Carragher denies Arsenal need midfielder

Jamie Carragher says Mesut Ozil is not the solution to Arsenal’s problems and believes the Gunners will have to go through a difficult period before things get better.

Ozil is unavailable to play for the north London side because coach Mikel Arteta left him out of the 25-man Premier League and Europa League squads for the season.

But Arsenal have had a difficult start to the campaign as they sit 15th in the league with four wins from 11 matches.

The club’s crisis deepened on Sunday when north London rivals Tottenham beat them 2-0. Arteta said after the game that he is happy with the number of chances they are creating but admitted they “need to score goals” to save their season.

Carragher was asked if Ozil would provide the quality Arsenal need, but the former Liverpool defender says their problems lie much deeper than that.

“I don’t think the answer is bringing Ozil in,” he said while discussing the Germany international with former Arsenal star and caretaker manager Freddie Ljungberg on Sky Sports.

“When three managers decide not to fully back him, I know you [Ljungberg] used him more than those managers did, but I think you had a situation where he came off and threw his gloves. Mikel Arteta doesn’t use him, two managers, maybe three with [Ljungberg], are they all wrong, really?

“There’s no doubt he’s got quality, but we’ve spoken about Ozil so often over the last few years and I don’t think he’s the answer to fix Arsenal’s problem. Why don’t people pick him? There must be something.

“There might be talk about [Arteta] being under pressure now, or the situation he’s in, I wouldn’t even think about Mikel Arteta’s position. I really like Arteta.

“There’s a lot of nonsense around the cub. I think some of the signings have been a joke, in terms of bringing Willian in, [David] Luiz in, Cedric [Soares] in. There’s Kia Joorabchian making signings at the club.

“Mikel Arteta brought in [Thomas] Partey and Gabriel, they look like Arsenal’s two best players at this moment.

“They’ve had four managers and three CEOs since 2018, just stick with Arteta, but there’s going to be a lot of pain for Arsenal.”

Ljungberg, however, believes the former Real Madrid star would have made a difference in some matches.

“I don’t say that Mesut should play every single week,” he said. “When you play maybe [Manchester] City, who keep the ball a lot, you’ll just defend all the time, so when you have possession or need to find that little cute pass, I don’t think there are many better players than Mesut in doing that. Of course you lose a bit defensively.

“It’s a decision they made, I don’t know why. He’s outside of the 25-man squad so they can’t use him, but for those things I don’t see many players better in the world.”