Why Wenger Was Right To Leave Mesut Ozil Out Of Sunderland Clash

Mesut Ozil caused a storm last week in Arsenal's loss to Bayern Munich. Despite the German covering the third highest amount of ground of any player on the pitch, his missed penalty overshadowed his efforts.

It was his piece of skill that won the penalty in the first place, and although his effort was pretty shoddy from the spot, he did at least try to chip in defensively.

However, he looked sluggish and I was shouting for him to be rested, to put it nicely, and that's what happened for the tie with Sunderland, through injury or not.

The three attackers who got the nod were Santi Cazorla, Lukas Podolski and Tomas Rosicky, and in return the offensive moves were faster, slicker and were spread across the pitch. Rosicky's goal is testament to that.

Even when on the back foot they looked a tighter unit, and the fact that they weren't holding a defensive liability helped them massively with Sunderland's composed midfield. I understand that the Germany international isn't a defensive player and he won't make many tackles, if any at all, but sometimes you need a player to do that.

Don't get me wrong, I think Ozil has done terrifically well, but Wenger was right to set up without him, injury or not.