Arsenal defender Hector Bellerin has warned Arsene Wenger that he has a job managing both Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
The Gunners agreed a deal to sign the Armenian international from Manchester United as part of the deal which saw Alexis Sanchez depart the club, and he marked his full debut with a hat-trick of assists.
Unfortunately a week later his weaknesses were thoroughly exposed against Tottenham Hotspur, but he may well need some time to become better accustomed with the new tactics and team-mates of Arsenal.
Our defeat at the weekend has left us seven points outside the top-four with only 11 matches remaining, but Spanish right-back Hector Bellerin believes we are still well within a shout of making the Champions League, although he insists that Wenger must figure out how to manage Ozil and Mkhitaryan.
“There are still loads of games and big teams can lose against smaller teams,” Bellerin said. “It happens every week.
‘Wenger must stop Ozil, Mkhitaryan from becoming luxury liabilities’
“We have the faith to make the top four and the Champions League next year.
“Every single competition is important. We’ve still got the Carabao Cup here at Wembley, the game against Ostersunds in the Europa League is as important as the ones in the league.
On our performance at Wembley at the weekend, Bellerin moved to claim that we struggled with luck not on our side, and we must work harder to take the game to our rivals.
“I feel like in the first half we were just waiting for things to happen, we didn’t have the initiative to go forward, to keep the ball and that’s our game and if we can’t play our game things don’t go our way so it’s something to learn from,” Bellerin conceded.
“They came [into] the second half stronger than us and it’s something we need to look at because it happens sometimes and in the games we don’t start the second half as strong as we should have and then we pay for it.
“Towards the end we had loads of chances, a lot of the ball, but there’s only 10 minutes to go and the game’s about to end.”
Can Arsenal still make the top four? Will Mkhitaryan and Ozil prove to be luxuries we cannot afford to accommodate?
Pat J
I hate to say this but I don’t see us making the top 4… we missed out by a point last season… this season will be by a bigger margin. Only 11 games left… 5 away (?)
Agreed, Sue.
I couldn’t care less about CL whilst Wenger’s in charge. Do we really want to see yet more humiliation in Europe?
I absolutely agree. The champions league was simply a platform for Wenger to humiliate us and make a mockery of our club with his outrageous defeat scorelines. Good riddance to the competition. May we get back in when a new manager arrives, until then am fine without it!
Because of constant CL participation in the previous decade, the next manager will have tens of millions more per year available for buying players.
But why am I even bothering to be balanced? It’s 2018.
It is an interesting problem to have, plenty of flair but we lack steal, the man that does the dirty work and allows the ball players to pull the strings.
We need some speed on the wings and I am not sure mihki or Ozil have that in there locker, if the wingback run in advance will either of them track back, unlikely. May have to go with a 4-3-2-1 formation with Ozil and mihki playing behind the striker. An interesting problem to have.
Yes and Wenger will never be able to solve it.
Top 4 is over and besides we r still gonna lose more points than the top 5, the only hope now is the EUROPA league and i dont see us winning it, I can’t wait for this season to end cus is already a total waste.
Admin 🙂
A bit of click bait.
Bellerin did not say
what you claim.
‘Wenger must stop Ozil, Mkhitaryan from becoming luxury liabilities’
is a quote from a news paper not from Bellerin.
The quotation marks are different but the implication in the article heading is clear.
Long day huh..we all make mistakes 🙂
Ozil will never be a good player. Just give Henrich a chance to get used to Arsenal tactics
Cazorla > Ozil. Sell him and buy explosive inverted winger like Adama Traore, a mobile DM or a young defender like Jose Gimenez, the money would be better spent
I don’t think Mkhitaryan would be a luxury player, because he showed that he can be very instrumental at the Everton match. He had a very bad form at Wembley, but the others had it too, because of the bad weather
Do you have a clue, “ozil will never be a good player” you should start watching rugby or American football you might understand more about those sports.
MW supporter a lot of Rugby supporters and ex players appreciate the subtleties of Ozil’s play; please don’t lump gotanidea with us!
Ozil will never be a good player?
He was voted Germany National Player of the year for 5 years out of 6.
Germany won the World Cup.
What a STUPID and Pathetic Post.
Ozil is our BEST PLAYER BY A COUNTRY MILE.JUST GET THE RIGHT PLAYERS AROUND HIM AND PLAY THE RIGHT SYSTEM AND YOU WILL GET THE BEST OUT OF HIM EVERY WEEK.
Agreed. Ozil needs two fighting, ball winning midfielders behind him to perform his best. And obviously he should be in the middle of the field not right side or left side. He is one of the best attacking midfield playmakers in the world. He is NOT versatile, you can not put him on the wings like Debruyne or Silva. It’s just not him. But put a Kroos and a Gundogan behind him and couple of fact wingers and a good forward and he will pick the perfect pass every time.
Mhki and Ozil together is a luxury and I think we should only play them together at home against non top 6 opposition.
Completely agree, he is is without doubt our best player, his touch and vision are amazing, brilliant that he signed.
If real can make a Diamond of Modric, Isco, Kroos, Casemeiro work, then why can’t we make a diamond of Mesut, Mhki, Jack, DM, work?
We are a team fully central midfielders and front-runners. We have no wide players, so stop with the formations that need natural wide players in wide positions. A tight diamond of 4, and pairing up top allows the front runners to have someone to work with to create space and opportunities, and keeps the midfielders all closer to the center of the park where they prefer to be.
Casemiro is a mobile, aggressive and skillful DM that is willing to do dirty work and physical duels for Real Madrid. Arsenal only have Xhaka and Elneny that lack motivation
I wouldn’t say El Neny lacks the motivation. Poor guy has the motivation, he’s just not up to the level. Coquelin relished that opportunity. Lived for it even.
With the money they pay Ozil, he’s already in luxury. Dude takes mid-week trips to turkey to play with himself when Arsenal needs to be preparing for games. I think he’s already a liability but what do I know.
You said it “what do you know” couldn’t agree more.
The loss to Spurs was very costly.
Even a draw would have helped.
As for top 4 yes it is still possible
from the league and /or the Europa.
But it will be difficult.
Liverpool 7 wins from 11 = 75+ points
Spurs 7 wins from 11 = 73+ points
Chelsea 7 wins from 12 = 71+.
If Arsenal lose to both City and Utd then the
team will need 9/9 to reach 72pts.
Arsenal is in no danger of missing top 6
The Europa is probably the best bet for ECL football
Its squeaky bom time already 🙂
I think Hector Bellerin should look at his own game before commenting on others. Off topic, the worst referee in the Premier League, Lee Mason from Manchester officiating the Chelsea game has just missed a blatant penality and a blatant sending off all in the first five minutes. How is this fraud a referee, must be related to Mike Riley
If barryglik is right and I’m sure he is, I owe an apology to Hector Bellerin. Admin you’ve set us up mate, but don’t worry we can all make mistakes.
Luxury liabilities. I love the term. Speaks well for a current team where six out of our seven midfielders fancy themselves as number 10s…
You nailed it.
It is the Wenger syndrome. As good as all our midfielders are laying like they are number 10’s, and even our young players like Nelson, Reine Adelaide etc. seem brought up to play like number 10’s.
It is the Wenger syndrome – no players are coached and required to do the dirty work (win the ball back and protect the defense). It has been our key problem for 10 years.
First game for Chelsea Giroud gets bandage. I don’t remember him getting one in his entire career at Arsenal. It’s not him it’s mentality at Arsenal. If you look at the ttoenham game, you see when the ball comes back down from the air our players allow Tottenham to control or head it. Basically except from the two CB, the rest of our players pull out of 50/50. We don’t have enough ball winners so have to surrender possesion these days sometimes against lower opposition.
Oh, please. Be critical if it floats your boat but make some sense while at it. Giroud had a cut at the back of his head after Hegazi grazed his head with his studs, while he was down on the turf; how much “mentality” does it take to have your head bruised by someone’s boots while down?
Max Meyer is a interesting player. His development was very good. he is much stronger now than the last year’s. I’m surprised how good he is in defence now. He can be the next Kroos.
Yeah….. wenger should sign him, and transform him into crap, like he’s been doing to players lately….. Xhaka was definitely not this awful while he was playing in Germany
from the last two transfer windows possibly even longer fans have been urging, asking, pleading with afc and wenger to bring in a credible defensive midfield options and asking for quality to be added throughout our team – no-one here should be suprised at where we are placed at this point in the campaign. we need a new manager, simple as that wenger is out of excuses i’ve not seen us so desperate for success, ever. arsene’s reaction to lacazette’s failings front of goal shows wenger at his most desperate, wenger has himself to blame for our stop-start, faltering, season.
we need to buck up our ideas if we’re to make a go of winning europa, its a competition that suits our level (lately) and there’s nothing that guarantees we will win it.
It’s very obvious Arsenal players have no desire to fight on the field any more because of Wenger lack of desire to win trophy. I can see Geroud fighting for events ball against wesbrom, because Chelsea believe they should win every thing
Another inane remark seeing as Giroud has only played today, as goodnight as he hasn’t played for Arsenal, on the average. One of the qualities we all miss him for (since he lacks an abundance of pace and ball skills) is his fighting spirit.
Your ex always looks to be happy and having more fun when you see her with her new guy for the first time; especially when she knows you are watching.
Bellerin is so poor we need a right back to challenge him.
You just need to compare the size of the Arsenal players with the opposition at the start of each game. There is a lack of physical presence in the current team, which results in a lack of power and strength on the field. When combined with a lack of commitment and heart you end up with a team that loses out in the battle for the 50:50 balls. Arsenal is bullied on the field too often these days.
If you compare the current players to the early successful Wenger or Graham teams you can see the difference.
The combination of Aubameyang, Lacazette, Miky and Ozil with one strong tall DM, one tall strong holding midfielder and a commanding CB would make Arsenal a totally different proposition for the opposition. Hopefully one of these will have leadership ability (currently lacking!) like McLintock, Adams or Viera.
Howevèr Arsene Wenger no longer likes players of this type.
Blimey, I thought a Holding midfielder was also a D. M. Didn’t know we needed both a tall holding midfielder and a tall D.m!
Abel call them what you want; you must admit that Arsenal need two such players for competition and in case of injuries. There is a general lack of ballwinners with size and controlled agression in the side.
after 1 loss the fans are saying ozil, mkhi and etc are not good enough?
does that mean the spurs team was not good enough when we beat them 2 nil at the emirates
Pls let’s be sensibly cautious and stop harshly condemning any of our arsenal players. Wenger is the first suspect! Agree with me or not; even if wenger is beign given the whole man city first eleven (including messi and ronaldo) and the bench right from the begining of a season, hardly can he make even top four. Tactically speaking, that man is obviously failure-addicted and now more or less a living dead.as per managerial stances.
On their day Spurs beat Real Madrid. There is no shame for Arsenal to lose to Spur. Spurs are third best team in the league. The league table don’t lie. The table will change in next ten games when Arsenal win those games to progress up to number 2 position behind man city.
Hehehe wake up mate, finish 2nd?? Yes Spurs are gud but it’s not that people are mad we lost to them, we are mad on the manner we lost to Spurs. Our players were cautious the whole game, never did anything spectacular until when Laca came in, and still he’s out of form and missed 2 goals. What do you think is our reaction? The whole team was playing bad, Cech played well, the rest, awful
Yes arsenal burnley and Leucester can still make top 4 … None of them will however … Though one of the three is among the richest clubs in Europe charges fans highest prices to watch them and pays it’s manager more than the other two managers combined .. The so.ution is obvious
Did Bellerin say that, stopping those two from becoming luxury liabilities. That’s a big statement if it came from a teammate. I think away from home it could become a bit of a problem unless we just go with an attacking side and try to be confident in our play. We need new CM players of course, not just a DM like allot are asking for but we need a complete player in there too. After Ramsey, I don’t believe any of the others are good enough to make a big impact on the game. Wilshere is good, but like Ozil he is only good enough to look great when the team is looking finely tuned. He cannot impact a game that is slipping from us. Ramsey can and I think he’s the only one there who we have that can. So a big CM player with similar qualities to Ramsey but better range of passing and who’s also good at over the top balls for strikers. If we get him and a DM because Elneny is not the answer, a clever one though that knows how play it the European way. Like Mascherano when he played there, the one time you think you had him he’d have a trick up his sleeve.
About the defence, we have Mustafi, then Chambers Holding Bielik Mavrapanos, what have our scouts been doing if we don’t have any of these lads eyeing a few first team players up as we speak.
Bellerin that cannot cross, dribble not properly defend should not be having automatic shirt. #facts
Agreed. Bellerin is one of the worst Rb in the league. He has no idea what his job should be.
He never seems to be able to cut out crosses. He is also unable to dribble past another player.
Often chooses the wrong option when in the final third and has a very poor cross accuracy. A jack of no trade and master of none. If he were a viable threat in the final 3rd and was this poor defensively, we would at least know he was good for something.
I strongly believe AMN would do better in his role if given the opportunity.