Paul Merson has admitted that he is worried about Arsenal because the Gunners have become very easy to play against and beat.
Mikel Arteta made the club one of the toughest sides to play against when he became their manager late last year.
That form was one of the reasons why they beat the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea to win the FA Cup.
That FA Cup win gave them some confidence to spend in the transfer market with the hopes that they might end this campaign in a Champions League place.
The campaign started well with the team having one of the best defences in the league, but they are struggling for goals now and having a good defence makes little sense if you cannot score.
Merson wonders why Spurs built a new stadium and they are still spending money, while Arsenal built one and they had to sell their players.
He has also watched them struggle for creativity and he says they need Mesut Ozil back in the team to be able to solve that.
He writes on Star Sports: “It’s sad how far Arsenal have fallen behind Spurs. It’s hard to understand. Arsenal built a new stadium and had to sell players every year. Spurs built a new stadium and they’re still spending big money!
“It’s so easy to stop Arsenal at the moment. Teams go to the Emirates thinking they should be getting something there.
“Mesut Ozil would make a difference in this team. Who else have they got who can pick a pass or thread the ball through the eye of a needle? I really worry for Arsenal at the moment.”
Ozil should be given another chance by Mikel Arteta,Arsenal are supposed to be where they belong not in the bottom half please Mr Manager do it for our all of us know that Mesut Ozil loves the club and he loves playing
Sick of this man flapping his irrelevant gums.
He’s no different you you really, think about it🤫
Emile Smith-Rowe is a definite upgrade to Ozil, I just don’t understand why he is so far down the pecking order, this lad played in pre season games as a seventeen year old under Wenger, had assists and scored goals and I’ve loved and rated him highly ever since. It’s criminal that he is only now being considered.
How can you say he’s an upgrade to Ozil ,we have seen him play about 10 games in the last 3 years
@ Dan kit
I saw ESR running against Rapid, so that’s already an upgrade on Ozil!
Like usual, the stats show you are completely wrong and Ozil ran plenty when he was playing.
Emile Smith-Rowe have been struggling with injuries and fitness problems, that’s why we haven’t seen him in action. I too have high hopes for him, I think we have a lot of youngsters this year that’s looking like they can have bright futures.
He is so far down the pecking order because that’s where he belongs at the moment.
So my understanding is that if (and it’s a big if )Ozil is registered for the second half of the season he will only come available at the end of January not the beginning (end of the transfer window ) just found this out .
Now my main gripe is why was Mari registered for the first half of the season when the club knew full well that he wouldn’t be back until December and knowing that we had ample backup in his position .
And this is a player who was only going to be a bit part player until he was back to full fitness (probably January seeing he’s been out for 6 months),surely his spot could have been used for Ozil seeing the club have him pulling in his wages every week without him
Playing .
It’s simple to understand why Ozil is out. If you don’t anything at work AND slag off the business that employs you on an insane wage, then what do you expect?
But that’s not my gripe ,why use up a space for a player who was injured and at best will always only be a backup player ,when that said space could have been used for mesut seeing he is the clubs highest earner but they are not getting anything from him .
I’m not even saying he would have been the magically player from years ago but atleast don’t waste a space for an injured player
And I’ve never seen him slag off this club so again that’s fictional.
Also @Thirdman you have to admit we are really struggling from midfield to attack ATM ,what harm would it have done to atleast have him on the bench?
No matter how much you don’t like him he will always do something to find pass that no one in this team can do
And before you say ,I was more than happy to go along with the manager regarding his exclusion from the squad ,but it’s now clear that it was a bad choice
Arteta has made some mistakes, but Mari did play on Thursday. So I guess they knew the timeframe on his return.
We are struggling without a playmaker, but as Ozil has proven time, and time, and time again, he is not the answer. I’d rather Arteta give Willcock and especially ESR, a go, and see if they can develop.
But willock will never be the answer to our problem ,he’s very athletic but he has no vision ,and he won’t be first choice in our PL team when everyone is free from injury ,Arteta will go with partey ,Elneny and Ceballos ,which IMO have no creativity at all .
What harm would it have done to have atleast Ozil on the bench to come on for the last 20 mins or so to see if he could unlock defences when we have been a goal down ,which in the last 3 matches it couldn’t have hurt to see if he would have made a difference .
As for ESR there is reason he hasn’t been trusted yet ,remember Cesc was trusted at 16 .
The only reason we’ve barely seen ESR is due to injury. Nothing to do with him not being trusted.
I agree that I don’t think Willock will become a quality player, given what I have seen, but to be fair, he hasn’t had a decent run of games in his favoured position in the league. He has impressed in Europe lets not forget. In fact, he’s been our best player in Europe this season.
As I keep saying, Ozil is dead as a player. He’s had too many opportunities. It’s delusional to think he would return a different player, especially at his age. He offers nothing, and even more so when off the bench. There is harm in using him, because then he would be blocking the progress of the likes of ESR, etc. Ozil is the past, ESR could be the future.
Could be the future ,but he’s been sent on loan for 2 years since he broke into the first team ,Cesc broke into the first team at the same age and went onto to become one of the best the league had seen before he was even 20.
Not saying ESR won’t turn out to be a quality player but ATM he as a long way to go .
Regarding Ozil ,he has pedigree which IMO his vision and Quality can not be learned ,I will agree he can be on and off regarding his performances (a player I never really wanted here when he signed )
But when he’s been in the side in the last 5 years he’s done nothing more or nothing less than the other 10 players in team then it always comes down to the his wages .
@Pat
So I’m on a new iPhone
But when 2 people have a conversation the text starts to go to 2 words per line after a few posts , so the first couple of posts are Normal then they start to get smaller and smaller .
Not just when I have a chat but when I read others posts aswell
But when you’re playing poorly, as Ozil has been for years, the min requirement is that you at least put a shift in. A lot of our players have been poor, but they work hard. Ozil refuses to work hard.
I don’t know we keep talking about a player who has proven so many times he can’t cut anymore. If we’re going to keep doing down this path, then we might as well bring Wilshere back then.
I would happily bring back Wilshire back on a pay as you play .
He wasn’t far behind Cesc Just one of those players who always got injured .
Like i said before him santi and Diaby would have won leagues after leagues just a shame they was always injured .
You laughed at me saying Diaby was one of the best I had seen ,but i will stand by that having seen him live on 2 occasions ,could have been had good as veria now my other gut instinct is Martinelli who I believe will become the leagues next big superstar
The fact you’d bring Wilshere back, speaks volumes! If you’re being serious, then you’ve just lost all credibility.
Why stop with Wilshere. Wenger back as well? Kos? Giroud?
So a fit wilshire wouldn’t be any worse than Ceballos ,willock ?
Let me ask you ,would you have Ceballos in this team ,and if so what has he done to earn a place .
You always talk about waste of money is Ceballos not just that ?
Regarding Giourd there was an Article saying we should resign him , OFC what they didn’t mention was that if he hadn’t have left we couldn’t have got Auba ,so no that one is a no brainier .
But Wilshere is never fit, so his ability is irrelevant! That’s the point! What’s the point of wasting a squad space on player, you already know will barely be available 5% of the time…if that!
Ceballos, and Willock are far better options, on the basis that they’ll actually be available for selection. Are you not aware of Wilshere’s horrendous injury record?
But you just said why waste a squad space on an injured player ,is that not what started this whole conversation regarding Mari ,that was my point .
Anyway I’m off to bed as it’s 1am ,what I will say it’s been a pleasure not to actually get personal with each other(even though we have probably been both pretty close )after probably 3 years going back and forth and even though we dont agree with each other I will always respect you and other fan’s opinions .
Atleast we didnt get our posts removed ,that I supposed is a start 👍
But with Wilshere, we already know his terrible injury record, yet this is Mari’s first injury and you want him bombed out the squad already? Did you have the same attitude at Wilshere’s first injury, Diaby’s first injury, Rosicky’s etc? Extremely poor form to not register someone because of their first injury, even when you know they WILL be available before the next register window.
Although this has been a respectful debate, I have zero respect for you overall because of you constantly trolling me, just like I have zero respect for Ken1945 for his slanderous comments about me enjoying Ozil getting attacked.
Oh and there was me thinking we was best friends now 😂😂
As for me, I am bitterly hurt by this remark TMJW – it has made me think if it’s worth my while educating you on the facts regarding our club – especially Mikel Arteta and his playing career, or the 2012 defence that, according to you, never existed.
Bob’s tried as well,regarding Ozil, but it went right over your head once again it seems!!
PLEASE DO get over your childish “he slandered me” cry of woe , if you were able to express your comments clearly at the time, the misunderstanding wouldn’t have occurred.
I would add that for someone who has slandered Ozil so many times on JA, you need to stop calling the kettle black.
@Ken:”Now my main gripe is why was Mari registered ”
Because Mari was included for football reasons while Ozil was not.
Sorry this was meant for Dan instead.
I guess by now the pro and anti Ozil have set their positions in stone just like the pro and anti Trump supporters. Me I’ve always thought Paul Merson one of the sharper ex Arsenal commentators so his opinions make more sense than most of fawning establishment voices in the Gunners fan base. You cannot take the field with five Elanys no matter how lhardworking and likeable they might be. At the same time Arsenal have often targeted the wrong youngsters to promote, something Arsene Wegner is almost proud of. Currently we have two promising creative players, Nelson and Smith Rowe. They should be given every opportunity to impress.
What is it about the Elany cult that has so many Arsenal fans putting him in front of better players such as Ozil or Nelson. We saw what he couldn’t do durinhg the Wegner era where he was usually brought on as a desperate last gasp to try to save something. After that he was sent off to Turkey where he failed to impress with nobody there willing to invest five million on him. Returning to Homebase he is suddenly cast as a saviour by both manager and fans. I believe that it’s a sign of lowered expectations by both.
We’ve passed through that stage of Ozil. Life goes on. His time is up. There’s no man who’s irreplaceable. We are waiting for his contract to run out, then we’ll be done with Ozil
No Top Gunner. While your response tells your sentience – how fed up you are with all this Ozil debate, not everyone who reads these posts want to read between the lines. The bottom line is this: If you have a half-dead dog guarding your chickens, you dare not chase it away if you have not got even a fierce-looking puppy to replace it. What Arsenal and MA did with Ozil is utterly stupid.