The former Gunners striker thinks Arsenal are beginning to look foolish over the Ozil saga and must get the German on the pitch
Andy Cole has said Arsenal manager Unai Emery should find a way to incorporate Mesut Ozil into his starting XI.
The former Real Madrid star has been selected from the off in just one of the Gunners last 10 outings and wasn’t even on the bench for Thursday night’s 1-0 defeat to BATE Borisov.
His omission now means he has missed 100 games since moving to the London club in 2013 and, as a result, Cole thinks the situation at the Emirates has become almost comical.
“It's becoming a bit of a comedy sketch at the moment,” the 47-old told Sky Sports.
“The manager has decided maybe he doesn't want him in the team, he doesn't work hard enough or whatever.”
During Arsene Wenger’s last few years at the club, Arsenal were often accused of being weak, something Emery has tried to address by dropping Ozil.
However, Cole believes that the Spaniard’s predecessor may have got more from the German rather than seeing him sit on the bench.
“Sometimes when you have that luxury, I think some of the boys in the team would be prepared to work a little bit harder to get him on the ball to produce that magic.
“Arsenal over the previous years, when Wenger was there, did that. You've got to play your best players when you need them, and Ozil is one of Arsenal's best.
“If you asked Lacazette and Aubameyang: 'Do you want Mesut to play?' they'd say yes all day long, all day long! It's really, really strange.
Cole isn’t the only former player to criticise Arsenal and Ozil recently, with Martin Keown claiming the saga surrounding the German had become ‘embarrassing’.
“Is he injured? Is he ill? One thing as a player you've got to be is available for selection and you want to give consistency. He hasn't been able to give either of those,” said the pundit.
With or without Ozil, Arsenal will be hoping to bounce back from that disappointing defeat to BATE Borisov when the Belarusian side travel to the Emirates next week for the return leg.
After that, the Gunners host Southampton and Bournemouth in the league.
lopegood
56
It's funny seeing the criticism of Emery regarding the Ozil thing, from other fans because they were the same fans laughing at Wenger for always playing Ozil in all games regardless of his performance. When he was playing at the start of the season, he was poor, the Leicester game has been his only decent performance all season, even when he was put back in as captain against Cardiff he put in an insipid display. Either way, Emery's set up was wrong today but he's played a strong team who shouldn't have problems dealing with BATE Borisov. Between Lacazette, Mkhi, Iwobi, Aubameyang, Xhaka, Guendouzi and Torreira, they should be scoring at least once, the pitch was absolute shit but that doesn't excuse the poor first touches and passing done by 95% of them out there last night.
LoveFCB
48
It’s a shame the situation has come down to this. So sad, I remember jumping and shouting when we signed Ozil. Signing Ozil was genuinely one of my happiest days as an arsenal fan. He was my favorite player for years before he joined the club, there’s no way I could’ve forseen such a sad time where he can’t even get games for us anymore. He’s still extremely talented, but he hasn’t played a good run of games in the last year tbh. I think it’s best for him if he moves on, because the club clearly are trying to force him out. He’s had great seasons for us and before he came we hadn’t won anything in almost a decade, so I am very happy to have had him play for the clyv