Arsene Wenger says the performances of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez during the 2-0 win over Sp*rs in the North London derby are evidence that his faith in them is spot on.
There have been many questions over the duo because of their contractual situation, but the Arsenal manager says his knowledge of them as men assures him they’ll always give their best on the pitch.
The German was today’s man of the match, putting in a scintillating display and getting an assist for the opening goal, while Sanchez’s strike add some comfort to the scoreline.
Speaking about their professionalism afterwards, Wenger said, “If you have to give me one credit, it’s that I’ve never questioned that.
“I know them well and I know that when these guys go on the pitch, they want to win the game.
“They’ve shown their commitment again today. I’ve never questioned their commitment.
“They can have bad games but the problem is that, when a player gets near the end of his contract and has a bad game, everybody says it’s because he’s going.
“Their interest is to play.”
However, the Frenchman did acknowledge that their situations remain complicated. Asked if days like today would help convince them to stay, he said, “I’ve been in this job long enough to know that’s not enough.
“The quality of the contract has to be good and enough for them as well. I am convinced that they love the club and they love the team.
“All the rest will be decided. When? I don’t really know. I’m not alone in mastering that.
“The whole thing has to be right and they have to be happy. I believe that they love the club, they want to stay, but there are other top clubs out there who offer good contracts as well.”
How did Ozil and Sanchez rate? Leave your ratings on our Arsenal 2-0 Sp*rs players ratings here.
They looked good today. Keep it up and they will be remembered better once they leave.
Thank you Ozil & Alexis for such a wonderful performance. We are always behind you. Sign dat ting!
They are some wonderful players but we will be just fine without them as well…
#KroenkeOut
How did this get downvotes? Win or lose, Kronke should jut fuck off from this club
Cos we just comfortably beat the spuds !
They have shown their commitment on the pitch; now take them into a room, give them a pen and their contract papers and let them show that same commitment off the field. I am waiting!
If this is a contract issue, then I’m not sure I understand it.
For example, assume that to replace Alexis we’d need to pay the same amount we bought him for (which is super-wishful thinking, unless we unearth another gem). 36 million quid, was it?
36 m / 12 months = 3 million per month; so we could offer him a three year contract, worth 250k per week and avoid the hassle of looking for a replacement.
Is that not enough for Alexis/Özil? I can’t believe it. How much more than that can Man City (and the likes) pay them?
Probably 100K more It doesn’t matter if you can pay Sanchez or not the same amount or something relatively close to what he can get lets say from Man City. Why would he stay here when he can go to Man City and their owner is committed to winning at all cost. He only has like 2-3 years of peak play left at best. Again he’s not from the academy or been here relatively that long. Similar for Ozil since he only has 2-3 years left of why would he want to stay if a club he goes to is… Read more »
The quotes in the article above seem to imply that the issue is purely monetary, thus my post. Did you read the article?
100K or more? I think that even Messi gets paid about 300k per week!
Agree with your highlighting that AW is making it appear that it is purely monetary.
Think however that AW is completely oblivious to the fact that for these 2 players they also want to win things (perhaps oblivious is an unfair term). The damaging defeats in the CL did the most damage in my opiinion to both players.
I don’t understand,please explain, when Arsenal win,it’s about the two but when Arsenal lose,it’s all Wenger fault or the board? Both are there in good and bad. COYG
Thats after taxes probably. I’m going off what you think should logically happen in the contract offer. That what you are thinking is off base in terms of what City or PSG probably will offer.
I think that if he goes there, Alexis will soon become unhappy at $iteh like he did at Barca, purely because he won’t be getting the games time he does with us. I can’t see him starting often for them when they’ve got Jesus, Sane and Aguero as first choice, with B Silva and Sterling competing for the bench. Add to this that KdB and D Silva can also play in a front 3 when tactics suit. Sterling looks like the weak link there but they’re paying him very well and he’s English, so they’ll have to keep him or… Read more »
I may be wrong but they sign sanchez aguero will be allowed to go
Your analysis is fine, but a new contract with these guys for those amounts has a knock-on effect throughout the squad. Don’t ask me why Stan doesn’t open his wallet; I can guess, but I don’t read minds. I’m with you, but the business side seems not to agree with us. Do they really want to stay here? Maybe, but we can’t know that. Perhaps they’re frustrated with the coaching or their teammates. Maybe they figure they won’t win anything big here, and they desperately want that. They get respect from the manager and fans, and London is a great… Read more »
There was good hunger today. The problem has never been that we could not compete but we are never able sustain it.
Could see Ozil flagging in second half and replacing him was the right thing with Iwobi.
Ditto Lacazette albeit we did not have Welbeck or Giroud as potential replacement today.
The directive was clearly to defend/and attack from the front.
Is Lacazette a 90 minute player? He seems to disappear late in the game. I love the way he defends from the front, though. Like Giroud, he goes all out.
Spot on. We know we can beat anyone on our day it’s just typical us to note go to Burnley and fail to win to back this up
Ozil put in a good shift today.
Wish we capitalised on our counter attacks today. We could have really punished them but we seemed a little out of sync for the final finish.
Alexis will fight and scrap regardless. You could see he wanted more goals.
We didn’t play well just because of Sanchez and Ozil. We put pressure on all over the pitch, kept it tight in the back, and made aggressive decisions on the ball. The tactics and mentality come as much from the manager as the players. If Wenger can get this team to be more consistent, we’ll be fine without them. Sadly I doubt that…
Three centre backs playing at……..centre back.
Two wing backs playing as……….wing backs (even in their preferred right and left positions)
I really enjoyed today, we were magnificent……..we even had our best striker, playing as……..striker.
Go figure, cause I musta been hallucinating!!
In the PL we usually do all those things (not so much in the Europa and TinPot Cups), so why so much better today?
We lost with more than honor at City, we won the NL Derby… Let’s make a massive performance at Turf moor, win at home against huddersfiled… and say “good bye November”!!
There was some really insulting stuff during the week by the pundits: no Arsenal player would get in the Tottenham team, for example. We have a World Cup winner, who has also been Germany’s player of the year several times, the best player in the team that won the South American Cup, lots of players going to the World Cup etc. There’s a lot of shit about.
To be honest I’ve questioned the commitment of most of the players over the last 18 months but not today! All I want is them to love arsenal like I do and today they did just that