Mesut Ozil's £350,000-a-week deal was Arsenal's cheapest option, claims Arsene Wenger

James Olley3 February 2018

Arsene Wenger believes handing Mesut Ozil the most expensive contract in Arsenal’s history was the “cheapest option” available to the club.

The Gunners confirmed yesterday that Ozil this week signed an extension until 2021 believed to be worth up to £350,000-a-week.

That figure is a dramatic increase on the 29-year-old’s previous £140,000-a-week wage and approximately double the salaries agreed by recent new signings Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

Arsenal are in the midst of restructuring their wage bill – a task aided by the January departures of Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud, Francis Coquelin and Mathieu Debuchy – and Wenger claims the potential outlay in finding another player of Ozil’s quality convinced the club to improve their offer in excess of £250,000-a-week to the German.

“When you let a player go you have to buy somebody of the same calibre and if you add the transfer needed and the wages will be similar,” he said. “On top of that we have to pay a transfer [fee].

“So, overall I think Mesut for us was the cheapest option. On the other side, all of our players are well paid. Very well paid. To feel sorry for them - I'm not sure that it's the most objective assessment.”

Aubameyang is a doubt to start against Everton on Saturday evening after battling a fever this week. He begins life in north London looking to put a bad-boy reputation behind him after falling out with his former club Borussia Dortmund but Wenger said: “I don’t think that is a problem. He spent four years in Germany and has had some problems in the last year that were linked with the fact that maybe his transfer did not work in the summer and he did not have the same commitment as he had before.

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“I am quite confident that this will be a new challenge for him and overall his behaviour will be fine. I know him from France – he played for St Etienne and Bastia – and usually his behaviour was never a problem. He is a professional guy.”

Arsenal’s defending has been heavily criticised this season – Everton boss Sam Allardyce described the Gunners as “weak” in this area on Friday morning – but Wenger believes the root cause is at the other end of the pitch.

“We don't necessarily need relief but we want to be more efficient on the football pitch,” he added.

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“Because when you say we've conceded too many goals, I think we don't score enough goals. That's our basic problem. That's not only defensively but offensively, we don't score enough goals.

“That's our DNA. We are an attacking team. The danger is when you are an attacking team that you don't score and then of course you create your own problems.”