Durham: Ozil isn't as good as Eriksen

Ozil has talent but ars*nal are carrying the £42m man this season... here's why Wenger should've signed Spurs ace Eriksen instead

Mesut Ozil's reputation built mostly on international form with Germany

£11m Christian Eriksen has proved his class at Spurs under Tim Sherwood

By Adrian Durham

Carried: Mesut Ozil has endured a dip in form since bursting on to the ars*nal scene this season

Up for it? Ozil was disappointing in ars*nal's comprehensive win over Fulham at the weekend


Only one player disappointed and that was Mesut Ozil. He showed tiny glimpses of the quality he obviously has, but in the main the game passed him by. At one point in the first half he couldn’t control a simple pass from Bacary Sagna and ars*nal lost possession. For £42million I expect better.

Ozil has done some very good things since joining ars*nal but you wouldn’t say he is the player who’s had the biggest impact to take them to the top.

Maybe his arrival alone raised the performance of other players but the assessment that he may have a lengthy lull during the season has been proven correct. So far it hasn’t proved costly for the Gunners but it’s fair to say his team-mates are carrying him at this point in the season.

So, did Arsene Wenger miss a trick?

By signing Ozil for a record fee, and giving him an eye-watering salary in the region of £140,000 a week, Wenger has clearly confirmed that the club has decided to abandon his well-intentioned, but ultimately, fruitless project of not spending big, preferring instead to believe in young players like Nicklas Bendtner, Johan Djourou, Denilson… the list goes on.

But that huge spend on one player didn’t need to be made. If Wenger casts his eyes across north London he will see Christian Eriksen, an £11m 21-year-old controlling games, in charge of midfield, defending and creating, as Tottenham enjoy a golden run of form right now.

Eriksen was the youngest player at the World Cup in 2010, but he won’t be going to Brazil because Denmark didn’t qualify. But then neither will Gareth Bale or Zlatan Ibrahimmovic, so he can’t be judged on that.

Had Wenger signed Eriksen, his project would still have credibility and he would have a player ready made for ars*nal’s style.

Lought, nice to see you are still posting. We can thank our lucky stars Wenger did not sign Eriksen, and that we did not sign Ozil, looks like we got the better deal mate. Mind you we are still waiting to see the best of Lamela and Soldado. I think in time if we can and do hang on to them both players will become great players, we just have to be a little more patient with them than Levy has with managers.