Arsenal need to bench Mesut Ozil for Manchester City FA Cup semifinal

With Arsenal all set to face Manchester City in the FA Cup semifinals, Arsene Wenger needs to bench Mesut Ozil to give the Gunners the best possible chance to win.

What remains of Arsenal‘s season hangs in the balance when the Gunners meet Manchester City at Wembley Stadium in the FA Cup semifinals. It’s the club’s last chance of a trophy this season, and with even a top four finish looking difficult, Arsenal’s season is on the line.

The team are not in good form, either, so Arsene Wenger will have to try and coax a better performance out of his men. Arsenal may have beat Middlesbrough on Monday, but the Gunners have been in abysmal form overall lately.

Can they now rise to the occasion? Can Wenger formulate the right gameplan? The Frenchman finally shown some signs of change during the win over Middlesbrough. Wenger decided to play a 3-4-2-1 formation, to some degree of success.

However, it would be a bad idea for Wenger to now play the same system against City at Wembley. Wenger needs to put more bodies in midfield to combat Guardiola’s style, and add pace and work rate on the flanks to counter attack where City are weakest.

The odd man out in all of this would be Mesut Ozil. The German has not had a good season and should be sacrificed for this game. Ozil doesn’t have the work rate to be a passenger in a match like this, with the team in the form that they are, and being in the form that he is as an individual.

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A 4-3-3 formation should be full of pace and work rate with a trio of Danny Welbeck, Alexis Sanchez and Theo Walcott upfront. Whilst the midfield three should consist of Granit Xhaka, Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

The midfield isn’t as balanced as it needs to be, but that’s the Arsenal squad for you right now. It’s been unbalanced for years. Wenger will just have to make do with what he has. After all, he built the squad in the first place.

Guardiola is still building his City team. Still, they are already a typical Guardiola outfit in the style that they employ. City have good numbers centrally and usually control possession in most games. Arsenal need to match City in midfield.

Not just technically, but they need to go above and beyond for work rate, toughness and togetherness. Meanwhile, City are strong offensively down the flanks, but are weak defensively in the same area. That’s an area for the Gunners to exploit offensively.

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So although Mesut Ozil is one of Arsenal’s best players when in form, given his current output, now is a time when Wenger can afford to bench the German. The game against City is a game where playing without Ozil would be the right move.

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