This is not the Arsenal Player ratings post but an individual player review that we are now doing on a regular basis here at Just Arsenal, to keep track on the form of our players and give you guys the opprtunity to praise or slate them as well as talk about what they bring to this Arsenal team.
It is Mesut Ozil’s turn today and it will not take a football genius to guess that this one is going to be on the positive side. The genuinely world class German continued with his amazing stats for the season by grabbing another assist in the game against Aston Villa and I want to focus on that for a second.
Seriously Gooners, how many players that were playing with confidence would have given that to Aaron Ramsey? It is not as if Ozil has not been scoring goals himself this year, it is just that he is so good for the team that he saw that Rambo could not miss while he could. What a star!
It was not his very best game to be honest and I reckon this week without a game will do him the world of good, but he was still brilliant and involved all over the pitch. That is what he does and people (including idiots like Michael Owen) have now realised that he is not ‘lazy’ and he does not ‘disappear’ when it matters. It is just a little harder to see what an impact he has because his game is all about vision and intricate little passes and touches and he does it all in a languid, Matt Le Tissier sort of style.
I like what Arsene Wenger said about his record signing this week, comparing the playmaker to a musician who gets the best out of his instrument.
THe Frenchman told the Arsenal website, “Mesut is like a musician who always plays the right note, and at the right moment. His timing is perfect – when he has to give the ball, he gives the ball.
“It’s just a pleasure to see. It struck me [on first seeing him] that he was at such a young age, but the boy could time his passing always right. He got out of impossible situations.
“Also what struck me was that it was not forced on an individual basis – the team play was in front of his ego. That strikes you because normally when players are that talented, that’s not the first quality you see.”
Much as O hate to disagree with Le Prof, I would say that his analogy is slightly off. I would say that Ozil is more like a conductor who is the one that sets the pace and tone and gets the best out of all the other musicians. What do you guys think of this Arsenal star?