Arsenal: Lose Mesut Ozil, keep Aaron Ramsey, save the world

Arsenal are getting themselves into a bind, but they can change the world if they break out of it and do the right thing. Lose Ozil. Keep Ramsey. Boom. Done.

The ongoing narrative contrasting Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil at Arsenal is picking up steam, but for us here at Pain in the Arsenal, it never lost steam. This has been a subject matter that both myself and my co-editor Andy have been talking about for quite some time.

Especially since the contract questions started popping up. It was nine months ago that I asked the question: Why shouldn’t Ramsey make what Ozil does?

And it was four months ago that I finally said it: Aaron Ramsey is better than Mesut Ozil.

For those of you familiar with my ongoing defense of Granit Xhaka, you may remember my long-time defense of Olivier Giroud. During that same period, I was always in the corner of Ramsey, expressing how he needed to be made captain and kept around for the long haul.

He gradually proved all of us banking on him indisputably right, and he did it while always wearing a smile and proudly patting the Gunner badge that he has come to love.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

Losing to Tottenham in the League Cup was a tough pill to swallow, but buried in the toughness was another nugget that I found even tougher to digest – Ozil was left out for tactical reasons.

In a North London Derby, with no injury to speak of, Ozil was left out by Unai Emery for tactical reasons, as he had been against Bournemouth. In his stead, Aaron Ramsey played, Ramsey, who wants a contract but can’t seem to get one, and he played quite well. Quite well. Well enough to show us who the true hero of the story is going to be, if things go right, and it isn’t Ozil.

Since signing his new deal, Ozil has not been good. And he wouldn’t be the first superstar to falter post-enormous new contract.

But the true villainy of the contract is that I can’t shake the idea that it is the primary reason why Ramsey can’t get himself a new deal. Because all of the money is being used on Ozil. Maybe this is Emery’s way of trying to force the guys upstairs to see that Ozil just isn’t working and Ramsey is, who knows.

All I know is there is only one way out of this mess without it getting any messier, and that way is to ditch Ozil (for tactical purposes) and keep Ramsey.