Arsenal: Jack Wilshere replacing Mesut Ozil as we speak

Arsenal had to run without Mesut Ozil against Brighton & Hove Albion, which makes this international break particularly interesting.

Arsenal hasn’t been able to call on Mesut Ozil recently thanks to a nagging injury he picked up. But, thankfully, you couldn’t have told the difference in his absences. I covered this over the weekend, but the Gunners are sneaking closer to being somewhat injury proof.

Meaning that no single injury is going to cause that much distress. Arsenal already showed they could cope without both Alexis Sanchez and Ozil, and they did so with some of the people you would never have expected, along with the dedicated new Frenchman Alexandre Lacazette.

I even believe that Danny Welbeck would have completely unseated Alexis and maintained his spot in the starting XI had injuries not snuck in and robbed him of that chance. How do you sit your top scorer, after all?

And if it can happen to Alexis, guess what? It can happen to Ozil too.

As mentioned, for as highly as I think of Ozil, he hasn’t been missed. And that means that there is an opportunity to make an impact move and swap Ozil out for someone else. Especially – especially – if there is no hope of the German signing a new contract.

Of course, the person to swap him out for would be Jack Wilshere and, as of right now, I would not be surprised if Arsene Wenger isn’t pondering the exact same move.

It’s pretty simply – this club has been moving away from the individualistic approach of Alexis and the luxury specificity of Ozil. They used to live and die by their two superstars involvement, but this year has seen them move more towards and effort-centered squad with the likes of Aaron Ramsey, Danny Welbeck and Sead Kolasinac driving things.

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Those are three guys that simply don’t quit and Wenger has always spoken highly of that work ethic.

Say what you want about Ozil, but for all of the strengths that he has, he is not an effort-driven guy. Jack Wilshere is. So if we are really intent on growing this new team focus, then the correct move would be to take these two weeks during international break and come to terms with Wilshere trading out midweek fixtures for the weekend.

This may be overly optimistic. In fact, I’m almost certain it is. But the time for playing favorites is over and Wenger has shown that he knows that. He is making changes on the fly and a two week break would be the perfect time to let Wilshere rejuvenate a bit and then throw him back where he has always belonged.

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Now, what you do with Ozil from there is the biggest question. Maybe he can, in turn, replace Alexis. Who knows. All I know is Wilshere needs to be in there.

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