Mesut Ozil vs Unai Emery: Who comes out on top at Arsenal?

They both have contracts till 2021, but it seems that only one of them will last that long. So who comes out on top in the Arsenal civil war: Ozil or Emery?

While Arsenal fans have been frustrated by their lack of identity on the pitch this season, one particular issue keeps coming up over and over again: the treatment of Mesut Ozil.

Gooners who have been following their club for more than a few years will almost certainly have a special place in their heart for Ozil, who was essentially their talisman from 2013 till Arsene Wenger left the club. In fact, the day he signed for Arsenal, deadline day 2013, was one of the more improbable moments in Arsenal’s recent history. His 2015-16 season as well, where he provided 19 assists, will go down as one of the best individual playmaking seasons in Premier League history. While Ozil is still only 31, his presence at Arsenal has diminished massively following the questionable hiring of Unai Emery, and it has become so severe an issue that Ozil now doesn’t even feature in any Arsenal matchday squads.

It’s not as if Ozil is the same brilliant player he used to be, because he simply isn’t. While he can still come up with moments of brilliance, he struggles to impose himself these days, as the global game starts being dominated by intensity rather than technique. Especially away from home, the German can’t quite cut it anymore.

But Arsenal clearly have a creativity issue, and they often rely on Aubameyang scoring half-chances to get them points, which is why many fans have been calling out for Ozil. If the team was creating chances aplenty but failing to finish them, then hardly any fans would bat an eyelid at Ozil not being in the team, but alas, it is the opposite.

Unai Emery is obviously the culprit behind the mistreatment of Ozil, who is indeed Arsenal’s highest paid player by a mile. Even when asked about his treatment of Arsenal’s number 10 during press conferences, Emery’s answers are brief, vague, and somewhat cryptic. More fuel was added to the fire when Mesut Ozil tweeted this seemingly passive-aggressive post the other day:

Now, both Ozil and Emery have contracts that run till 2021, and with the way their feud is currently going, it seems that one will come out on top, and the other will be forced out of the club. While Emery has control over Ozil, it actually seems like the manager is the underdog in this situation.

First of all, the fans certainly aren’t happy about it, and that always counts for something in professional football. Second of all, the club is spending a lot of money to keep Mesut Ozil around. If they can’t find a way to offload him in January, then Emery is essentially wasting money every week not playing him and not allowing Arsenal to get the best out of an asset that they’ve invested a ton of money into.

Lastly, the Gunners’ play lately has been so dire, and they’ve hardly improved from Wenger’s disastrous final year at Arsenal, which means that the pressure Emery is facing increases every week. The owners and board invested a lot of money into this team last summer and put plenty of faith in Unai Emery, and so far he’s not delivering. Meanwhile, Ozil is not really to blame for anything that has gone on in this situation – he simply isn’t being picked, and there’s not much blame to put on him.

At the end of the day, it seems that Mesut Ozil’s connection to the Arsenal fans is what’s going to win him this war. All he really has to do is sit back and watch Unai Emery slip up over and over again, and then maybe he can get back into the team under a new manager.