How do United stop Arsenal’s two midfield maestros?

Manchester United will have some fight on their hands this weekend when they take on Arsenal.

Not only will be they be up against arguably the most in-form team in Europe and the current leaders of the English Premier League, at an individual level they’ll be facing not one but two of the world’s best playmakers in Santi Cazorla and Mesut Ozil.  It’s little surprise that since moving to London, Ozil has turned Arsenal into title contenders once again. He and Cazorla have accounted for 32 goalscoring chances between them (at an average of over 2.5 chances per game) and have scored three goals.

More importantly, the pair have given the Gunners’ midfield an added strength it didn’t have last season.

Arsenal’s midfield maestros are a big problem for United to deal with, and stopping them (along withAaron Ramsey) will no doubt be David Moyes’s biggest concern on the day.

So how exactly can United shutdown the duo? Here’s two options.

Option 1: Stick Fellaini on Cazorla

What we’ve seen most clearly from Ozil this year is that despite playing as a central attacking midfielder (and a No. 10), he’s actually most effective when he comes in from wider areas. His Total Chances Created Map shows just how varied he’s been in creating goalscoring opportunities this year, but given that most of his time has been spent in the middle, such variation shows that he’s going to be an absolute nightmare to try and man-mark on the day. Cazorla and Mesut Ozil.