Arsenal: Tactically, Mesut Ozil doesn’t fit Burnley either

Arsenal manager Unai Emery has been leaving Mesut Ozil out of matches because of tactical reasons. Doesn’t Burnley merit the same?

There is something going on behind the scenes at Arsenal. Between Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey and Unai Emery, something isn’t right, and don’t tell me it’s back spasms, because even if Ozil did have them, they are gone now, aren’t they?

Emery has been very open about leaving Ozil out of the side for tactical reasons. He did it against Bournemouth, just before the back spasms, and he did it against Tottenham, supposedly post-spasms.

My conspiracy theory is that Emery is trying to showcase how much better Ramsey is in this current system than Ozil, in order to get the higher ups to sell Ozil, who is making too much money to not be perpetually tactically appropriate, and keep Ramsey with the freed up money.

Burnley comes to the Emirates today. Burnley, a club that was so mean last year that Mesut Ozil up and left the team hotel the morning of the match at Turf Moor, thoroughly baffling even the unbafflable Arsene Wenger.

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Ozil is not a physical player, yet he plays in a physical league, and Burnley are a physical team. They aren’t what they were last year, in fact they have been shockingly poor, but the personnel and the mantra is still there to be a tough team, to be no-nonsense, and as such, Ozil doesn’t fit the scheme.

He made that clear himself last year.

As such, is Unai Emery really about to leave out Ozil for tactical purposes yet again? He kind of has to, doesn’t he? Burnley are not a team that Ozil has a lot of success against in the past, and that’s because of the way that they play. It’s a very anti-Ozil way.

So if Emery wants to stay consistent, he needs to bench Ozil for this one too, or face the questions of the press as to what made this match more tactically fitting for Ozil while the other ones weren’t.

It might be a matter of Emery preferring to play Ozil at home, when he has a supportive environment, but even then, have I mentioned the money he is making?

Let’s see what happens. There’s no hiding it anymore – Emery and Ozil aren’t great for one another and there isn’t much that can be done about it. He has his contract, he has his time.