When Arsenal signed Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid last summer, it was enough to convince Jose Mourinho to pull the plug on the deal that was in place for us to loan Demba Ba from Chelsea. His former manager from Real Madrid called Ozil the best number 10 in the world, but these days people are saying he is not even the best number 10 at Arsenal.
The German playmaker is not getting to play their this season anyway and has been pretty ineffective so far on either flank, but has he really been that bad since becoming a Gunner? Arsene Wenger has defended his star again and suggested that Ozil is unfairly being made a scapegoat, while his critics blithely ignore the fact that he has not really come back fully from the World Cup yet.
And when you see these stats in a Mirror report, comparing Ozil to Juan Mata over the last 12 months, it suggests that all the criticism of him is unfair. They show that the Man City maestro has been the better of the three, with factors like goals, assists and chances created taken into account, but Ozil is not far behind at all. And don’t forget that Silva has all the power of Man City allowing him the freedom to play.
Then you add in the fact that Silva did not set the English football world alight in his first year, before settling in and winning rave reviews. So maybe we should have a little more patience with our own midfield maestro. And maybe Wenger should bring him in off the wing and then Ozil could start to really give Silva a run for his money. What do you think?