Ian Wright claims Mesut Özil and Alexis Sanchez just haven’t performed the way they should have this season, and believes Dimitri Payet and Leicester duo Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy have all been showing them up, as reported by The Sun.
The Arsenal legend tipped us to lift the Premier League title at the start of the season, with the former forward believing we had the quality to beat out all competition. Even before we knew how poorly Chelsea would perform and how erratic Manchester City’s form would be, Wright was confident in our ability to lift the title.
He insists that Özil and Alexis just haven’t shown the same quality as Payet and Mahrez though, which has consequently seen us stutter and stumble.
“Before the season, I tipped Arsenal to win their first title since 2004 for one reason — I genuinely believed their time had come,” he wrote.
“I fancied Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Özil to be having the sort of season Riyad Mahrez, Jamie Vardy and Dimitri Payet have enjoyed.
“I certainly didn’t envisage them turning in some of the pitiful performances we’ve seen.”
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You certainly can’t argue with his assessment of Alexis, as the Chilean has unquestionably been below par this season. Injuries obviously played their part, but even when fully fit and rested he has still been a little off. He’s missing chances he would have gobbled up last season, and his scoring record recently has been down-right disappointing. He’s looked too predictable at times, and just generally a shadow of the player we saw last season.
Özil is a different story entirely though, and the German really has been every bit as good as the likes of Mahrez and Payet. It’s no coincidence the playmaker is leading the assists chart by some margin, and although he may have slowed down a little during the second half of the campaign he’s still been phenomenal.
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Although the league is Leicester’s to lose at this point, we’re still in with a real chance. We can also clinch our third consecutive FA Cup trophy, but Alexis and Özil will be key to any potential success.
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