Arsene Wenger has revealed the latest team news ahead of Sunday’s Premier League clash with Stoke and there’s some good news at last.
Mesut Ozil is back in training and available for selection, although the German is unlikely to start the game as he’s just come back from a bout of illness.
Ozil is joined on the first team training pitch by Aaron Ramsey and Mathieu Flamini, while Olivier Giroud is available again after his suspension.
Mikel Arteta remains sidelined with his calf problem while Danny Welbeck is not available due a thigh strain.
Pressed on who might start in goal, Wenger was giving nothing away, saying “I haven’t selected my first eleven yet.”
He also refused to be drawn on the midweek stories about Wojciech Szczesny, laughing off questions, “What happens in our dressing room stays in our dressing room – apart from the fact it doesn’t stay there!”
Funny.
In typical Wenger style, Martinez will start in goal with Ozil playing on the left wing
Or Özil in goal and Ospina on the left wing?
With Inanimate Carbon Rod alongside Lamp in central defence.
Knowing Wenger, Inanimate Carbon Rod will probably play as striker
That’s no way to talk about Sanogo…
but isn’t Inanimate Carbon Rod injured??
But isn’t Inanimate Carbon Rod injured?
Inanimate Carbon Rod WAS injured but cant play due to a recent bout of illness
He’s 3 weeks away.
cant wait for this lil German back. God I have missed seeing him. cant wait to hear; “ozil with the ball, ozil to Alexis…. GOAL!!!!” or Ozil to Ramsey, back to Ozil. Ozil to Walcott, who burns them with his pace… goal!!!!!!!!
Hope Ozil hits the ground running and is played to his strengths. Or the medias favourite scapegoat is back and some of our brainwashed fan base will start the abuse once again.
let’s put “fan base” in quotes because most of the idiots out there don’t know a lick about football, they’re all to hung up on the social mediaz.
Its obvious that Ozil has not yet been the success that we all wish and hope him to be. I don’t think he has relished being in the spot light as “The Star”. Hopefully now that the eyes of gooners and all the media are focused on Alexis; someone who clearly loves being the centre of attention, then maybe Ozil can quietly go about his business in the background and be the player for that we know he can be. COYOzil
The Walcott, Ozil, Sanchez combo was probably what Wenger envisioned going into the season (though the move to 4-3-3 makes that a little more doubtful). Can’t wait to see them play together.
I don’t really see Theo deserves a place at the expense of Ox at the moment.
Aawwww yiss
The thought of Ozil and Sanchez finally being able to link up though….
Its getting interesting again with regards to who plays – in a week or so we should have ramsey, flamini, welbeck, ozil, sanchez, santi, walcott, ox, rosicky, giroud, for 6 places – and thats without coq, campbell, wishere, arteta – how I miss the early season fun of trying to shoehorn all these players into a single lineup.
Early season fun?
Which team have you been watching?
You don’t try selecting your team before the game?
Ozil excuses so far:
1. Didn’t get a winter break
2. Didn’t have any pace to play with
3. Overplayed….
4. World Cup hangover
5. Played out of position
He gets injured for three and a half months and now he’s the messiah again….
He really has been garbage other than his first two months.
Cazorla is much more deserving of a starting spot.
Well you’re a positive barrel of laughs, aren’t you!
Cazorla is in great form now for most of the season though he was poor. Quality player Santi as is Mesut form temporary class permanent and all that.
Well said. We’ve had injury and former probs all season. We had Wilshere isn’t good enough and should be sold for Cesc at the start of the season. A few consecutive games and he was our best player after Alexis. Then we had people on Ramsey’s back. Then Carla was sh*t…now he’s ace etc etc.
People never learn. They are stuck in the tabloid fed 6 week cycle of who is ace and who is sh*t, which manager is a genius and which is a buffoon, which club is unstoppable and which is in crisis.
People have been noticeably quieter about Cesc since the few games where he had to pl;ay without Matic next to him and his defensive deficiencies were exposed. Then again, I’m probably giving too much credit and it’s because he hasn’t scored in a while…
I think many of them aren’t aware that the 2-faced Spaniard went ‘on strike’ to get his move away from us. If they did, why the fuck would they want him back.
It’s a special breed of stupid to complain about a player returning from injury when the team you support is suffering from an injury crisis…
Last season, Özil and Ramsey playing together on good form : top of the league.
Both injured : dropping to 4th.
I disagree with all of your comment, however I do believe that santi should continue as our no10 for the time being. He’s been fantastic and deserves to keep his spot, with the wealth of talent in our midfield every single player should have to earn their spot in the starting XI. It would deliver a real bad message to the rest of the players and may even piss some of them off If they saw ozil walking straight back in the team. Saying that though seeing ozil play as no10 does give me a tingle in my pants
Honest question because I struggle with this…. Is it better to ignore a (troll) comment like Rich’s or thumb it down?
Thumb down mate
Why does blogs back Schez so much when he slated Bedtner for being confident.
Because Szczesny is good.
Some people say Ozil doesn’t contribute defensively but I disagree. When your ball-retention is as good as his, it greatly reduces the pressure inhibited on your defence in the first place.
Ozil in the middle, with Santi and Alexis on the left and right, respectively, please. Ox can keep his place in the ‘Ramsey position’, next to Flamini.
Good news. Worried about wellbeck though, thought it was only a thigh strain that should have cleared up in 10 days time.
Or maybe the thought process is why risk him when a well-rested, healthy Giroud is available.
Not happy when players are injured even less happy when they come back from injury. Talk about massive injury list then blame manager if for some games we don’t use our preferred formation
If I hear one more person say AW played Ozil as a winger when he didn’t and made it clear he didn’t and wasn’t expecting Ozil to play as a winger…..
Are you going to finish your sentence?
…..no
Last night I watched some Özil videos on the youtube and reallt thought “I just miss watching this man play football”
I was in London Colney a few days ago buying a 3 wheeled exercise bike and two grass snakes from Lukas Podolski before he left for Italy. He assured me that Sczesney will be in goal against stoke as Ospina was caught urinating in the shower. Which is considered a much worse sin than smoking.
COYG!
“OsPEEna”? 😉
Can’t wait to see Ozil play for arsenal again. I predict this selection.
Ospina,Debuchy,per, kos,gibbs
Flamini, Santi, Ozil
Walcot, Giround, Sanchez.
Welcome back Ozil! Finally we get to see Cazozilexis make defenders all over England cry.
Can’t wait to see mesut link up with alexis, santi and theo.
But that would mean either Santi or Ozil would have to play on the wing. We’ve been there before and it just doesn’t work.
Ozil or Santi in the hole with Alexis and Walcott on the flanks with Giroud or Welbeck up top would,on paper anyway,seem to work.
Exactly. I hope Santi and Ozil can be rotated for them both to get a chance to pull the creative stings. It would be very unfair to Santi, given his hot form, if he was completely displaced for our mercurial no 11’s return.
All good problems to have, no doubt.
Santi brings out some of his best centrally, to be sure, but i’m not afraid of him on the wing. The beauty of that is he and Ozil and Alexis can just flow around those positions at will, and they’re good enough to do it without losing the plot.
But Ozil when up to speed should be in the middle. He delivers consistently there.
The keys to CAM is Ozil’s, I definitely agree. Dunno if Arsene agrees… but anyway..
If you’re envisioning Ozil behind Alexis and Santi on the wings, where does Theo fit in? Back to a super sub? I know, I know, depth is a good thing…
That is the same question I have. Along with Welbeck. But Santi is awesome in that he can rotate for starts with any one of the other three.
For this match though, Ozil likely won’t start so it’s worry next week.
It’s tough. But indeed a good problem to have, if you’re not one of the players on the bench. Honestly I haven’t a clue and I’m glad I’m not making that decision.
–By any one of the other three I mean Ozil, Alexis and Theo, because he can play #10 or either wing.. Differently, but he plays them.
They actually play well together…i remember before ozil got injured they interchanged well during matches.
Now we’re finally close to seeing özil, alexis and theo on the same pitch! Trying to hold back my tears here
Szc
Deb – Mert – Kos – Mon
Coq
Walc – Ozil – Santi – Alexis
Giroud
Okay this is why I’ll never be a manager. I’ll proceed to get my coat.
I would prefer:
Szc
Deb – Mert – Kos – Gibbs
Coq-Ramsey
Ox – Ozil – Alexis
Giroud
Assuming Ramsey is fit enough. The directness of the Ox gets us in good positions to score and win penalties.
So the question is how will he play Ozil. I think Cazorla offers the biggest clue here, playing a deeper role than usual and looking more like a CM than a number 10. Perhaps Wenger will convert Ozil in the same way…
Looks like we’re not signing anyone 🙂
PHONE RINGSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS MOURINHO: hello Wenger WENGER: hello who is this? MOURINHO: its me mourinho WENGER: how can i help you? MOURINHO: what do you mean by how can you help me, is this our agreement? WENGER: i don’t understand you, which agreement? MOURINHO: i paid you to bribe Newcastle’s manager for match fixing so they can lose today because i want to go unbeaten like the King of London Arsenal, but you breached our agreement. So where is my money? WENGER: lol, you’re a fool, as old as you are you couldn’t realise that no club in England can break… Read more »
I salute you sir…..
For genuinely thinking people would read all of that. Bravo.
For anyone slagging Ozil’s return off fuck off and support someone like Madrid, where such attitudes are accepted. We are Arsenal and regardless how bad/good a player is playing we should support them… Aaron Ramsey is proof that getting behind a player works.
I hope things will be better than the last time Santi and Ozil play together. I actually fancy Santi to play Ramsey’s role rather than stuck to the wing.
Arsene – please, please don’t risk Ozil against the orks. Please, please let Giroud loose to run off all those frustrations of missing three games and to make up for how he let us all down.
His eyes are offsides
His eyes are offsides
Offside.
Aside from Cback which remains precarious (Particularly if Per gets a knock), we have plenty of numbers at the moment : CF – Giroud, Welbeck (Welbeck likely back soon) RW – Walcott, Ox (Both fit) LW – Alexis, Campbell (Both fit) AM – Santi, Ozil (Both fit) CM – Ramsey, Jack, Rosicky ( Only Jack Out) DM – Arteta, Flamini, Coquelin (Both Flamini and Coq available) RB – Debuchy, Bellerin (Both fit) LB – Gibbs, Monreal (Both fit) CB – Per, Koscielny, Chambers (All fit albeit Koscielny will likely continue in and out) Gnabry should also be making a return… Read more »
I think the issue with Ozil is that he can perform even better but he still racks up quite a bit of opportunities for us even at second best. Also the difference between Ozil and Alexis is Ozil is more used to structure with Real and Germany where Alexis thrives with the controlled chaos systems which is Chile, Barca and us. Thereby Ozil is more comfortable when he has a fixed brief playing in the middle. BUT our system is design to take advantage of versatility in most of our attacking midfielders and strikers. The 3 or 4 ahead of… Read more »
At this rate, we’ll have everyone healthy and fit by the time the season ends.
really hope Ozil hits the ground running and finds his form soon. But we should ease him back in and if he starts to deliver, I’d have him as the regular starting #10. Santi is playing well, but he is often more productive than Ozil when playing on the wings.
But it sure is nice to have this kind of lineup selection headache rather than starting whomever seems to be the least injured at the time.
The thing with Arsenal having everyone fit means there is much more chance of people being injured!
It sounds a crazy thing to say but we do need defensive back up
Good to see rambo and ozil back gd luck to poldi its as late but the team need to watch on conceding goals and beating stoke coyg.