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Arsenal’s Premier League season is like a flabby flag flying at half mast, making Mesut Ozil’s exile even more disconcerting.
I do not pretend to know the reasons why Ozil has been banished from the Gunners’ 25-man squad.
But I do know that when Arsenal camped around the Tottenham area for long stretches of the North London derby last weekend, they were crying out for a locksmith who could take down the Spurs defense.
And I also know that Gunners fans who dare to look at the Premier League table must feel like crying as they see their club abandoned at 15th place.
I am not asking that Mikel Arteta be fired, he has not even been in the position for a year. But the problems at Arsenal run deep.
(Image: Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
They have only scored one goal in four league games despite dominating the ball in most cases. That shows that they lack creativity, avant-garde, final product.
Look at the big guns on the top half of the table and they have one thing in common: a number 10 pulling the strings.
If Arsenal were performing well, or there were convincing signs of improvement, at least Ozil’s exclusion might be justified.
But at £ 350,000 a week, all he has done this season is leverage his huge salary to prevent the Gunnersaurus club mascot from being fired. Look at the statistics to illustrate Ozil’s influence on Arsenal under Arteta.
(Image: PA)
In almost all measurements, they have performed better with him on the side.
In Arteta’s first win, against Manchester United on New Years Day, Ozil ran farther than anyone on the Arsenal side. Both for him as a passenger.
I know what it’s like to be banished to train with reserves. It happened to me in Birmingham and it shatters my soul.
Maybe the club had its reasons, maybe the coach was trying to do something, but even at my lowest point, I knew he had something to offer the team.
All that Arsenal’s 2-0 loss to Spurs did was make the fans miss Ozil even more.
I heard the whispers about his pace of work and his following without the ball.
But when Toby Alderweireld and Eric Dier devoured cross after cross in the Tottenham area, Gunners fans must have been clamoring for Ozil’s needle and thread.
(Image: Getty Images)
For me, the solution is simple: put him back on Arsenal’s 25-man Premier League squad next month or sell him in January.
Arsenal fans deserve more than 15th in the table, and they deserved more than four Spurs attackers attacking just two defenders for Tottenham’s second goal last Sunday.
I thought Arteta had healed those defensive collapses, but he obviously has a long way to go.
Winning the FA Cup in August gave Arteta a fantastic platform to restore Arsenal to the top four and they have at times seemed like a more organized unit on defense.
But it scratches below the surface, and how much has it really changed? In his first 11 games last season, Unai Emery had 11 points; In the same distance this year, Arteta has only won 15.
If Arteta is going to raise the bar for Arsenal above the capital again, he has some big decisions to make.
And the first of them should be to extend an olive branch to Ozil, or sell it.
Should Arsenal call Ozil? Give us your opinion here.
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