No creativity, no spark and no goals but the one player who can lift limp Gunners is exiled in the reserves

ARSENAL’S Pre mi e r League season is like a limp flag flying at halfmast – and makes Mesut Ozil’s exile even more baffling.

I don’t pretend to know the reasons why Ozil has been banished from the Gunners’ 25- man squad.

But I do know when Arsenal w e r e c a m p e d a r o u n d Tott enham’s box f or l ong period s of l ast weekend’s north London derby, they were cr ying out for a locksmith who c oul d unpick Spurs’ defence.

And I also know Gunners fans who dare to look at the Premier League table must feel like weeping to see their club marooned in 15th place.

I ’m not calling for Mikel Arteta to be sacked – he has not even been in the job for a year. But the problems at Arsenal run deep.

They have scored only one goal in four l eague games despite dominating the ball in most cases. That shows they lack creativity, cutting edge, end- product.

Look at the big guns in the top half of the table and they have one thing i n common: A No. 10 pulling the strings.

If Arsenal were ticking over nicely, or there were c o n v i n c i n g s i g n s o f improvement, at least Ozil’s exclusion could be justified.

But at a reported £ 350,000 a week, al l he’s done thi s season is to dip into his huge salar y to save club mascot Gunnersaurus from being laid of f . Look at t he st ats t o illustrate Ozil’s inf luence on Arsenal under Arteta.

By almost every measurement, they have performed better with him in the side.

In Arteta’s first win, against

Manchester United back on New Year’s Day, Ozil ( below) ran further than anyone in the Arsenal side. So much for him being a passenger.

I know what it’s like to be banished to train with the reserves. It happened to me at Birmingham, and it’s souldestroying.

Maybe the club had t h e i r r e a s o n s , may b e t h e m a n a g e r was trying to make a point, but even at my lowest ebb,

I knew I had something to offer the team.

All that Arsenal’s 2- 0 d e f e a t a t S p u r s achieved was to make the fans miss Ozil even more.

I ’v e heard the whispers about his work- rate and his tracking back without the ball.

But when cross after cross into the Tottenham box was being devoured by Toby Alderweireld and Eric Dier, Gunners fans must have been cr ying out l oud f or Ozil’s needle and thread.

To me, t h e s ol uti on i s simple: Either put him back in Arsenal’s 25- man Premier League squad next month, or sell him in January.

Arsenal fans deserve better than 15th in the table, and they deserved better than four Spurs attackers bearing down on only two defenders for Tottenham’s second goal last Sunday.

I thought Arteta had cured those defensive meltdowns, but obviously he has some way to go.

Winning the FA Cup i n Au g u s t g a v e Ar t e t a a fantastic platform to restore Arsenal to the top four and, at times, they have looked a m o r e o r g a n i s e d u n i t defensively.

But scratch beneath the surface, and how much has really changed? In his first 11 ga mes l a st s e a s on , Unai Emery collected 11 points – over the th same distance this year, Arteta has ta taken just 15.

If Arteta ( left) is going to raise A r s e n a l ’ s st andard high o over the capital a g a i n , h e h a s so some big calls to make make.

A And d the th first of them should be to extend an olive branch to Ozil – or sell him.