The interest from Gunners’ fans this week would have been on how Mesut Ozil fared. The Arsenal playmaker played a vital role as the World Champions Germany won a crucial match against Poland in the Euro 2016 qualifying match.
When the season started, Arsene Wenger came out supporting Ozil by saying that he would start in a central role so that the club can get the best out of him. And suddenly there was criticism everywhere. Ozil has never been immune of criticism and probably never will be.
His languid style never wins the supporters on a regular basis – especially when things go wrong. There would be questions about his application on the pitch and how he can fit into the more important no. 10 role.
One good thing for Arsenal is that Ozil started in his familiar role for Germany at the weekend. His performance has been really credible. Gotze and Muller may have grabbed all the headlines but it was the playmaker who orchestrated every attack.
The advantage Ozil had was that he was not asked to track back with the opposition players which meant he could keep his fitness through the match. This may not be the template for Premier League games but nevertheless an indication that Ozil can keep his fitness for the whole 90 minutes.
Ozil finished the game with 88% passing accuracy which is pretty good – especially since he completed 67 passes (Stats source: Opta). Again, statistics won’t tell the entire story but they tell a story that Ozil is not a spent force yet.
With the recent injury setback to Welbeck and with no striker signed in the transfer window, we may see Alexis Sanchez employed more in the striker role – to give competition to Olivier Giroud. This could mean more leeway to Ozil in his favoured role.
What does this mean for the Gunners? Just like it is not good to ditch a player after one game, it is not good to go gung-ho after one good performance. Ozil has a long way to go to prove his doubters wrong – including this writer.
I always check how Arsenal players are performing for their country. Yesterday I was unable to watch Germany’s game so I was reading live commentary on goal.com. I was searching for Ozil and you won’t believe his name was their only once in whole match commentary. Initially I thought he might be sub. Then I was quite sure he didn’t perform well where as Gotze scores two. After that there was article on goal.com “scout report on Ozil” and they praised his performance and I was very happy. I believe he is very important for us
I would agree that Ozil had a fantastic game against a tough Poland team. Some of his passes were like works of art. Arsenal need a different lineup to take advantage of what Ozil strengths are.
Ozil is a great player. He slows the game with side passes, occasionally plays a nice through ball, but he is surrounded by workers. Bellarabi, Kroos, muller, Gotze. We have talent as well in our squad, of course Sanchez. I just feel in the make up of our squad. We have Sanchez, Cazorla, Ramsey, Ozil. All talented but when playing together it doesn’t work. Squad needs more strength not creative midfielders
I like bellarabi.. I think he is underrated.
He just have to score few goals, be aggressive in game play.
On scoring few goals: Good thought. Being a attacking midfielder, he should take a bit of responsibility in contributing goals a bit.
On being aggressive in game play: I think that it’s not so necessary. For example, read @mall gooner’s comment, despite being mentioned very few times in action, he was hugely praised for his work he did for orchestrating the game.
Wellington is playing well at Bolton. I saw highlights of his debut. He is Lacey, tricky and is work rate is awesome just like Sanchez. I have lot is hopes in him.
Mesut was awesome in germany’s win, i just want him to reproduce this form for us against stoke in our next game and throughout the season! Coyg!
He always one my fav player at arsenal, he deserves to play with a better striker than giroud in order to increase his chance of winning ballon d’or.
The idiocy of wenger never fails to astound me .. The guy is world class and with world class attacking options ahead of him he becomes part of a world class team … Could have got gotze or draxler but no AKB … Ridiculous … Own feeling is he should push the ox further forward and give him license to roam around box with Alexis … Have jack and santi playing the xavi iniesta pairing and allow ozil to stay further up
Bellerin gab kos Monreal
Wilshere coq santi
Ox ozil Alexis
I still don’t understand how people can still feel Ozil has something to prove?! Do they not watch him play? His passes, vision, skills/tricks, his touch. He isn’t a Sanchez, Jack or Ramsey type that is going to run around putting his foot in or chasing loose balls! He has his role just like Le Coq has his own role too. 1 creates the other destroys and the rest of the team is/should be a balanced mixture of both really
Ozil is a great player. We got him by putting a lot of pressure on Wenger (fans trust wrote a tough letter)
But Wenger is risking us losing the likes of Alexis, Ozil because of his transfer dealings or lack of them.
Do World Class players want to stay in a team that doesn’t even challenge for the main League trophy let alone CL?
Ozil would look even more awesome if he had a WC CF to finish off the passes