Morning all, hope you had a good weekend. We’re straight back into it though, in one of those periods where there’s so much football there’s barely time to think. We face Ludogorets tomorrow night on Wednesday night in the Champions League, so there’ll be plenty to look forward to there.
The manager will have a press conference later tomorrow so we should get all the latest team news for a game in which I think he’ll be tempted to rotate his squad a little. Not hugely, but enough to add some fresh legs and to ensure some players get a bit of a rest. We’ll preview the game fully tomorrow though.
After his rather brilliant goal at the weekend, Arsene Wenger has been talking about Mesut Ozil’s future, and admits the German international holds a strong negotiating position, and also that there’s more to the situation than handing him £250,000 a week as some reports suggest. There’s also the small matter of ensuring his ambitions can be realised with Arsenal. Winning things, being part of a really competitive side, those are all factors.
Speaking about it after the Swansea game, Wenger said:
We keep that discreet. At due time we will come out with that. Am I confident he will sign? It’s not my main worry now. We want to keep our best players, of course. The more I say that, the more he is in a stronger position.
It’s not just money. Arsenal can win titles, of course. But that’s what we have to show.
That sounds a little defeatist in isolation, so he also said:
I don’t think he needs convincing. He wants to stay here. If you have a good bank, call me!
Clearly though, both Ozil and Alexis Sanchez are coming into these negotiations in a very strong position. Heading towards the final year of their contracts, they both know how important they are to the team. Everyone knows that, and while it will certainly allow them to add some zeros to their salaries, there’s definitely more to it. The recent form of the team will be a help, we look – even at this early stage – a different animal, but of course there’s a long way to go.
The financial incentives we can offer them have to be matched by our sporting ones. If they feel they can win trophies, and by that I think they have to think they can win the league and have a chance of doing something more than crash out in the first knockout round of the Champions League, then we have the finances to make it simple enough. It’s the combination of the two things though.
As I’ve often said, I’m much more confident about Ozil’s future than I am about Alexis, but hopefully the club can do what it takes on and off the pitch to ensure they both stay. I don’t need to go into any detail as to how important it is, do I? No, no I don’t.
Wenger also touched on the German’s goalscoring this season. He has 3 goals to his name, and for a player who is more usually seen as the creator rather than a finisher it’s quite something. Especially when he hasn’t got an assist to his name yet. The manager has said more than once that he’s a player who should be getting 10-15 goals a season due to his technical ability, and highlighted those qualities again:
When you see him in training, he scores basically when he wants. You speak with the keepers and he’s one of the most difficult players to predict where he’ll put the ball. I’m happy that he scored and I hope that gives him the taste to try more.
It’s hard not to think this new system, with Alexis up front being supported by Walcott and Iwobi, has lifted some of the creative burden from Ozil. He can slot in and fill the gaps that Alexis leaves behind, and it’s not something the opposition are particularly expecting. Anyway, it’s working pretty well right now, and ultimately it doesn’t matter who’s providing the assists and the finishes once somebody is. We often talk about how good it is when goals are spread across the team, the same goes for assists, I guess.
Elsewhere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has been talking about how his focus is completely on breaking into the Arsenal team, but says it has crossed his mind that he might play more somewhere else. Speaking to Sky Sports yesterday, he said:
I’d be lying if I wasn’t going to sit here and say that it has crossed my mind that I need more game time. There is going to come a time in my career, and I think I’m approaching that, when I do need to be getting more regular football, but my focus completely and utterly now is on playing for Arsenal and still trying to break into the team when I get the opportunity.
My sole aim for now is to help Arsenal and keep pushing myself to play in this team, because you know, I love playing at Arsenal. It’s a great club, it’s a great team and I’ve got a lot of faith in the team
Which is fair enough, you can understand why any player would want to play every week. However, he must also be aware that any move away would almost certainly be a step down. He’s not, at this point, going to get a move to one of the other big clubs in the Premier League, because he still has so much to prove. He will basically have to do a Wilshere.
I think there have been some positive signs from him this season. He already has a couple of goals to his name, and his cameo against Swansea on Saturday was quite impressive. He’s one of the players who might get a chance tomorrow night in the Champions League, so it’s important he takes it, stays fit and available, and really gives the manager something to think about. It’s 100% on him though.
Right, that’s about that for this morning. James and I will have an Arsecast Extra for you later on where we’ll be discussing the Swansea game, the Xhaka red card and everything else. If you have questions or topics for us to touch on, please send them to us on Twitter @gunnerblog and @arseblog. We should have that for you around lunchtime.
All the Champions League team news and the rest is over on Arseblog News throughout the day. Catch you later on with the podcast.
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Thanks to @mrjatt84 for pointing out we actually play in the Champions League on Wednesday!
