Now that Arsenal have come through the festive run of fixtures relatively unscathed, we can all relax a little bit. Amazingly enough Arsene Wenger has no more injury problems to worry about and he now has a week to prepare for the next match, Sunderland at home in the FA cup.
However, I would not be the least bit surprised to hear that the boss will give our star man Mesut Ozil another holiday and even leaves him out of that cup game, in order to have the midfield maestro fit, fresh and firing on all cylinders for the trip to Anfield next Wednesday.
Assuming that is the case, Arsenal need to find an adequate replacement for that most tricky of positions on the pitch. There are a lot of important positions of course, with keeper, centre forward and DM all key to a team but none is more difficult than providing that creative spark and finding the way to unlock a determined defence.
Arsenal do have more of this type of player than most clubs but unfortunately none of them are fit right now and that leaves Wenger with just two realistic options in my opinion, Alexis Sanchez and Aaron Ramsey. Neither of them usually plays that role but they both have the ability even though they would bring different qualities to it.
The Chilean would be more like a second striker but he has the touch and vision as well as the ability to go past defenders. Ramsey has the more all-round game and would be more likely to pass his way through a back line, but they can both shoot from distance as well as link up with their attacking team mates.
So which would you rather see Wenger use instead of magical Mesut?