Arsenal: Mesut Ozil was then, Alexis Sanchez is now

Arsenal are headed in a brand new direction and Mesut Ozi isn’t going to be a part of it. So are we better off with Alexis Sanche after all?

Hi. You read the article title. Now before we get too deep into this piece, allow me to preamble this article by saying that this is completely and totally related to play on the pitch. Obviously, when it comes to actually caring about Arsenal, and character, and pretty much anything off the pitch, Ozil wins.

And when Arsenal cut Alexis Sanchez free and kept Mesut Ozil, I was among the masses celebrating the move. Of course it was the right decision.

For the time.

We are in a different time now. And with that different time comes different wants, needs, expectations and, as we now know, managers.

Arsene Wenger and Alexis Sanchez were never going to jive again. Alexis had made his bed and was entrenched in it, and Ozil was a player out of Wenger’s own mind. It was an easy decision to be made.

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But here we are, just over a year later, and Unai Emery is proving to be a completely different manager than Wenger (surpriiiiise!). Ozil is about as far from an Emery-type player as Tottenham are from winning a Premier League title, and in the wake of Ozil’s ongoing trials, Alexis Sanchez is being linked with the most unlikely of returns to the Emirates.

I don’t think it will happen, and most fans don’t want it to happen, but in this exact moment, I would happily take Alexis Sanchez over Mesut Ozil, putting aside the snake/loyalty element to the argument because Alexis, the mad Chilean, is so much more of an Emery player than Ozil, the deliberating maestro.

Alexis had his flaws – plenty of them – but he was a workhorse when properly inspired, he was a winger, with the speed to boot, and he is everything that the club currently needs, while Ozil has long proven to be an anchor holding this ship back from sailing.

Both are 30 years old, both are making astronomical wages and both can’t get a minute of game time at their current outfit. So if you had to choose one, who would you take? And does it make me a bad person that I would take Alexis, speaking completely from a pragmatic standpoint, which is an adjective I would also use to describe Emery – pragmatic.

Right now we need a high-energy creative force who can contribute goals, dribble, and utilize a bunch of pace. That is Alexis Sanchez, temper tantrums not included. Call me crazy, but I’d swap the German to have the Chilean back. As long as he brings Atom and Humber too.