Charlie Nicholas thinks Arsenal will let Mesut Özil leave in January if they don’t see any improvement, as long as they get a decent offer for him.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Nicholas argued that despite the German’s new long-term contract to stay with the Gunners, his days in North London could still be numbered.

“If this isn’t improved by January, and a decent offer comes in, Arsenal will let him go,” Nicholas said. “It keeps coming up that Fenerbahce and these sort of clubs would be interested in looking at him.

“I don’t know financially how they could do it, (perhaps) some of the Chinese money that has been floating about. There will be teams that are interested and I’ll tell you how it will end up working.

“It wouldn’t be a salary thing, it would be a big chunk of money that he would get and that would nurse the bruising that his salary would have to drop a bit. ‘But the thing is, is he really that committed to it?

“I think we are starting to identify that the new manager, it’s taken him quite a bit of time, is getting on fine with him, but he will be saying ‘if you’re not playing well, you’ll be out the team’, and he will not accept that Ozil.”

This all sounds like completely uninformed speculation to me. From what we’ve heard from sources inside the club and from Emery and other players publicly, there was never any problem between the head coach and Özil.

It didn’t take ‘quite a bit of time’ for them to get on, it just took a while for the media to give up the fabricated bust up story.

Then there’s the way Nicholas suggests that ‘Chinese money floating about’ could help the likes of Fenerbahce to sign the playmaker. You can’t mix and match clubs with money from elsewhere. There’s never been any suggestion that Özil would want to play in China, nor that Fenerbahce would be able to afford him.

More than that, the German is still a key player for Arsenal. He showed that in each of his last three appearances, with his winning goal against Newcastle, another against Vorskla and an impressive performance despite no goal/assist in the win over Everton. I very much doubt the club will consider any offers for him in January.