I know that Arsene Wenger has a well deserved reputation for backing his players and that certainly goes down well in the Arsenal dressing room, but with the Gunners all but mathematically out of the race for the Premier League title, our Champions League exploits are more important than ever and with Mesut Ozil in poor form and suffering a crisis of confidence, an away match against Bayern Munich is not the right time for the manager to stick with him.
The fact that Wenger mentioned the self confidence of our German play maker this week tells me that he is worried about him and his potential impact in Europe tomorrow. I also think the boss was preparing our number 11 for a place on the bench at the start of the game in Munich.
If the Frenchman does drop Ozil then the big question is who will take his place. We could go with two up top and change the system but I do not see that happening, so I think it will be a straight swap and there are a few candidates.
Alex Iwobi is the most obvious choice and has played the number 10 role quite well already this season. Arsenal have plenty of forward options so there would be no problem on the flanks and Iwobi has the same sort of passing ability and awareness that we are used to from Ozil.
Another option would be to drop bAlexis Sanchez back there and I feel that the Chilean could have a great impact, with Welbeck or Giroud going to centre forward, but for me the best option would be to give Oxlade-Chamberlain a chance and play a solid central midfield of Xhaka or Elneny with Coquelin.
What would you do Gooners?
Bob.