If there is anyone at Arsenal Football Club who is going to take the bull by the horns, or the Elephant in the room that is the form of Mesut Ozil, it is his World Cup winning team mate from the Germany team, Per Mertesacker. After all, he has done if before, blasting our number 11 last season after he trudged off the pitch following a poor performance without acknowledging the travelling Gooners.
It should be down to the manager to give the playmaker a kick up the backside, of course, but Arsene Wenger either does not want to or does not think his record signing needs one. But reading between the lines of what our BFG said about the defeat at Stamford Bridge, as reported by Arsenal.com, T think that Ozil could be in for a few choice words from his fellow countryman.
Because when asked about his thoughts on us losing at Chelsea, the German defender felt that the defence and central players had done their job but the creative and attacking side of the game was lacking. And Ozil certainly did not have anything like the influence that he should have done.
Mertesacker said, “Obviously we were more competitive this year. That was the first target, to be much better than last year. At times we were good but not good enough to score a goal. Defensively we made two wrong decisions and we missed the final touch in the last third and the final ball – that was the difference. Overall we have to admit that we can take some positives out of this game but there’s still something to do.
“We tried to be more in control than last year and we always made sure we had cover at the back. In the second half we tried to push more and we took more risks. That was the second goal for them. In the first half there were a couple of good decisions, a couple of good chances for us but we missed that bit.
“In the final third [where Arsenal were not good enough]. I think we defended quite well. There was always a cover and there was always protection in the final third. We had a couple of decent chances to get through but we failed with the last pass or the last touch.”
So I wonder whether the giant centre back had a quiet word with his compatriot and tried to somehow get him fired up to find the form that we know he can produce. After his excellent performance at Aston Villa and a good showing against Galatasaray, I had hoped that Ozil would be off and running, but the questions about his big game mentality will just keep coming up until he starts to produce when we really need him. What do you think?