It has been a great return to action from injury so far for the Arsenal and Germany international star Mesut Ozil. Our number 11 has taken a lot of stick from the critics since he signed for the Gunners from Real Madrid 18 months ago and was certainly under pressure to perform.
And with the Gunners having plenty of cut and thrust in attack and with Santi Cazorla back in the sparkling form of his debut season, a lot of us were wondering whether Ozil would struggle to get back into the starting line-up. But after a brief sub appearance in our win over Stoke and not featuring against Man City, Ozil impressed away to Brighton in the FA cup, scoring a good goal to help us to progress.
And then he was even better against Aston Villa at the weekend, scoring another goal, providing an assist and earning himself a Man of the Match award, despite being played out wide rather than his preferred central role. That role on the flanks is why his fellow Gunner and German, Per Mertesacker, was doubly pleased with his performance, as an ESPN report shows. And our giant defender feels that his team mate could be scoring goals like this on a regular basis for Arsenal, if he was just a bit more selfish in those advanced positions he gets into. He does appear to have a cool head in front of goal after all.
Our BFG said, “You can see he is dangerous and has pace when he really wants he is so quick, and he caused a lot of trouble, and was always a threat.
“Sometimes I wish he is more selfish in front of the goal, as you can see when he breaks through the lines, he should have scored instead of looking for another player.
“It was not on his best position in my opinion, he played more on the left side, but he can play anywhere up front. But it is good for him to get back his fitness maybe on the wing he is doing a bit more defensive work as well.
“He suffered [from tiredness] a bit at the end of the game, but he always looked dangerous, was always available. He always wants the ball and wants to create something.”
Ozil has never really been known as a prolific scorer, although he has reached double figures twice for Real Madrid and once for Werder Bremen and got seven for us in his injury hit first season. Maybe it is because he was known as an assist master and playing with Ronaldo he was certainly encouraged to set his team mate up, but would Ozil be better off being a bit more selfish with the Gunners?