Headache For Emery? by Dan Smith
Is it a coincidence that Ozil gets a rare start in the League and we produce arguably our best performance of the season? Unai Emery is of course delighted with the 5-1 win, but you sense he might have wanted it to be anyone else but the German who stole the show? Our manager has been rotating his squad this week, with big games every 3 days.
You sense he has planned certain players rested in midweek would start at the weekend. Or more accurate, those picked to play Bournemouth might be deemed not suitable for the North London Derby. That’s now a headache for our boss. The Spaniard has always been open in his opinion that there are certain fixtures that Ozil is ‘tactically ‘ not right for. Yet he knows, based on Wednesday night, if he were to drop his playmaker and we lost to Spurs, he’d be opening himself up to scrutiny. After all, he challenged The World Cup winner to respond and he did, while always making it clear on social media in his view he was training to a high standard.
A top coach though sticks by his ethos. Not just does Ozil not fit into his principles, I think his instinct in a tough away game will be to play with caution. That again may not be what Gooners want. Five at the back would encourage Tottenham who surely would rather face 3 hardworking DM’s then two attacking talents behind a striker. If he did feature and we lost, Ozil again becomes the scapegoat, backing up Emery’s perception of him.
Of course, in reality, our record in away games against the Big 5 has been shocking for over a decade so it’s down to more than one player. Surely at Wembley though our best form of defence is attack?