Quite a few Arsenal fans and the majority of the footballing media seemed to be a bit underwhelmed, to say the least, about the impact made by the Gunners’ record signing Mesut Ozil in his debut season in the Premier League. I was not among them but I can see their point.
Others made the point that the German playmaker had very little to play with, hardly getting any time with Theo Walcott on the pitch and with Arsenal missing other key attacking options like Lukas Podolski, Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for large parts of the season.
And no disrespect to Olivier Giroud, but the Frenchman who is not blessed with pace in the first place had his hands full holding up the ball and being a target man to run on to any clever balls from Ozil. And that is what Theo Walcott is getting at in his interview with Arsenal Player, where he suggests that Ozil is going to have a lot more to work with this season.
Walcott said, “When [Mesut] was at Real Madrid and he had Di Maria, Ronaldo and Benzema, three very pacy guys, the number of assists he got was absolutely key. It’s a massive season for him personally and I think the likes of us guys will help him tremendously.
“There’s a lot of pacy guys in this team now and we’re thinking that’s what we might have lacked last year, especially when I got injured – there weren’t as many players to get in behind [defences]. Defenders then double up on you, which creates space for other people.
“You have us bombing on and then you have the likes of Aaron, Jack, Mesut and Rosicky, who can all spot a pass, so that’s only going to help the team. We’ll be very dangerous on the counter-attack.
“It’s very exciting for Arsenal fans to see. I think it will maybe bring back the years where we were so successful. It’s all about pace now and that’s what you need in a team and we have bags and bags of that.”
Don’t forget Goonbers, that Ozil was the knig of assists over a period of years, not just one good season. He has also had a huge influence on the success of Germany for years and was also their top scorer in qualifying for the World Cup which they just won. It seems as though he just needs to find his place in a team and if Walcott is right, Arsenal are about to start reaping the benefits. Do you agree?