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Mesut Ozil is Arsenal’s Most Important Player
A hungry Mesut Ozil is dangerous weapon.
Since January, Arsenal has, to many, proved itself a club worthy of not only the top four in the Premier League but also the top three. Some are now even predicting Arsenal will finish second in the league (especially since Manchester City has been slipping); something the Gunners haven’t achieved since 2005. This would be quite the achievement given Arsenal’s complacency with finishing fourth over the years, but given the form and hunger of Mesut Ozil, finishing lower than third in the league wouldn’t be much of an accomplishment.
“He is ready. What he is is hungry.” Arsene Wenger
Ozil is a playmaker, a game-changer, and though his stint with Arsenal over the past year and a half or so has been somewhat underwhelming, the 42.5 million pound man is starting to get hot, and when Ozil is producing, the Gunners are firing.
Remember the first half of the 2013-2014 BPL season when Arsenal were regularly 1st in the league after each week? If you do, you probably know those 128 days or so spent on top marked a rather successful period for not only Arsenal but also Mesut Ozil. The bulk of his 5 goals, 9 assists, and outright production and control of games came during that half of the season, and Arsenal as a squad was firing on all cylinders then, too.
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Now, compare that rather successful spell with the second half of last year’s campaign and the first of this year’s. In early 2014, the Gunners let their grasp on first place slip and never regained the form to propel themselves back up the table. People started counting the Gunners out of the title race for good reason, and one thing that corresponds with Arsenal’s poor form then was Ozil’s form. All of a sudden, the German had become quite the mercurial figure, playing well one game then disappearing completely in the next.
Now take a look at the first half of this season’s campaign. It took Arsenal nearly 7 months, till February 1st in fact, for the Gunners to win 3 League games in a row- quite dreadful for the 5th most valuable club in the world in 2014 (according to forbes.com). This period for the Gunners was very similar to Mesut Ozil’s, as the German was only able to manage 2 assists before getting injured for 3 months in a 0-2 loss versus Chelsea in October.
In January, though, Ozil got fit, healthy and hungry.
For example, since returning from injury, the German attacker has not only scored 3 goals and racked up 4 assists, but he’s also managed to, for the most part, inject a valuable potency into the squad, and Arsenal is now third in the league.
The point is, when Mesut Ozil is effective, Arsenal is a force to be reckoned with. The problem is that, to play well, Ozil needs teammates around him to perform sufficiently too (take the 1-3 Monaco loss as a case for this) as above all, he is one of the team’s most compelling providers.
Much of Arsenal’s fate this season rests with the form of Mesut Ozil, and when the German is producing, he gives the Gunners a much-needed attacking boost.
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