Latest updates from the 1.30pm BST kickoffEmery: Özil must adapt to different positionsFeel free to email John or to tweet: @JohnBrewin_ 12.53pm BST Stuart James spoke this week to Sol Bamba, whose job today is stopping Lacazette and Aubameyang. Related: Sol Bamba: ‘The gaffer always reminds me not to be Beckenbauer’ 12.50pm BST Unai Emery is a bit of a card, as shown by this video, though maybe not as funny as the forced laughter of attendant hacks might suggest. 12.45pm BST A reminder that Cardiff are the only team of the 92 professional clubs not to have scored this season. And still they are two points clear of West Ham. 12.40pm BST Emery’s going for it. Lacazette and Aubameyang and Özil for Arsenal. Mhki drops to the bench, and still not start for Torreira as that partnership of Guendouzi and Xhaka is persisted with. For Cardiff, there are three changes as Danny Ward, Junior Hoilett and Bobby Reid start in place of Kenneth Zohore, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Josh Murphy. 12.32pm BST Cardiff: Etheridge, Ecuele Manga, Morrison, Bamba, Bennett, Arter, Victor Camarasa, Ralls, Hoilett, Reid, Ward. Subs: Harris, Peltier, Zohore, Paterson, Cunningham, Madine, Brian Murphy. Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Mustafi, Papastathopoulos, Monreal, Guendouzi, Xhaka, Ramsey, Ozil, Aubameyang, Lacazette. Subs: Elneny, Mkhitaryan, Torreira, Lichtsteiner, Holding, Leno, Welbeck. Referee: Anthony Taylor (Cheshire) 10.30am BST Last week Unai Emery got off the board, but lads, it was West Ham. This week, a trip to Cardiff to face one of English football’s prime wreckers of the high and mighty in Neil Warnock. Cardiff have begun the season looking what they are: a club promoted last season above all expectations, and with not much money shelled out on new players by owner Vincent Tan. The stage is set for a campaign of Warnock shrugging his shoulders, saying he couldn’t ask any more of his lads. Well, that and blaming the referee and who knows what else. As for Emery, his team look exactly like what they are, a work in progress when the work is a momentous task of rebuilding. It will be instructive to see what role both Mesut Özil and Alexandre Lacazette play. The former’s absence last weekend with illness was the subject of few nods and winks and his manager has not hidden his reluctance to indulge the prince of passing, while the latter was linked with a loan move back to France that did not come off. Moussa Dembélé’s move from Celtic to Lyon probably closed that off. Emery is reaching for a formula, especially in midfield, the correct combination of Granit Xhaka, Aaron Ramsey, Lucas Torreira and Mattéo Guendouzi plus dear old Mohamed Elneny is yet to be struck. And playing Özil and Henrikh Mhkitaryan together also looks a risk. A fair few questions, then, for Arsenal, and Neil Warnock will want his team to make sure there are more to answer. Expect some long balls and crunching tackles. Venue Cardiff City StadiumLast season n/aReferee Anthony TaylorThis season G3 Y9 R0 3 cards/gameOdds H 9-2 A 4-7 D 3-1 Continue readingreadfullarticle
