Arsene Wenger was desperate to keep Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez at Arsenal this summer despite them entering the last year of their contracts, but it looks like the pair of them don’t seem to be playing with all their heart and soul in this campaign. When we finally got our ‘magic 3’ of Lacazette, Ozil and Alexis all playing together against Everton a few weeks ago, all three got on the scoreboard and it looked like we were back in contention for the Top Four again with a stunning 5-goal thriller from the Gunners.
But the individual goal that Sanchez scored in the dying minutes against those relegation candidates remains his only goal of the season, while Ozil seems to have done his disappearing act again in the next two games. In fact “Arsene Wenger was honest after the game, acknowledging his opponents as the superior side,” the former Arsenal midfielder Emmanuel Petit said after the weekend’s defeat at Man City. “But in the first half, he was too shy. He was afraid of Manchester City and his team were passive as a result. I think more substitutions should have been made in the midfield area: Ozil was on the pitch, but he was just a ghost.”
The German midfielder also scored his only goal against Everton, and has only provided 2 assists in his 9 League appearances so far, which is well below his best form by a country mile. It appears to me that neither of them have the drive to perform for Arsenal any more and are just filling in time before their next lucrative contracts at new clubs next summer. They also angered Arsenal’s away fans by running off down the tunnel after the game at the Etihad.
Is it time for Wenger to admit his mistake and drop them to the bench for a while and play replacements that really want to fight for the club?
Darren N