Former Arsenal striker, Ian Wright, has criticised Unai Emery’s decision to leave Mesut Ozil, out of the squad that lost to West Ham and feels the team lost creativity without him.
The German, who has been sidelined through injury but was passed fit for Saturday’s game, did not travel to the London Stadium.
Emery, speaking after the 1-0 loss, said, “the players here are better for the match today”.
But Wright says Arsenal missed a spark without their highest earner on the pitch.
“It’s really worrying. I know that Unai Emery has had his problems with big players in dressing rooms before.
“And it seems like, to me, Ozil is the one in this dressing room that he is taking it out on.
“For Ozil not to be in the 18 [man squad], whatever is going on with them, I can’t get my head round that.
“Simply because he should have the opportunity to either play his way into form or get him on there and he’ll play himself out of form so we can see exactly what is happening with Mesut Ozil.
“We cannot afford to have arguably the highest paid player in Arsenal’s history not in the 18.
“After 67 minutes I think, Arsenal didn’t create anything. I don’t think Arsenal are in a position to be leaving Mesut Ozil totally out of the 18. He should be at least involved for me,” Wright explained on Match of the Day.
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