Ian Wright: Hopefully Mesut Özil will outlast Unai Emery at Arsenal | OneFootball

Ian Wright hopes Mesut Özil will outlast Unai Emery at Arsenal, as it becomes clear the German is going to struggle for opportunities under the current head coach.

As every Arsenal fan will be well aware, Mesut Özil has found his game-time severely limited this season.

Whilst it’s not uncommon for a player or two to find themselves on the fringes of a squad and forced into an exit every season, it’s not such a regular occurrence with the highest-paid individual in the team.

Players also usually find themselves missing out when they’ve had a public falling out with the club, or the team are indisputably performing better without them. Neither of those things are the case with Özil and Arsenal.

As a result, it’s become a major drama and one of the key talking points before, during and after every match and press conference.

Former Gunner Ian Wright was the latest to be asked about the situation, and whether he hopes Özil or Emery will be with Arsenal for longer.

“Well, hopefully, Özil,” Wright said. “He’s already said he doesn’t want to leave. For me, hopefully, it’s Özil.”

“I’m very disappointed to see that [Özil not in the squad] because I don’t think that Arsenal, when you look at Arsenal’s creative stats, they’re not up there.

“They’re actually not creating as much and they’re conceding more shots on target. So that says to me you need somebody who’s creative to be playing there.

“Mesut Ozil is that guy, I don’t know what’s going on with him and Unai Emery, but for me, I think this could be the problem for Unai in the end if Arsenal continue to do what they’re doing.

“They’re waiting for [Pierre-Emerick] Aubameyang or [Nicolas] Pepe, like the other day, to save them. The fact is he should be playing.”

It’s certainly true that Arsenal have lacked creativity recently, with Emery’s side only really blowing opponents away in their matches outside of the Premier League. Even their Europa League confidence took a hit on Thursday, as they only narrowly escaped with a win over Vitoria.

For whatever reason, it doesn’t seem to matter what happens on the pitch. Özil remains on the sidelines anyway, and the saga looks set to drag on for another year and a half unless someone budges.