Have Arsenal’s Ozil and Sanchez got away with their attitude this season?

Arsenal succumbed to life in the Europa League for next season after an extended run of undesirable form this year, and some people have gotten off lightly. All term we have heard calls for Arsene Wenger to leave the club, and the protests by fans demanding change, but maybe the players should have received more flack for their failings this term.

The Gunners had a very late surge of form toward the end of the campaign after the Frenchman opted to freshen things up with a formation change, and we so nearly rescued ourselves a Champions league spot, but Martin Keown believes that some players have gotten off lightly.

‘Ozil wasn’t available for large periods. Was he injured, wasn’t he? Was it sickness, was it injury? He didn’t seem to be around when they needed him most,’ Keown said.

‘Sanchez then had an incident at the club (reacting to being dropped against Liverpool in March). It felt like he threw his toys out of the cot for a little while. We don’t really know exactly what happened.

‘All of that was I think, as a result that these guys were maybe overindulged a little bit. I’ve been a bit surprised how the group have been a bit nice with them.

‘I do feel like if I was playing in some of the games when Ozil doesn’t get a perfect pass I think I already would have been in his ear telling him my bit: “I’m trying to give the ball to you, don’t disrespect me in the way you do when I don’t get the ball to you”.’

Have Ozil and Alexis gotten off lightly with their fellow fans and players because of their contracts or their status? Should other players attitudes be analyzed too?

Pat J

Tags Arsenal Keown Ozil Sanchez

13 Comments

  1. Before even going with a million miles of criticising Alexis (who has been carrying the club on his back), how about questioning almost every other player at the club?

    1. Sorry thats not a good response..
      Ozil and Sanchez want champions league and to win titles.. yet they refuae to sign a new contract when Arsenal were top of the league ! both of their performances from around november to march were very average and including crucially against Bayern… so its a fair comment the author makes and they cant say arsnal are not good enough when the two of them (20% of the team!!) and supposedly our best players contributed greatly to not being in top four and out of CL .. !

      1. @neil

        Cannot believe what you’ve just said in regards to Sanchez. I agree with your comment if we’re talking about Ozil. He’s been a big let down, and doesn’t put enough effort in, but you cannot say the same about Sanchez.

        Sanchez has got 29 goals, and around 15 assists this season, so to say he has “contributed greatly to not being in top four and out of CL”, is about as factually wrong as it gets! The ONLY reason Arsenal even managed to finish fifth IS because of Sanchez. Without him we would have easily have finished in seventh, god knows how many points behind Chelsea. Sanchez is also a big reason we’re in the cup final.

        If you want to pick out players that haven’t been good enough then how about: Koscielny, Mustafi, Bellerin, Monreal, Cech, Xhaka, Ramsey, Coquelin, Iwobi, Ozil, Welbeck, and so on… They’re the ones that have contributed way more to our currant predicament, not Sanchez.

        And on the contract situation, then why didn’t Arsenal see them both when they had two years left, if they weren’t going to sign new contracts? The club could have maximised valuation, but now millions has been slashed off their value, and they could even leave on a free next summer. It’s the club’s fault we’re in this bad situation regarding contracts with our two star players, not to mention the other 10 or so, that also are down to the final 12 months of their contracts.

  2. I agree some players had bad attitude or bad reactions that pulled the team down:
    . Ozil sometimes looks unconcerned and didn’t really show up in the big games
    . Sanchez’ form has been inconsistent. When he is in good form, I have no problem him being selfish, but when this isn’t the case, I can’t stand seeing him shooting wide when a teammate had a better position or giving the ball to the opponent while trying to have a miracle pass through 4 defenders…
    . I love Koscielny, but, as a captain, he cannot make the type of mistakes he did against Bayern or Everton (what kind of tacle was that ?).
    . Same for Xhaka and his red cards

    The only key player who is for me “unblamable” is Cech. He is just the guy who has the perfect attitude. Bellerin had a dip in form, but was also globally OK attitude-wise.

    All other players didn’t perform well, but they are just average and Wenger is probably the one to blame on that aspect.

  3. Wenger can’t handle big egos. His is big enough for everyone.

    In my opinion he lost control of both players and their attitudes but still kept playing them when they were ineffective and/or taking the Piss.

    Top managers don’t let that happen as they show the player who is boss. But that’s not arsenes style is it now.

    1. but when these 2 were ineffective, just think of everyone else. everyone else is average at Arsenal, if you take out Sanchez and Ozil, then we could have been 9th or 10th or even less. when you have an average manager, 4th will always be your valuable trophy

  4. The only person that got away with it is Wenger. £8m a year for two years for this mediocrity is an achievement

  5. Wow according to some here Sanchez walks on water, you guys need to wake up. Since November Sanchez has been mr billy big boots himself, throwing strop after strop, never mind his goal tally if he had worked and applied himself to the team throughout he would be looking at double the goals scored to date. The Chile national team had it right when he tried the stroppy shit on them he got both barrels after the game and they went on record with the press on sorting him out, the same should have been done at Arsenal. Sanchez is just toxic and needs reminding that no one player is bigger than the club. He needs to be sold to Germany or China so we can assemble a team again, teams win the league not individuals.

  6. Sanchez is a great player but as trugun said he is toxic!
    I dont get all the hate on the behaviour (not performance) of özil but sanchez is ignored, even the sentence of keown, he took özil as an example but whats about sanchez.. sanchez wastes a lot of passes and shots but as soon as gibbs or somebody else misplaced or didnt pass to him he throws his hands and disrespects them

  7. True but in the same vein Sanchez has done more than every other player this season goal-wise.

  8. I’m happy to see both go if we can get decent value for them – neither has been able to summon up the performances to put Arsenal into contention for the league. I’m also happy to rid the team of Giroud, along with Ramsey, Wilshire and Walcott. None of these players produces with any consistency and some are too often injured. Selling off these six player could net Arsenal plenty of transfer dough (along with the money already available for transfers) to bring in new players to inject some new blood into a side that seemed to go through the motions for too long of a stretch this season.

    We’re already out of Champions League, so lets find players who relish the challenge of getting back into that tournament and climbing over the Man Ciitys, Liverpools and Spurs that have remade their lineups.

    I’m not the type to suggest the ridiculous spending done by many of the top four clubs (looking at you Chelsea and Man City), but at some point, when the parts aren’t working on a team, it’s time to get new parts, including a bit more on the defensive side as well. But if you can get value for the parts that aren’t working and bring in some new parts with the funds you have available, why not try?

Comments are closed

Top Blog Sponsors