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4-3-1-2: Ozil starts, Mkhitaryan out | Arsenal’s strongest line-up to face Burnley

By on December 20, 2018

sokratis arsenal 2018

Arsenal simply have to get back to winning ways after two poor results when we welcome Burnley to the Emirates on Saturday lunchtime. This is the line-up I’d like Unai Emery to select…

Goalkeeper: Leno

Petr Cech started during the 2-0 Carabao Cup defeat to Tottenham and while he wasn’t particularly at fault for either goal, he didn’t do enough to reclaim his place. I’d stick with Bernd Leno, despite his poor form of late, as he needs to be given the time to work on his mistakes.

Defence: Lichtsteiner, Mustafi, Sokratis, Monreal

I hope Emery goes with a back four as I don’t see the need to play three centre-backs at home against Burnley. Sokratis should obviously start and I’d go with Shkodran Mustafi if he’s recovered from his hamstring injury. Laurent Koscielny has been shocking since returning from injury so the Arsenal skipper clearly needs more time to get back to his best form.

Hector Bellerin is expected to miss out after picking up a calf injury during Arsenal’s defeat to Southampton last weekend so Stephan Lichtsteiner should start at right-back with Nacho Monreal on the opposite side of defence.

Midfield: Torreira, Xhaka, Ramsey

Lucas Torreira is starting to look a little jaded and I would personally have rested him against Spurs. However, we can’t really afford that luxury against Burnley as Arsenal HAVE to get back to winning ways.

Granit Xhaka has played in defence lately but it’s definitely not worked so I hope he moves back in to midfield while I’d like to see Aaron Ramsey recalled in a box-to-box role as part of a midfield three. Matteo Guendouzi should drop to the bench for this one.

mesut ozil arsenal 2018

Attack: Ozil, Aubameyang, Lacazette

I was stunned to see Mesut Ozil left out of the squad against Tottenham for ‘tactical reasons’. Rumour has it he’s had a number of bust-up’s with Emery and the boss clearly has a problem with the German. However, I don’t see how it’s best for Arsenal to leave our most creative player out in the cold. Emery needs to resolve the matter and find a way to get Ozil on board with his methods. To be honest, it’s been poor man-management from the boss so far with this saga.

I’ve also not been impressed with Emery’s treatment of Alexandre Lacazette as I don’t see why he’s been left on the bench lately. He should definitely be starting the majority of our games so the boss also needs to figure out how to get him and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the same team.

Personally, I think the below formation is the way forward, with Auba/Laca up front and either Ozil or Ramsey in the hole. It plays our best players in their best positions and we were excellent in the second half against Tottenham earlier this month when we deployed this system.

Alex Iwobi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan have been pretty woeful lately so I’d drop them to the bench.

Here is the side I hope we’ll see:

football formations

In reality, I expect a place on the bench is the best Ozil can hope for this weekend and at least one of Iwobi or Mkhi will start against Burnley. Ramsey will also probably be on the bench again. Either way, whoever starts lets just hope Arsenal get back to winning ways this weekend.

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