Stuart Pearce reckons that while Arsenal should probably look to cash in on Mesut Ozil in January, Alexis Sanchez would be a massive loss to the club.

Pearce believes that while Arsenal could look to offload Ozil in January, we should try and keep Alexis.

“He [Alexis] would have been a massive blow for Arsenal if he left the football club in my opinion,” the ex-England international told Sky Sports News HQ.

“Ozil, part of me thinks if they get good money for Ozil, take the money and move on.

“But Sanchez definitely not, he’s absolutely critical to Arsenal.

“They’ve done well to hang on to him. Will they keep him in January or get some money for him?

“That remains to be seen but I think he’s critical, his energy for the football club, his assists, his goals, you name it.

“He offers everything.”

Pearce is speaking as if there’s still actually a chance of Alexis staying in north London. There isn’t. Short of pulling a Diego Costa, the 28-year-old has made it clear that he doesn’t see his future at the club and he was angling for a move to Manchester City over the summer. He’s now playing as if he doesn’t care and has been far from the player he was last term.

Despite also having under a year left on his current deal, it was always assumed that Ozil was the more likely to stay out of two. However, since the season started, talks over a contract extension have stalled and rumours linking him with a move to Inter Milan have began to pop up.

Regardless of whether the Serie A giants are genuinely trying to sign Ozil, he’s not signed a new contract with us, which makes me wonder what’s happened to make him change his mind. In pre-season, he said he wanted to stay put.

Whether Arsenal sell either player in January probably depends on how the Gunners are doing, how the players are performing individually, and how much their potential new clubs are willing to pay.