Arsenal vs Manchester City: Who you gonna call?
By Josh Sippie
Arsenal will have their hands full against Manchester City, but the big question is who they will turn to for chance creation. That is the question.
Arsenal opened the season against Manchester City in a match that was really blown out of proportion. For being the first match in the Unai Emery era, there was a lot that didn’t necessarily “go right,” but it certainly didn’t “go wrong.”
It was a match where Emery relied on the big guns to do the heavy lifting in the chance creation department – Mesut Ozil, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Aaron Ramsey all started, forming a trifecta that was supposed to be dynamic, but that would soon crumble.
Going into this second match against Manchester City, things will be different. Emery has been moving and shaking the starting XI, and he has things to consider. Do you trust the old guard, the new talent or something else entirely?
And better question, rather than “who you gonna call?” why not make it “who all you gonna call?” Because this is all about generating chances for two deadly strikers, the best strike pair in the Premier League, but they can’t be at their best if they aren’t firing at net.
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Chances have come from two major factories this season – Sead Kolasinac as a wingback and a No. 10, though the former requires a back three and the latter isn’t exactly a reliable source. That is – depending on who you gonna call.
Unai Emery has been using Aaron Ramsey as a No. 10 role, but with Ozil always lurking and Mkhitaryan also on the up, he has the option to give the old guard another shot at success before handing the reigns over to the new boy, Denis Suarez.
Or, if Emery is feeling really saucy, he can just do the transition now and throw Suarez in there and see what happens.
Honestly, given the lack of chances being created regularly, Emery has a world of opportunity to choose from, because anything can be pointed at as an attempt to shake things up and generate some changes within the squad.
So who are you going to call? Do you trust Suarez? Do you try Ozil? Do you stick with Ramsey? Or do you beef up the midfield base and trust in the wingbacks?
Well, the choice isn’t yours, so don’t bother answering out loud, but you see the options that we have. And the good news is, there’s a lot of them.