What Unai Emery needs to do to solve the problem with Mesut Ozil – Stan Collymore

If Prime Minister Theresa May was to leave No.10 Downing Street in the coming weeks, anyone who would replace her would have the same problems to settle.

This is also true for the members of his cabinet.

And I feel the same about the director's office and Arsenal's boardroom, where the steps forward post-Wexit are followed by steps backwards.

First, Ivan Gazidis, the man who oversaw the changes up at Emirates, left the club. Then last week, we learned that transfer guru Sven Mislintat was also out.

I would not be too worried if I were Gooner because these minor adjustments at the management level will lead neither to an Arsenal revolution nor to an implosion. For the moment, the club is happy to be the best of the others.

And unless someone with Sheikh Mansour-esque wealth introduces and changes philosophy as a whole, things will probably stay the same for a while.

Do not get me wrong, I liked what the manager Unai Emery has done since arriving in the summer.

Knowing that Arsenal had been too lenient at the end of Arsene Wenger's reign, he brought a bulldog like Lucas Torreira to add a little bit of frustration.

But even with Torreira and the other recruits he made, he would have taken a look at his team and recognized that a place in the top four should be the limit of their ambitions.

Arsenal does not have the strength of Manchester City, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham. To win the Champions League places, they needed two things: a season almost without fail on the part of their own players and the collapse of one or two of their rivals.

If Emery leads them to the fourth month of May, then you must say he was right to punish Aaron Ramsey's departure and treat Mesut Ozil as he did.

Ozil, the club's most generous player with £ 300,000 a week, did not even make the bench at West Ham last weekend and was used sparingly for most of the season. I am not convinced that this is the best policy.

I know he is a symptom of Arsenal's soft belly, which has long persisted, but still wins the World Cup and La Liga with a lot of experience and talent.

Let's say that Emery's men do not rank among the top four of the season, fans would have the right to ask if Ozil could have made the difference. It is these fine margins that can create discontent – and discontent can very quickly turn into mutiny.

Instead of letting Ozil dry, Emery should put him in his arms. Players understand it and accept it when a manager tells them that they are not part of their long-term plans. This does not mean that they still can not do a job for you in the right circumstances. But you can not continue treating them like lepers.

This season, Arsenal must be in the top four to leave Ozil for almost a season as a sound strategy.

But with Manchester United advancing in leaps and bounds under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, with Spurs in the long-term, with Chelsea still threatening, and with Manchester City and Liverpool guaranteed to fill the top two spots, a top-four finish for the Gunners looks like to a chimera.