Pain in the Arsenal
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Arsenal Vs Manchester City: 5 key players to watch — Doing what he does best

By Andrew Dowdeswell

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 03: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Arsenal during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Everton at Emirates Stadium on February 3, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 03: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Arsenal during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Everton at Emirates Stadium on February 3, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images) /
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Arsenal, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
LONDON, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 03: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Arsenal during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Everton at Emirates Stadium on February 3, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images) /

Arsenal travel to Wembley to face Manchester City in the final of the Carabao Cup on Sunday afternoon. Here are five key players to watch ahead of the first domestic cup final of the season.

Manchester City are a daunting task. Just three losses all year, one of which came in a meaningless Champions League and another of which came just this week in a game that the opposition, lowly Wigan Athletic, had just 18% possession and two shots on target, even if Pep Guardiola believed to only one, and a relentlessly winning attitude in the league that has seen them extend their advantage at the top to 15 points with a game in hand are proof of that. Arsenal will not find Sunday’s Carabao Cup final easy going. But they have given themselves a chance, and that is as much as anyone could have asked for.

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So, here are five key players to watch ahead of the trip to Wembley.

Arsenal, Mesut Ozil
LONDON, ENGLAND – JANUARY 24: Mesut Ozil of Arsenal runs with the ball during Carabao Cup Semi-Final Second Leg match between Arsenal and Chelsea the at Emirates Stadium on January 24, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images) /

5. Mesut Ozil

These games often don’t suit the possessionally-obsessed Mesut Ozil. We saw as much last time Arsenal traversed across London to wade onto the Wembley pitch. That time, it was in the Premier League. A North London derby, no less, but one that saw Spurs control the game through a dominance of the ball. Ozil, subsequently, slipped into the peripheries.

That is something that cannot happen on Sunday, but it is likely. For all of Ozil’s wondrous and vast talents, prying his way through midfields, unpicking defences, sliding through passes and, of course, assisting goals, he does have a tendency to quietly seep into the cracks of the game when Arsenal do not win the battle of possession. This could very well be one of those games.

The first time that these two teams met earlier in the year, Ozil was very quiet. Playing on the right flank, but given the freedom to drift inside and float from pocket to pocket, Ozil was unable to ever influence the game, immediately pressured whenever he received the ball, starved off options around him, unable to drive the Arsenal attack forward. On Sunday, the very same could well happen. Ozil will not get many opportunities to create, but when he gets them, he must be clinical and accurate.