Arsenal vs Everton: Mesut Ozil open auditions ongoing

Arsenal’s ongoing drama with Mesut Ozil still has plenty of outcomes, but in the meantime, no one has, as of yet, truly unseated the German maestro.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, Mesut Ozil won’t be here much longer, in all likelihood. You can deny whatever reports you want, but you can’t deny how unhappy he looks on the pitch and how little Arsenal rely on him anymore. Not to mention how much better they do without him.

Whether Ozil ends up at Manchester United in January or in the summer, or whether he spares himself the title of snake and skedaddles to Italy, or, hell, maybe he even stays, there is significantly less need and want for the German in the starting XI.

Or to play at all.

Seeing him come on against Watford may have seemed exciting at first, but his appearance seemed to inject the hosts with all the hope they needed to turn things around. With the help of a dive penalty, of course.

Yet, while Ozil has been absent – and not missed – there hasn’t been much dominance in his void.

This is like an open audition for the Gunners. If/when Ozil (and Alexis Sanchez) leave, there will be two massive holes that will undoubtedly require investment. Thomas Lemar and Julian Draxler are the names most tossed around but Leon Goretzka has to be near the top of the list as well.

These peripheral players that are filling in for the two superstars’ have to know that they have a chance to perhaps put the gaffer’s mind off of an external solution. If any manager can be convinced that an internal solution is the better option, it’s Arsene Wenger.

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We’ve seen Alex Iwobi, Danny Welbeck, Theo Walcott and Jack Wilshere all utilized in the roles, across different competitions, and what have we learned about those four? We’ve learned that Iwobi has potential. We’ve known that. We’ve learned that Welbeck has days of brilliance, but also gets hurt. We knew that.

We know that Walcott can disappear for handfuls of minutes at a time and offset that with flashes of brilliance. We knew that.

Jack Wilshere is really the only one who has proven that he is ready to take one of those main two roles, but his injury history is always going to give pause to dubbing him a solution.

We need to see more from these internal solutions. Iwobi especially. The young Nigerian looked inspired against Watford, and was the primary drive on a stale attack. I would hand some of the blame off to a dull midfield pairing behind him and thoroughly believe that if you throw Aaron Ramsey behind him, things will be better.

Next: Arsenal's Predicted XI to face Everton

But that’s not enough to ward off an external solution. Not even close. We don’t know how the Gunners will line up against Everton, but as long as this drama continues, the auditions will too.

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