After putting in another match winning performance for Arsenal, depending on whether or not you agree with the player ratings from Just Arsenal earlier that is, Mesut Ozil continues to confound his critics and help to keep the Gunners in strong contention for the Premier League trophy.
The assist he provided for Kieran Gibbs to level the scores was his 10th of the season in the league. Ozil has also come up with an assist in every one of his last six EPL games and that equalled the record set by the former Gunner Cesc Fabregas, although the German´s feat is better as the Spaniard´s was stretched between his last games as an Arsenal player and his first for new club Chelsea.
So our play maker has got back his old title of being king of the assists and his team mate and fellow German Per Mertesacker knows that this ability will be a massive weapon for Arsenal and that Ozil should have even better stats of the finishing of certain players was a bit better.
The BFG is quoted on Arsenal.com as saying, “It could have been more [assists] after today. He gave a lot of good set-pieces and we had a couple of great chances. If we continue to play like that and fight like that, he can have an enormous impact on our season.”
Before the game Mertesacker had spoken about how the injury problems had affected Ozil´s first two seasons and that now our assist master is much more used to and more able to cope with the physical side of football in England. Arsene Wenger went even further after the latest game, praising the former Real Madrid star for becoming one of the club´s leaders and taking on a lot more responsibility.
The boss told Arsenal Player, “He was outstanding again. He has grown into a very great player as he has added commitment, leadership qualities and responsibility and I’m very pleased with his development.”
So now we are seeing Ozil not only lifting his own game but helping the Arsenal players around him to lift theirs as well. Will he keep it up and will this be the driving force in our race for the EPL title?