Thierry Henry believes that Arsene Wenger needs to give Mesut Ozil a wake-up call if he’s going to get the best out of him.

Henry reckons that Wenger needs to prove to Ozil that his position in the starting XI will be given to someone else if the German doesn’t perform. The Arsenal legend believes that this will wake up the 28-year-old when he’s not in form.

“He doesn’t take Mesut off when Mesut isn’t on his game and that can happen,” Henry told Sky Sports. “It shouldn’t happen the amount of times it does happens but Mourinho wouldn’t hesitate.

“Conte wouldn’t hesitate. It happened a couple of times with Eden Hazard last year.

“What happened? The three times he took Eden Hazard off after an hour – the game after he scored from the halfway line [against Arsenal].

“He destroyed Arsenal because he woke him up.”

Last season, Antonio Conte dropped Eden Hazard after a string of mediocre performances. He came back and was every bit the player everyone knows he is, going on to score 16 Premier League goals and help Chelsea win the title.

However, it does seem that Wenger gets a bit sheepish when it comes to benching big players, such as Alexis Sanchez when he’s not at his best, and Ozil. It’s as if he’s walking on eggshells to make sure they’re happy so they don’t leave, although we all know that the boss could roll out a red carpet every morning at London Colney for some players and they’d still believe the grass is greener.

Ozil has periods of excellence, which are overshadowed when he’s not in form since he tends to fade into the background, even when he’s being brilliant. Perhaps being benched would help but Wenger knows best.