough to feature against the Imps this weekend I would not be too sure that the manager would pick him, as it could turn out to be a physical contest and that does not really suit Ozil at the best of times, never mind when he is in the sort of form that we have seen recently.
I guess a lot of it will go down to whether Wenger thinks his play maker is up for it, because a sharp and focused Ozil could help to ensure that Arsenal make the visitors look like a side many divisions below Arsenal in the football rankings.
The manager also revealed that Alex Iwobi and Danny Welbeck were much bigger doubts for this quarter-final clash so we could do with as much attacking threat as possible available, but would you risk Ozil or give someone else like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain the nod?
Bob.