It is no secret that Mikel Arteta is a novice when it comes to managing a football club and he is never going to get everything right straight away, he is and remains on a massive learning curve.
He did start off well when he took over from Unai Emery, however, there were clearly some issues that required sorting including winning away from home in the league.
Another issue he had clearly got wrong was including Mesut Ozil in his starting XI’s, a rookie mistake if there was ever one.
It is no coincidence that Arsenal finally won a Premier League away game when Ozil was not selected to play but that is a whole separate issue entirely.
You see, stats can be produced to make a case for Ozil and stats can be produced to make a case the other way and it really all is meaningless.
The only really meaningful way of judging any player is by using one’s eyes, it really is that simple and anyone without tunnel vision will know full well that Ozil is no longer Premier League class, nevermind Arsenal standard.
It now seems evident that Arteta has finally clicked on to what the vast majority of Arsenal fans already knew and that is that Ozil is not fit to wear the Arsenal shirt.
It would not surprise me if Ozil does don an Arsenal shirt again, Arteta may have no choice due to such a packed schedule of games and injuries piling up but the idea that any team will be selected with Ozil as its focal point is for the birds and Arteta knows that.
No doubt the fast dwindling Ozil fan base will defend their idol but very few are listening to them any more and that now includes Mikel Arteta and it shows quite clearly that the Spaniard is learning fast and that can only be a good thing.
Lol
When he comes in next game and wins it, same will write how Ozil is good!
Arteta played Ozil and likes him, Ozil not playing is a medical issue,why all this non sense on Ozil?
Correct, if Ozil plays well I will say so. Such a shame it is so rare. Even Kolasinac has a good game once in a while
Ozil and Xhaka do not deserve to wear Arsenal shirts
Ozil yes but xhaka you are absolutely wrong .
Is there anything good that Xhaka is doing in the field? Maybe my level of understanding football is low
Xhaka may be a good football player but he does not fit in Arsenal style of play he is a slow thinker
If you watch our last two games , and compare them with the game we played without him ,you’ll notice the ball moves faster with him . His game used to be slow, but after watching him under arteta , I’ve come to the conclusion, that he played that slow because of the tactical demands of previous coaches. Another note to take into account , is the fact that he has led us in forward passes for the time he has spent at arsenal. I don’t think he and Ozil are in the same boat. With Arteta, we can see Xhaka improving. Ozil though,
better than the disaster that is guendouzi.
I am with you in these both should not be playing in any EPL team
Ozil, xhaka and more than a few others. Too many players being paid galacticos wages and producing craptico performances.
👍
Arsenal should be charged with money laundering and financial crime for paying 350 per week to a ghost worker who doesn’t want to train and play.
You go to jail for that in France
In contract if you do not fulfill your legal obligation the other party has a remedy to bring both parties to their original position, Arteta said publicly Ozil is not ready to play so he should be fined atleast.
LD, I made the same point just yesterday about clubs sueing players who do not give their best endeavours, as is a standard line in high level financial contracts. Quite seriously, were I in charge of the regime at Arsenal I would sue Ozil for breach of contract. There is a mile of video evidence of his regular idleness .going back years to back that view and if taken to law it would ,in my view, be successful. THE CLUB ARE MISSING A TRICK HERE.
Jon
You and everyone else here are missing the point.
You cannot blame the player for taking the money if it is offered to them regardless if they are worthy of the contract or not
The people who gave it to him in the first place should be sued, hung drawn and quartered
Some have flown the nest but we still have plenty of them still living off the fat
What will you talk about when he’s gone I wonder
Players that give their heart and soul for the club.
Ha! Ha! C’mon @Admin Martin, you know you’re gonna miss him more than anyone at this club 😂
Nope, cannot wait to see the back of the fraud.
Ad Martin, despite our many previous ups and downs, on Ozil the fraud, we are totally as one. What I still totally fail to see is why certain highly intelligent lifelong Gooners STILL refuse to see what is so clearly in front of their perfectly normal working eyes. The vast majority of Gooners see it clearly BUT some don’t, or rather won’t! Any idea why that is, cos it beats me? I can only conclude that some folk refuse to see what they don’t want to see!
jon, Ozil must have been the reason some of them became fans. Or, they still remember the day we signed him, and still believe in the false promise that Arsenal would start spending big and competing with the big boys, and giving up on Ozil, means giving up on that false narrative. Idk, im just guessing. Cause any sane person knows Ozil is nothing now.
Jon, some people dont like to admit they are wrong and where Ozil is concerned that would be the case for all those who defend him. They wont admit what we have been saying for years.
They will find something else. One time it was the Emirates holding us back, now it is Ozil’s salary. We were told that once we had paid off the Emirates, we would be able to compete with the big boys for players. It seems it was just PR BS as apparently one galactico salary is crippling the club.
And to return to the post, Arteta has not proven anything yet.
What you forgot to mention is that when MA took over he gave everyone a clean slate and a proper chance to impress including Ozil for that he had to give him playing time without interruptions needed to get consistency,rhythm….he kept his word and now Ozil has no excuses. for his poor performances unlike with UE Who wasn’t playing him regularly now he can’t blame MA for not giving him a fair chance to prove himself for me MA managed the Ozil situation perfectly and proves he knew what he was doing from the start,his first job when he came in was to sort out the dressing room,the Ozil,xhaka situations which he did,stop the fall and the rot ,get the fans on side and stop all that negativity from the fans ,instil his methods,philosophy….which by the way takes time once again he”s slowly doing it and all of it during the busiest period and our lowest point in decades and with the same squad and no money,people don’t realize what a task it is,we have seen improvements but the problem is that a lot of fans expected instant miracles with the same squad,injuries….which is ludicrous and. unrealistic,this is not fifa and MA still has the same financial restrictions as his predecessor if not worse with the pandemic,no training…so judging him after a month or even now shows a complete lack of understanding of everything about professional football,running of a club,with comments like we should buy and sell these players as if it was that simple!I believe in MA and hope he will be given time and support from the club and the “fans “which might be harder when they want and think we can buy 60M players and get rid of the deadwood that easily,why would players leave when they are on very good wages at a club like Arsenal with a worldwide fan base,great infrastructures…knowing that their next move would be a step down??
Agreed
Bravo! And a superb, sensibly thought through and well written piece which is among the very best ever on this site. Every word made perfect sense and I totally agree. Surely all THINKING fans will do so too!
I love this… Thanks for this awesome thought!
“The strange case of Dr. Mikel and Edward Arteta”
He has got it spot on with respect to Ozil, banishing him due to not being ready for matches is the most sane thing to do irrespective of the criticism and I hail him for what he is doing. Marvelous!! But why on this good planet would he give contracts to Soares and Luiz? Add Pablo Mari as he too is not very convincing? Baffling!
We have started winning matches without Ozil, Socrates and Laca not starting. This points that these were the gutless spines leading to the club downfall. But Luiz not in this group? Maybe Luiz is retained for next season cup games? This transfer window will be very interesting to watch. We just need Partey / Gauye at the expense of Guendozi / Xhaka – either could go or both and one CAM and top four is in sight
So at what point during MA’s regime exactly did Ozil flop and get to deserve exile? He was doing fine before Coronavirus break and afterwards suddenly Arteta disliked him. He started with the lies like Emery, when queried on Ozil’s whereabouts…today it’s mental state, next game is back injury yadayada… MA should be careful not to anger Ozil supporters..
See, that is where you got it wrong, he was not doing fine before the outbreak, has not done fine in years, just took MA a little bit of time to realise it.
Well said MARTIN! QD needs to look at his personal thinking processes I’D SAY!
but Martin, he scored ONE goal for the first time in like a year! Ozil was on fire! 😂
I disagree like I just commented MA gave Ozil a clean slate and a decent run of games to prove himself,did he?no,look at his stats,how many goals?assists?chance created?I don’t know which games you watched but we never got a full decent 90 minutes from him,forget goals,assists….his work rate,team work,tracking back,interceptions…none existent,not only he didn’t create but didn’t help the team,with him on the team sheet we start the game with one less player than the opponent,I am repeating myself but the reason you don’t hear Ozil I’d because he knows MA have him a fair chance to get his spot back but didn’t and MA likes Ozil you need to read what he said about Ozil when he took over he was full of praise for him I am sorry but if after 10 games you don’t bring anything to the team it is time to give other players who. train hard a chance it is only fair and a squad has 25 players,all of them need to know that if they train hard and do what the manager asks of them they will get s chance too,it’s called squad management management!
The trouble is QD is that it is a before Covid and an after Covid situation.
Surely no manager would deliberately sideline a player who has trained well and is fit enough as this does not help the team and the club’s prospects of improvement. Arteta would be cutting off his nose to spite his face.
As for being careful not to anger Ozil supporters, I don’t understand what you mean.
The board have stated to Guendozi that he is going nowhere end of
Angel Gomes a combative attacking midfielder is leaving man utd for free dispite desperate efforts by his club to keep him in the last 24hrs.We should sign him up he’s better than any midfielder in our books.
COYG
Ozil needs the right players around him to shine it’s true and we don’t have them but any manager who plays willock over ozil has lost the plot .
pepe, laca, auba are all no good? feel like we’ve done this dance before. ozil was better when Giroud was our striker. Facts.
also, ozil and sanchez never had any real chemsitry. It was just sanchez carrying the entire squad.
Arteta played ozil because he gave everyone a clean slate. That way neither ozil and his fanatics can claim he wasn’t given a fair chance, he was played consistently and wasn’t up to the task. End of discussion no buts and ifs.
Jesus that’s really dumb .. fanatics are people someone once remarked who double their hatred when they’ve forgotten the aim … which is true of most of comments about ozil on here … and it’s not as if the regular playing of xhaka Luiz mustafi willock guendhuzi naitlam miles etc has taken us anywhere but lower than burnley and shef utd in the league … it used to be top 4 then top 6 soon the aim soon will be staying in epl if we prize third rate footballers over players with quality even when not properly employed
absolutely delighted to read this brilliant article. could it be that the majority of gooners are copping on to ozil and his awful lazy play and attitude. in fact, i doubt if his shirt sales are keeping the club afloat, as one ozil fanatic did comment on here some time ago.i will never understand how ozils followers are so blind to this man,just forget about his salary, it is not his fault that he was handed the biggest single mistake ever by the arsenal powers that be.it is his attitude on the pitch that really gets me, you can almost see him thinking “will i pass this ball, no, i wont bother, why should i”.he should be dumped out of our club, pay him what is owed to him including future salary, will cost us millions, but at least he would be gone. it is going to cost us the same him being at the club until his contract is up. and you know, him being here ,as opposed to him being gone, will not make one blind bit of differece on the pitch, which is the important thing.he is not even a good influence on the younger players i understand.he does not bother to train or help the younger players ,allegedly.if this be true, then he is nothing more than a disgrace to our shirt.
most of us do not know nor understand the technical aspect of football to be able to provide a comprehensive analysis of our players. the manager has his own demands on each aspect of the game. sometimes he may demand aggressiveness or otherwise. just get behind our team, our players and let the manager do his job. Liverpool is a great club with wonderful fans who understands how to make the atmosphere really terrific. why can’t we do so at Emirates? let us look ourselves in the mirror before we start accusing our players and the management team. we been doing so for too long now! Arsenal fans complain too much, indeed we are the number one problem at this club!