Ozil earns Christmas break, Midfield favourite returning to Arsenal & A sad loss…

Morning all.

Sad news broke yesterday with the passing of Don Howe, aged 80. Arsenal player, coach and ‘stand in’ manager in years gone by and a man regarded by many as one of the best coaches ever in England. Don Howe was Bertie Mee’s assistant manager during Arsenal’s 1971 Double success…..

There’s a really nice piece on Arsenal.com in Don’s memory…….

RIP big fella…..

LvG walked out of his press conference yesterday, something which Arsene Wenger threatened a few weeks ago but having done so, the press cooled their line of questioning and the Frenchman remained in his seat. We’ve seen the headlines suggesting LvG is one loss away from the sack and with Mourinho being touted as favourite to take over and all LvG asked for was some kind of apology from those people who had written such mischievous tales. He didn’t get what he asked for so no sooner had LvG sat down, off he went…

It’s been long believed that manager’s careers rise and fall at the hands of the fans, but these days the media are playing their part too, an ugly one. I guess that will never change either…

Arsene Wenger held his pre Boxing Day press conference yesterday too and there’s no real news. The squad travelling to Southampton will be the same as Mondays. No great surprise there, well, apart from Mathieu Debuchy missing and as far as I know he’s not injured so perhaps his omission is an indication that he’s off next month. His desire to leave has been no secret as he just wants to be playing in order to have a chance to be involved in the Euros next summer with France.

One player coming back though could be Serge Gnabry as rumours suggest West Brom want to cut the loan deal short which if true, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. What’s the point in him warming the West Brom bench at best?

Finally, no sooner had Mesut Ozil been handed the man of the match award on Monday night, he packed his bags and headed off into the sunshine.

All right for some eh….

Apparently, Mesut has totally changed his lifestyle since coming to England:

The biggest change started when I was injured last year and I changed my diet and started to look at the small details in my life.

For example I started to have physiotherapy on my days off and made sure I had a good sleep. That is crucial over here [in England]. It is the fastest league in the world and we often play twice a week with no winter break.

And of course, a dose of Vitamin D as and when he can…

That’s it for today, enjoy your Christmas Eve whatever you are doing and don’t forget to take the train, bus or taxi if your celebrations involve alcohol. Don’t give the boys and girls in blue a chance of locking you up for the night…

Have fun….