Arsenal vs Bournemouth predicted starting XI: Safe for Mesut Ozil?

Centerbacks

Celebrate with me, because our best centerback pairing is back and it is ready. Against Southampton, Unai Emery started Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis side by side, but when Stephan Lichtsteiner came off with an injury, Emery had to shuffle a bit and send Laurent Koscielny out, thus reuniting the pair that made our defense look so positive.

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There’s no reason to tamper with it now. With both Koscielny and Sokratis healthy, we have to start the both of them. As mentioned, it was this pairing that truly inspired confidence going back about a month or so and it’s this pairing that finally talked me out of favoring a back three (small victories, eh?).

With Koscielny and Sokratis, the defense actually pulled their weight and, on a couple of occasions, kept the team in the game far longer than the attack was able to help out with. Which is not something I expected to be happening at all this year, not until we were able to reshuffle in the summer.

The top four is one the line, so no messing around here. Play our best players in their best positions. Because why wouldn’t you?

On to the fullbacks. Who’s ready for a surprise?