Even before the Arsenal and Germany international midfield star Mesut Ozil picked up his current knee injury, during the match against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, the Gunners boss was not always using him in his preferred position of central attacking midfielder behind the forward line.
Ozil has already spoken a few times about this being his best position and even Jose Mourinho described the 25-year old as probably the best number 10 in the world when he signed for Arsenal over a year ago. But what chance has the German got of getting to play in that role for Arsenal when he does recover from this latest injury?
Well he might worry about what Arsene Wenger said about Alexis Sanchez playing in that role in his comments reported by Arsenal.com after the Chilean scored twice again and steered the Gunners to another win against Burnley. Because not only was Alexis impressive and effective, he has clearly caught the bosses eye with his all-round game.
Wenger said, “Since he’s played through the middle he looks more goal dangerous. Now it looks to me that he’s really dangerous through the centre of the pitch because he’s in full confidence, he’s physically strong, he likes to take people on as well and he makes perfect runs. Through the centre of the pitch maybe he’s more dangerous.”
And the manager also agreed that having Alexis playing in that role seems to have given the whole team the belief that had been missing recently.
He went on, “Yeah of course. I think we had about 30 crosses today and for a while we couldn’t win any headers but in the end he got there and he really jumped very high. He’s a winner.”
And with Walcott coming back and being likely to play in the right forward position, it could be very hard for Ozil to convince Wenger that he should be the number 10 for Arsenal. What do you think Gooners?