Arsenal legend Freddie Ljungberg has suggested that Mikel Arteta has made a mistake regarding Mesut Ozil.
The 32-year-old is out of contract at the Emirates Stadium at the end of the season, so he appears to have already played his final game for the Gunners as he won't be able to feature in the Premier League or the Europa League until the new year at the earliest.
Barring a surprise u-turn from manager Mikel Arteta when it's time to resubmit his squads, Ozil's final competitive appearance for Arsenal will have been the 1-0 win over West Ham United in March 2020.
Without him this season the north London outfit have lacked creativity - especially in the Premier League.
This has been even more evident since the 1-0 win over Manchester United at the beginning of last month as Arteta's side have scored once in four league games.
In this period the Gunners have been beaten three times, with Sunday's defeat in the North London Derby raising the debate as to whether Ozil should be an option against teams who sit deep.
Whilst Sky Sports pundits Gary Neville and Jamie Redknapp disagreed about the playmaker, Ljungberg is of the opinion that Ozil should have a place in the squad.
"When you have a player like that, and I don't say he should play every week, but when you have possession and you need to find that cute pass, I don't think there are any better players than Mesut to do that," Ljungberg said on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football show.
"Of course you lose a bit defensively, but it's a decision they've made, I don't know why the decision's been made.
"But for those things, I don't think there are many better in the world."
However, Jamie Carragher then disagreed with the Arsenal legend as he stated that he didn't think Ozil was the answer to all of Arteta's problems.
To which Ljungberg responded by asking: "How do you create more chances then?"
Interestingly, when Ljungberg was interim Arsenal head coach last season, he dropped Ozil for his final game in charge against Everton.
Despite the attacking midfielder being injured for the trip to Goodison Park, the Swede revealed he wouldn't have selected Ozil after taking his gloves off and booting them away in a sign of frustration against Manchester City the week prior.
"Mesut was injured but I would not have picked him for the squad because I want to make a stance that, that's not what I accept from an Arsenal football player," Ljungberg said.
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