A&K Kick Off: Where'd it go wrong for Ozil? Prem plans for World Cup and former ref slams VAR

This week’s A&K post features: what’s gone wrong for Ozil at Arsenal under Unai Emery, the Premier League plans for the 2022 world cup in Dubai and former referee Keith Hackett explains why VAR is “flawed”.

Furthermore, as always, a review of the weekend’s games and predictions for the upcoming league fixtures are below as well.

What’s gone wrong for Ozil at Arsenal?

He earns £350,000 a week, but Mesut Ozil can’t get into the Arsenal side to save his life.

The German midfielder has made just one Premier League start for Arsenal this season and has now been left out of the Gunners' last four matchday squads.

On Monday, his absence prompted more questions, with Arsenal badly lacking any creativity as they fruitlessly tried to break down a solid Sheffield United defence.

In the end, the Blades won 1-0 while Arsenal slumped to another defeat on the road.

Asked by BBC Sport if Ozil was available, Gunners boss Unai Emery simply replied with: "He can help us, yes."

Since joining Arsenal six years ago, Ozil has missed 101 games for the Gunners but has only had one major injury in that time.

Most of his absences have been explained away by illness or minor niggles, while he missed Arsenal's season opener against Newcastle along with team-mate Sead Kolasinac because of security concerns after they were involved in an attempted carjacking.

Kolasinac, however, has long since returned to the squad but Ozil has appeared and then disappeared, sometimes because of fitness, sometimes because Emery has felt other players have been more deserving of a chance.

But are Arsenal missing him?

Since Ozil made his debut for the Gunners, no player has created more chances than him (522). In fact, no-one comes even close (Aaron Ramsey,272, Santi Cazorla ,190, Olivier Giroud,183, Granit Xhaka,121).

He has also been the club's top assist maker in three of their last six seasons, although admittedly did not feature in the top three of the lists in the last campaign- 2013-14 Mesut Ozil 9, 2014-15 Santi Cazorla 11, 2015-16 Mesut Ozil 19, 2016-17 Alexis Sanchez 10, 2017-18 Mesut Ozil 8, 2018-19 Alexandre Lacazette 8.

Ozil has been quiet on the matter for a long time, but recently provided some insight into the situation he finds himself in.

Speaking to The Athletic, he said: "When I signed the new deal (in 2018) I thought about it very carefully.

"I didn't want to stay for just one or two more years, I wanted to commit, and the club wanted me to do the same.

"You can go through difficult times, like this, but that is no reason to run away and I'm not going to. I'm here until at least 2021.

Whether Emery gives Ozil a shot or not, sitting on £350,000 a week isn’t half bad for not even making the starting 11-so despite Arsenal losing recently, Mesut Ozil is the real winner here.

Premier League plans for 2022 World Cup

Premier League players could face the prospect of playing games nine days before the start of the 2022 winter World Cup in Qatar.

Draft plans have been shared between clubs outlining the Premier League schedule around the tournament, being held from 21 November to 18 December.

Fixtures could take place on 12 November and resume on 26 December, eight days after the final.

The season would also kick off one week earlier and finish a week later.

It means that there would be only six weekends without Premier League games.

The issue will be discussed at the next Premier League shareholders' meeting in November.

It is understood that Championship games will not take place during the World Cup, but the break for the second tier might not be as long as in the Premier League.

A winter break will be introduced to the Premier League for the first time this season in order to give players a rest.

But it has been suggested that will be scrapped in the 2022-23 season, raising questions about player fatigue.

Former ref slams VAR as “flawed”

Former referee Keith Hackett says there is "a level of arrogance" coming from Professional Game Match Officials Limited and has labelled VAR in the Premier League as "flawed".

VAR has proven to be a major talking point so far in what is its debut season in the English top-flight, not least over the last few days, during which a number of decisions have been under the spotlight.

In September, Mike Riley, the managing director of the official’s body PGMOL, said four mistakes had been made by VAR in the Premier League after four rounds of matches.

Hackett, a former Premier League and FIFA referee who led the PGMOL between 2004 and 2010, said: "There's a level of arrogance that seems to be coming out of the PGMOL at the moment, that every decision we're making is correct.

"Let's look at last season's stats. Mike Riley came out and said we are 82 per cent accurate on the big decisions, which is saying literally one in five of the big decisions we are getting wrong.

"So we have now got VAR and we're going to improve, we're going to get these big decisions and we're going to be better at it.

“VAR is there for us to see a game with less errors and hopefully move the decision-making process, accuracy, into the high 90 per cents…we are not achieving that, anywhere near."

"Let's be real - we are dealing with human beings, and human beings will always make mistakes.”

Hackett, who agrees with the view that there is a reluctance among VARs in the Premier League to overrule 'subjective' decisions, wants to see more use of the pitch side monitor so that on-field referees are reviewing their own calls.

"Why have they decided not to use the pitch side monitor?”

"Let us get the officials together and let us understand we are going to use the pitch side monitor.”

“Let everybody be aware that it's going to delay the process, but the outcome has to be a more accurate decision than we are getting at the moment."

Premier League Table and Results Recap

The biggest talking point from the weekend's results was the end of Liverpool's winning run in the league, after the league leaders drew 1-1 away to Manchester United.

Liverpool are still 6 points adrift of last season's Premier League winners Manchester City, but Manchester City and Pep Guardiola still hold the record for the longest winning streak in the Premier League (18).

Also, Sheffield United stunned Arsenal at home to put Chris Wilder's side into the top half of the Premier League.

Premier League predictions for match week 10

Appears the predictions are consistent... consistently awful, as I scored 2/10 for the second match week in a row, however there's plenty of room for improvement.

Kicking off match week 10 is Southampton vs Leicester City, which could become a blood bath-Danny Ings has managed to claw some points for Southampton as of late, but Leicester City are very strong defensively this season and I can't see The Saints getting a sniff in this game.

The early kick off begins with the Premier League holders facing Aston Villa at The Ethihad, and again this match has all the makings of a Guardiola masterclass-Man City even performed exceptionally in the Champions League, this week, against Atlanta (City won 5-1) and have no room for error as they chase Liverpool down as the season continues.

Brighton were unlucky against Villa, and conceded a late goal which would've left Graham Potter fuming-as a result I can see Brighton bouncing back at home, even though Everton were very impressive against West Ham in their 2-0 victory last week.

Watford played well against Tottenham and nearly escaped with all 3 points, but Bournemouth will be looking to get back to winning ways after a dull draw to Norwich, and I wouldn't be surprised if the game becomes messy for Watford fans.

Manuel Pellegrini was dissapointed with his side's performance versus Everton, and even though Sheffield United defeated Arsenal on Monday night, a draw is a highly likely outcome that I'm sure both sides will be happy with if they were offered it today.

Frank Lampard's Chelsea are flying high at the moment-Lampard's faith in youth has paid off and especially with the return of Callum Hudson Odoi, the London side should easily breeze past Burnley and Sean Dyche.

Newcastle tried to hang on against Chelsea, but offered very little going forward and I can't see Steve Bruce's side scoring this Sunday against Wolves-2 goals to Nuno Esperitio's side is a safe bet.

Life for Unai Emery in the Premier League will not be getting better anytime soon when they face Roy Hodgson's Crystal Palace-Arsenal offered very little against a well orchestrated Sheffield United, and Palace are even more organised at the back, hinting that a point could be on the cards in that match.

Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool side didn't perform against United as they have done all season, which can only mean one thing for Spurs...goals, goals and more goals-Tottenham barely got a point against rock bottom Watford and unless Tottenham are fired up for the match, then Anfield could be booming Sunday afternoon.

Lastly, Norwich face Manchester United in a match that could be a goal thriller.

United will concede early on, likely a Pukki brace, and will need to fight back late on to get the win-heard it hear first.

A&K Kick Off predictions for the Premier League match week 10