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Home   >   Opinions   >   [Image] Ozil starts, Ramsey misses out | Arsenal’s best line-up to face BATE

[Image] Ozil starts, Ramsey misses out | Arsenal’s best line-up to face BATE

By on February 21, 2019

mesut ozil arsenal 2018

Arsenal need to turn things around in the second leg of our Europa League last-32 tie with BATE Borisov this evening [5.55pm kick off]. This is the line-up I’d like Unai Emery to select…

Goalkeeper: Cech 

Petr Cech has been Arsenal’s ‘cup keeper’ all season and he started in the first leg last week so I think it’s safe to say the retiring Czech legend should keep his place this evening. Bernd Leno will be on the bench.

Defence: Maitland-Niles, Sokratis, Koscielny, Kolasinac

Emery seems to favour three at the back but I don’t think there is any need for three centre-backs at home to BATE so I’d go with a back four. Sokratis is available again after recovering from an ankle injury so he should be recalled.

Laurent Koscielny should be the man to partner Sokratis in the middle of defence so Shkodran Mustafi can drop to the bench. Nacho Monreal could move to left-back but Sead Kolasinac has become a key figure in our attacking play down the left so he should keep his place.

Obviously Hector Bellerin is still out with a long-term knee injury so I’d stick with Ainsley Maitland-Niles ahead of Stephan Lichtsteiner at right-back this evening.

Midfield: Torreira, Xhaka

I’m a big Matteo Guendouzi fan and think he’ll have a huge future at the club but it might be time to revert to the Lucas Torreira-Granit Xhaka axis that brought us success during our unbeaten run.

They looked to be building a solid partnership in the middle of the park before Emery switched things around so I’d like to see Torreira-Xhaka rekindle their partnership to see if that helps us rediscover some form.

Aaron Ramsey is back in contention after recovering from a knee injury that’s kept him out of the last two games but unfortunately playing a two-man midfield means he’ll miss out as Emery would never play Ramsey as one of the deep-lying midfielders.

Attack: Mkhitaryan, Ozil, Iwobi, Aubameyang

With Alexandre Lacazette suspended following his dismissal late on in Borisov we can go back to playing with three attackers behind one striker, which may give us a bit more balance in attack.

Rambo could play in the No.10 role but I think it’s time we brought Mesut Ozil back in to the side. The situation has become beyond ridiculous as it’s insane to leave our most creative player out of the squad at a time when we’re playing awful football and struggling to create chances.

I think we should give Ozil a chance to prove he wants to play regularly for Arsenal again and is willing to fight for his place. Let’s be honest, we can’t be any worse with him than we were without him last week!

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will obviously lead the line up front and I think Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alex Iwobi should be the men to join Ozil in supporting the Gabon international.

That trio look to have a good balance and a front four of Iwobi, Ozil, Mkhitaryan and Aubameyang should be more than enough to put BATE to the sword at the Emirates this evening.

Here is the side I hope we’ll see:

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