Mesut Ozil's Fate At Arsenal Is Increasingly Uncertain

JAKARTA - Mesut Ozil has not played for Arsenal since the English Premier League competition rolled back last month. He was not even involved in Arsenal's 3-2 win over Watford on Sunday, July 26 yesterday. What happened to Ozil?

Coach Mikel Arteta was reluctant to discuss the fate of the 31-year-old player in public. Arteta reasons that he did not play Ozil in the first game against Manchester City for tactical reasons.

Arteta also revealed that Ozil did not appear in subsequent matches due to a back injury. Ozil since the start of this season has been far below standard. At the start of this season, the former Real Madrid player was rarely played by the then Gunners coach, Unai Emery.

Apart from the fact that his performance did not improve, Ozil was mentally shaken because he almost became a victim of a robbery in the center of London.

When the position of coach was taken over by Mikel Arteta in December 2019, Ozil's situation and performance had improved. However, from late December 2019 to mid 2020, Ozil only made 12 appearances for the Gunners.

As is known, Ozil is the highest paid player at Arsenal with a salary of 350,000 pounds (around Rp. 6.54 billion) per week and his contract has only one year left.

It's no secret that Arsenal want to save money by reducing Ozil's big salary or selling him to another club.

The World Cup winner has been linked with transfers to Turkish and United States clubs in recent weeks, although he has reportedly turned down offers from Turkish club Fenerbahce.

Ozil has only appeared 23 times in all competitions this season for the Gunners and has only scored one goal.

According to a Sky Sports report reported by Antara on Wednesday, Arteta will no longer involve Ozil in the remaining matches this season. The Spanish coach has two other players who will fill his position, namely Dani Ceballos and Joe Willock.

Arsenal are scheduled to compete in the 2019-2020 FA Cup final against Chelsea on Saturday.