Mesut Ozil’s record in ‘big’ games: Stats reveal if he goes missing by Russell Cane
Does Mesut Ozil go missing in the big games? That was the scathing assessment of the Arsenal midfielder by former Chelsea manager Glenn Hoddle following the Gunners’ 3-1 defeat to the league leaders on Saturday.
But how accurate is Hoddle? Or is his criticism of the German unjustified?
Daily Fantasy Football game Oulala.com have taken a look at Arsenal’s record against the other ‘big six’ Premier League teams when Ozil has featured in the side since he joined in 2013, as well as his individual contribution too.
Since September 2013, when Ozil made his league debut, the 28-year-old has faced Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham a total of 27 times in the Premier League.
Ozil’s best record has come against Liverpool, winning more games against the Reds than the other four sides. His two wins in five appearances against Liverpool has resulted in a win rate of 40 per cent. His worst record for wins has come against Tottenham with the German still yet to register a Premier League win against Arsenal’s North London rivals with Ozil in the team.
The midfielder has picked up the most points per game against Liverpool (1.6), while he has his worst points per game record against Chelsea (0.7).
Individually, the stats show Ozil performs best when he faces Man United. The German has scored two and assisted two in the six games he has faced them.
His poorest individual record is against Chelsea having netted just one goal in seven league games.
Overall, Ozil has faced the other big six sides 27 times in the Premier League over the last four seasons. Arsenal have won five, drawn 12 and lost 10. The Gunners have registered a win rate of 19 per cent and have averaged one point per game. The midfielder has contributed a total of five goals and seven assists in the ‘big games’.
Russell Cane
If only we can cry over the spilled milk, I would have take Higuain from Madrid over Ozil … The season before we bought Ozil our best player was Cazorla (AMF) and we were in a desperate need for a striker (still we are) and Higuain was availabe for less than 30M … Ozil is good (more than good but not for Arsenal) but I think it was a panic buy in the last minutes to pleased the frustrated fans due to lack of actions in that window …
Ozil will suit Barcelona and Bayern Munich perfectly I.e teams that are already star studded. I would have preferred Micky a player who puts in a tremendous amount of shift. Anytime we faced Dortmund, I thought we should get this guy.
He does it’s a fact as much as I agree that sometimes he does things that goes unnoticed, he also does things that can very much be seen by the “eye test”. When Sanchez plays (yes his style is completely different) you feel like he gave & did everything he could.
Ozil unfortunately looks like a fast track bully who does it agains lesser team. With all the qualities he has he can do much better. We are talking about a world cup winner, a player who played for Madrid and provided so many assists should have more impact. More so because he wants a contract that could potentially make him the highest paid player at the club…you got to do better!
I want all our World Class players to stay next season, namely Cech, Koscielny, Bellerin, Cazorla, Ozil and Alexis.
We also need more, ideally DM and CF and/or winger and new Manager ie Simione or Mancini
5 wins in 27 matches against the top 5 opponents. Dreadful record by Arsene FC.
Those stats don’t tell us much, but I don’t even think we need to ask this question. There’s a certain type of Arsenal fan I don’t get. The one’s which happily put up with Mesut / but totally rip Arsene to shreds all the same. Ozil typifies Arsenal, almost to a tee.
Stop all the bashing with Ozil and Alexis. This guys choose to join us because they thought theres potential in Arsenal to become top team in europe but have become laughing stock. Those two guys played with at least 5 top quality players year in and year out. Yes some mega stars and some okay players not with bunch of average overrated players they have found out now. We should have bought Suarez or likes of Abumayang to mentined few. Hummels, thisgo silva kinds but not the knitty pinch of arsenal go for average or unknown players like Sanogo, corean or japanes. Yes, we got a japanese playing on loan in germany. This poor fella will only play in the emirates cup. This is what frustrated this 2 guys and Felas. If they were not eith us right now. We will be below stoke city and west ham so show some respect. The board and clueless coach never show ambition to attract big names not to keep the few good ones we got.
How many times have you seen Ozil pressure in defence, win the ball back or slide in for a tackle?
Never because he is lazy and scared. He isn’t suited to the Premier League, sell him.
I’m not saying that Ozil isn’t skillful with the ball but there are two facets to the game, attack and defence. Teams that win the Premier League don’t defend with 7-8 players and Ozil is a midfielder that doesn’t defend. Defence starts from the front and Arsenal have a major problem in pressing and pressuring to win the ball back.
Watch the top teams defend and then watch Arsenal defend and you will see why we aren’t winning anything.
Arsenal got beaten by Aston villa and by the Monday we bought Ozil, was he needed at the time he was bought, my thought at the time was no, the purchase was just to sate the anger of the disgruntled fans. At that time we wanted a Forward and a DM and we had a Cazorla in good form.
Present day Ozil is often blamed for the Arsenal loses and in truth at most times should be, his moods dictates the way arsenal plays, he dictates the tempo of how arsenal plays and once he begins to lose balls and things not going his way he tends to shrink away from the ball, he is not a player who is going to call for the ball, get in the game by doing some defensive work or get the ball to get some fouls and move the team upwards. What i would like is a comparison done to see how many times is Ozil fouled against all the other players in the top six that plays the number 10 role.
I think it would give us a better understanding of ozils worth, which i think is not much, arsenal needs to find a proper number 10, which can manage is offensive and defensive duties, so i will continue to say Ozil needs to go