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[Image] Xhaka out, Ozil starts | Arsenal’s best line-up to face Newcastle

By on April 1, 2019

mesut ozil arsenal 2018

Arsenal can move up to third place in the Premier League table with a win over Newcastle at the Emirates tonight. This is the line-up I’d like Unai Emery to select…

Goalkeeper: Leno

Bernd Leno was in fine form before the international break and he should start between the sticks against Newcastle tonight. Petr Cech kept a clean sheet against Rennes last time out but he’ll drop back to the bench for this one.

Defence: Sokratis, Koscielny, Monreal

Sokratis missed our Europa League victory due to suspension before the break but he’s available again so I’d certainly recall the Greek defender against Newcastle. Laurent Koscielny has been back to something like his best form in recent games so he should keep his place in the middle of the Arsenal back three.

Nacho Monreal was forced to miss our warm weather training camp in Dubai during the international break due to a calf problem but he’s been in full training again so is expected to be fit to start tonight. That means Shkodran Mustafi is the man set to drop to the bench.

Midfield: Maitland-Niles, Guendouzi, Ramsey, Kolasinac

Sead Kolasinac should once again start in the left wing-back position as he’s become a key player in Arsenal’s attacking play while Ainsley Maitland-Niles has been putting in some solid displays in the right wing-back role so I’d stick with him over Stephan Lichtsteiner or Carl Jenkinson.

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Lucas Torreira is suspended as he’ll serve the final game of his three-match ban while it looks like Granit Xhaka will miss out as he wasn’t spotted at training on Sunday after suffering a thigh injury while away with Switzerland last week.

Thankfully Aaron Ramsey has been able to train after recovering from a knock that kept him out of Wales duty so I’d start him in the Arsenal midfield alongside Matteo Guendouzi this evening.

Attack: Ozil, Aubameyang, Lacazette

Arsenal have plenty of attacking options so it’s going to be interesting to see how Emery lines-up this evening. Henrikh Mkhitaryan was in fine form before the international break so he’ll be hoping to start while Alex Iwobi is also pushing for a recall after being named on the bench against Rennes last time out.

Emery has suggested that Denis Suarez is now ready to feature more prominently in the first team after struggling to make an impact following his loan move from Barcelona in January so we have a lot of options.

However, I’d like to see Arsenal start with our two star strikers up front as I think Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette deserve to start and their goal threat should cause Newcastle plenty of problems.

That means we need someone to fill the No.10 role and there is no better player for the job than Mesut Ozil. If Emery went with just one striker and two wide attackers then Ozil wouldn’t fit the system. However, he’s the ideal man to supply the bullets in the ‘hole’ behind a front two.

This is the starting eleven I hope we’ll see:

football formations