A Premier League start for Arsenal's Ozil and VAR to dominate the headlines again

Could we detect a little softening of Unai Emery's resolve when he said he would consider including Mesut Ozil in his squad for Arsenal's game against Wolves this weekend? There is a little more clamor for the German to be brought in from the cold after his terrific hour or so against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday.  

One of Arsenal's many problems has been an inability to pick holes in the defense and for all his other flaws, Ozil reminded everyone at Anfield that he can still do that. Football fans can book Premier League Tickets on our website on exclusively discounted prices.

It would represent a climbdown from Emery so he might view this as exposing a weakness, but given the way, some of the Arsenal fanbases seem to have lost patience with him after last weekend's draw with Crystal Palace it might be worth a try.

Was that the start of a recovery or false dawn for Manchester United?

On a human level, it was pleasant to see Ole Gunnar Solskjaer smiling after Manchester United's win over Norwich last weekend, but the necessary caveats should not only be made clear.

But shouted this was a Norwich team ravaged by injuries, second-bottom of the league, who had lost three of their previous four and had only kept one clean sheet all season.

So will that 3-1 victory at Carrow Road turn out to be the start of something more tangible, a recovery of sorts for United, or simply a game that even they couldn't fail to win?

The form of Marcus Rashford and the return of Anthony Martial will help, but this is still a deeply flawed United team who could be exposed by a Bournemouth side who looks in good touch.

How will Southampton recover from 9-0?

The basic facts are that Southampton lost a game last weekend, but the reality is that their 9-0 evisceration at the hands of Leicester City could have lasting damage for the rest of their season.

There is a theory that relegation might be preferable to the water-treading that has been happening at St Mary's in recent years, but that still feels like an extreme point of view, and of course, nobody there wants a demotion to the Championship on their conscience.

They could really have done without two trips to Manchester City after such a loss, but they emerged from the first, on Tuesday in the Carabao Cup, at least with a little dignity, if not a positive result.

Ralph Hasenhuttl's primary job this week will have been to piece his squad's morale back together, and we'll see how well he's done that when they step out on Saturday.

STATS OF THE WEEKEND

Manchester United are seeking back-to-back Premier League wins for the first time since defeating Crystal Palace and Southampton in February and March. Their opponent this week, Bournemouth, will be a welcomed sight for United, the Red Devils boasting an 11-2-3 record in the all-time series. Aston Villa host Liverpool this weekend looking to snap a long drought.

The Villains have lost their last 12 matches against the Big 6 across all competitions and are winless in their last 18 against those foes. Villa's last win vs. a top-six side? April 2015 in the Premier League against Tottenham.

MAN TO WATCH: Whoever replaces Willy Boly for Wolves

There might be a few individual players more important to their teams than Willy Boly is to Wolves, but there won't be many. Boly had surgery this week on his fractured tibia, sustained before last weekend's game against Newcastle.

And will be out for a few months, leaving Nuno Espirito Santo an interesting quandary at the back. Last weekend at Newcastle he played Matt Doherty in his back three, an imperfect solution. But one he apparently deemed preferable to choosing Jesus Vallejo.

Who has only started one league game this season, when Wolves conceded five against Chelsea. Ryan Bennett is another option, but he has been in and out of the team all season, and then there's Romain Saiss. Conor Coady is really the only certainty, and it will be fascinating to see who Nuno chooses to play either side of him.

Crystal Palace vs. Leicester City

It's a little counterintuitive to think that third vs sixth should be an under-the-radar game, but it still feels odd that those two teams are Leicester and Crystal Palace.  Both sides are unexpectedly flying in this season's still nascent Premier League season albeit in different ways Leicester are the attacking free-wheelers who scored nine last weekend at Southampton.

Palace the Steady-Eddies who are in the top six despite having a negative goal difference. The varied styles could make for a terrific game.

The team that needs a bit of luck Norwich City

Not just a bit of luck Norwich City could do with buckets of the stuff, such are the severity of their injury problems. They finished last weekend's game against Manchester United with three players limping around the pitch.

Who should really have been taken off but for the fact they had already made all three of their substitutions. Add those to the six first-teamers already out, which includes their two first-choice Centre-backs.

And in part explains their dreadful defensive record. Getting through their trip to Brighton intact would mark success this weekend.

ONE THING THAT WILL DEFINITELY HAPPEN

Unless there's been a sudden re-think over the last few days, following the league-wide shambles of last weekend then VAR will continue to be a complete mess and will continue to ruin Premier League games up and down the land.

Before the bar was too high then the bar was too low, and who knows where the bar even is now. In reality, they should throw the bar away scrap VAR and write the whole thing off as a bad job.

Unfortunately, they won't VAR is here to stay and at this stage, it's only about damage-limitation how little can it make a mess of things, rather than how much it can improve the game.

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Premier League: Few talking points from the weekend’s action

1) Jeering of Xhaka paints fans in a lowly light

There can be a slight hesitation that Granit Xhaka has underwhelmed since his huge cash transfers from Bo Russia three summers ago fading to provide whichever the midfield bit or the drive that has been constantly lacking in Arsenal’s post-Vieira era.

No problem how low his performances have dipped and you wonder what exactly those home fans who hooted the captain as he left the field in the second half were thinking. Football fans can book Premier League Tickets on our website on exclusively discounted prices.

2) Chelsea band together to counterbalance Hazard loss

Christian Puglisi’s first Chelsea hat trick promises to redesign the pecking order for the points on the lines. “Of course he provides himself a countless chance of playing in the playoffs up-coming,” Frank Lampard said.

Lampard said “Everyone wants an Eden Hazard in the team”, but Chelsea has slashed 22 goals in their earlier eight league games without the Belgian. Clearly, there is a change when you lose a player as impactful as Eden. Lampard said, He scored or created nearly 50% of our goals.

3) Alexander Arnold’s inspired mastery dwarfs any weaknesses

Trent Alexander Arnold should be retitled Trent Alexander Bruyne. The value and variety of his permissions, it would be an abuse to several of them to call them crosses, is fairly incredible for a 21-year-old, and for much of the game in contradiction of Spurs.

It feels a bit impolite, giving the cleverness of his attacking, to recognize his occasionally unformed preserving. But that is what opposition directors will be doing because it is the contiguous thing Liverpool has to a self-justifying flaw.

4) Norwich getting tense to relegation fights

Ten games into the time, seven points on the panel and extra match when enemies sliced through them, Norwich City look like prime candidates for relegation. Daniel Farke was right in his valuation that his squad was small of the physical obligation to make this a competition.

What he did not say was that they also not have the pace to attack and the dignity to keep control, a quality that was invented to be their specialty. Rivals have worked out how to neutralize Norwich and Emi Buendía and Moritz Leitner, who seemed too good for the Championship.

5) Defensive disaster does not anxiety Guard Iola

Although the long term injury to Aymeric LA Porte and with extra center-back, John Stones, also fair returned from muscle damage, Manchester City has the fourth lowermost goals approved.

Pep Guard Iola pointed to how he directed Barcelona to Champions League final victory over Manchester United in 2009 as the inspiration to daze the defensive disaster.

 “My first Champions League final, we had a back four with three injuries to the normal starters against Cristiano, Ryan Giggs, one of the best squads I ever faced in my career.”

6) Holgate induced Toffee’s luck will opportunity

The luckless loss at Brighton, Everton’s sixth defeat in 10 Premier League competitions this season did not anything to benefit Marco Silva’s victory over the club’s followers who say He is not the executive to take them onward.

 But Mason Holgate, who played fine on his first best flight start for the club in other than a year, says the performers persist right overdue him.

“I think that is shown in the last two routines we have set out. The past week we were all incredible and then this week we were undertaking surely well and there was a decision that just totally put the game on its head.”

7) Joelinton a sign of Newcastle mishandling

By as a final point taking the top out in Adama Traoré, Nuno Espírito Santo’s next half shift from 3-5-2 to 3-4-3 cemented the way for his side’s comeback from a goal downcast to claim a point.  

Had Newcastle influenced a real center onward they would confidently have had the game all but won by the intermission? Joe Linton budget £40m from Hoffenheim but the 23years old Brazilian attacker, organized in a left-sided offensive portion in Germany, wherever he was not ever a creative scorer, is struggling poorly and, dying to grasp the ball up.

8) Hasenhüttl façades a week of the estimate

It was honorable of Ralph Hasenhüttl to proceeds responsibility for the 9-0 downfall in contradiction of Leicester when surely his performers lay down and acknowledged their embarrassment.

The Austrian’s work now is to choose them up for end-to-end matches in contradiction of Manchester City full in the information that another criticism might charge him his job.

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