The Christmas/New Year craziness starts in earnest on Saturday with a visit from Burnley.

We know what Burnley all about. The deepest of blocks, a passion for throwing themselves in front of projectiles and reliant on set-pieces to damage the opposition. Just as Huddersfield were, they're going to be annoying and we'll be needing a lot of patience.

The task of breaking them down has been made harder by the absences of Ozil, Bellerin and possibly Kolasinac as well. Without our best creator and the service from our full-backs, the side will struggle to carve out opportunities.

We'll also be without Mkhitaryan, which may be a good thing, depending on your perspective.

All these injuries means it's unlikely we'll see a shift away from the back three, so there's a good chance we'll line-up as:


Three points are a must after the Southampton and Spurs games. We have Brighton on Boxing Day before we had up to Anfield, so have to grind it out somehow.

As we haven’t been able to dominate since he moved to CB, we need XHAKA back in midfield, don‘t even care who‘s playing CB— it‘s going to be a shitshow defensively anyway so might as well play to our potential in other parts of the pitch.

Do or die for us, a loss here will signal a mini crisis. We have to get a win at all cost.

Emery confirmed Ozil is in the 18-man squad. So that's a bonus.

looking forward to smash them 1-0

Ozil starting as a captain. Mkhitaryan (probably injured) and Iwobi finally out of the first team. Unfortunately the back 5 sticks.

Heard on the radio it's actually a back four today. We'll see.

Great to see Saka on the bench. Hopefully we'll be able to give him a run out.

Yeah it turned out to be a back 4. Much happier with Emery today, unfortunately he had to revert to a back 3 after Monreal‘s injury.

Bring on Torreira at half time and we win this.

Well that was short spell from Monreal, defender is must this window. Chamber would do nicely about now.

Im sweating

Finally a win, Iwobi broke his draught, long may this continue.

Happy with the win, scrappy or not. We‘re dealing with a lot of injuries right now.

Also the referee was a massive c*nt, completely ignored Burnley‘s dirty antics.

Burnley turned that into a scrap. We handled ourselves well considering they had a height and strength advantage over us.

So we started with a diamond and then had to switch to a back three. I thought we struggled for fluency in possession in both shapes, but carried threat on the counter with Ozil, Laca and Auba. Clearly, our ball progression is going to suffer without XHAKA or Torreira in midfield.

Kolasinac was excellent in attack again. He'll be the biggest beneficiary of narrow shapes.

And Ozil ffs. Shows his value with that pass for the first goal. Nobody in the squad can do that.

The goal was once again XHAKA mistake, the man just switch off his brain sometimes

Bring back Wenger for specific defensive drills.would improve us :Lucas:

Not just nobody in the squad, only a handful of players in the EPL could make that pass, at most.

Beautiful from Ozil. Great dribbling for the third goal too

Ozil turning up is something we need to see more and more, not in a handful of games. We all know he has the talent but we never know which Ozil is going to turn up.

Also, we need to sign a left back, push Monreal into a secondary left back role ala Lict and we NEED to move Kola into a more advanced role, stop playing him as a left back, basically turn him into Bale part two. He is being wasted as a left back with his attacking prowess because of his lack of defensive ability. Unleashing him as a left winger would help solve the winger issue (especially next season when Nelson comes back) and it will free up a berth for an actual left back.

Imagine Kola on the wing with a lb behind him, our left wing will be sorted for the next 5 years

I don't think anyone can complain about VAR ruining the flow of a game after watching the second half of this game...

EL or bust again
5-0 to Liverpool; needed on Saturday
enough is enough