Arsenal legend, Ian Wright, has warned the club’s manager, Unai Emery, not to play midfielders, Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan in his team again.
According to him, both players have not performed up to expectations this season and so should be benched.
Ozil and Mkhitaryan have had lacklustre seasons so far and their displays have drawn the anger of several Arsenal fans.
The pair are the north London club’s highest earners, with Ozil pocketing a whopping £350,000 a week and Mkhitaryan taking home £140,000 a week.
Wright believes the former Bundesliga stars aren’t pulling their weight and that the club isn’t getting value for their money.
“As good as [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan and Ozil are, in respect to what they’re earning we’re talking about £500,000-a-week,” Wright said on BBC 5 Live Sport.
“I do not believe that Arsenal can afford to be paying that sort of money without getting a return, especially when you look at what they’re trying to do at the moment.
“You’re going to lose [Aaron] Ramsey as well who probably wants £200,000 so we’re going up to £700,000-a-week in money that we’re going to have to give.
“Surely you’ve got to find three or four players that you can pay a lot of money to that will give you the output you want.”
Arsenal fans’ biggest criticism of Ozil is his failure to perform consistently, which Wright believes he has to rectify in order to justify his astronomical wages.
Wright said, “He got substituted in the next game against Palace!
“The thing with him is; Do you think he’s someone that can adapt? He’s an unbelievable player but can he do it? I don’t know if he can.
“I had Arsenal fans coming over to me saying he’s had 19 assists.
“Thierry Henry had 20 assists and 30 odd goals – and has he done it twice!
“Is that what we want, just assists? Is that what you’re going to throw in my face? And a hat-trick against Ludogorets?”
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