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[Image] No Xhaka or Lacazette but Ozil starts – How Arsenal should line-up vs Brighton

By on June 18, 2020

mesut ozil arsenal 2018

Arsenal will look to put the defeat at City behind us when we take on Brighton at the Amex on Saturday afternoon. Here’s the line-up I’d like Mikel Arteta to select…

I thought Arteta got his team selection wrong against Man City and I was very surprised with the line-up he went for. Hopefully he learns his lesson against Brighton but he’ll certainly have to make some changes due to injury and suspension.

David Luiz showed once again on Wednesday night why he’s a total liability and there is no way he should be given a new contract. It was one of the worst performances I’ve seen in a long while and thankfully he’ll now miss our next three games.

Pablo Mari was forced off with an ankle injury so it looks like he’ll miss the Brighton game. I would totally mix things up and bring Sokratis and Rob Holding back into the team. They had a decent partnership for a while a couple of years ago before Holding got injured and let’s face it, they can’t do any worse than Mustafi/Luiz.

Kieran Tierney impressed during the opening exchanges at the Etihad so he should keep his place at left-back while Hector Bellerin should obviously start on the right. Bernd Leno was easily our best player against City so he’ll keep the gloves in goal.

Our midfield was all over the place once again on Wednesday so I’d like to see Arsenal freshen things up at the weekend. Granit Xhaka is set to be ruled out after picking up an injury against City so I’d love Lucas Torreira to start.

The Uruguayan has been building up his fitness following an ankle injury and as long as he’s fit, I’d go with him alongside Dani Ceballos at Brighton. Matteo Guendouzi looked totally lost in midweek so he should drop to the bench.

Ozil back

It was a big call to axe Mesut Ozil but it’s safe to say it backfired. Arsenal produced nothing going forward, were carved open countless times through the middle and Joe Willock was anonymous. We couldn’t have done much worse had Ozil been playing.

dani ceballos arsenal

We pay Ozil big money and he was actually playing reasonably well before the break, so I hope he’s recalled against Brighton as we desperately need some creativity in the team.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was wasted on the wing again on Wednesday night. I really don’t understand leaving Alexandre Lacazette on the bench only to leave your best goalscorer out wide. Just so a rookie can get a start up front. WTF?!

Lacazette on the bench

Eddie Nketiah is a decent young prospect but he shouldn’t be keeping Auba out of his best position. So let’s play our best striker and top scorer up front and play our wingers out wide! Sadly that means Laca will remain on the bench.

Nicolas Pepe didn’t get any minutes at City but hopefully he’s recalled on Saturday. Arsenal’s most expensive signing is clearly not doing enough in training to earn a starting spot but I think he’s always a danger when he plays.

Reiss Nelson and Gabriel Martinelli are other options but I’d like to see Pepe starting on the right wing with Bukayo Saka moving over to the left side of attack. It was a strange choice to play him on the right at City so let’s move him back to where he belongs on the left.

Here is how I hope Arsenal line-up:

football formations

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