Mesut Ozil Incorrectly Throws Arsenal Under Bus

Mesut Ozil has made some very peculiar statements about his Arsenal team mates not being up to scratch in years past. However, statistics prove that it was not them, it was him.

Mesut Ozil has been on a tear for Arsenal. He is set to break nearly every assist record known to man. He sits at 16 assists going into the Newcastle match up and you would have to bet on him getting at least one more against the Magpies. With the Premier League record set at 20 by Thierry Henry, it would have to take the greatest derailing in the history of trains to knock him off the pace.

The passing ability of the German maestro is second to none. He created nine chances all on his own against Bournemouth, which, believe it or not, was just one more than his single game record of eight. He is finding whoever he wants, whenever he wants. As such, he has been referred to as a ‘revelation’ this year, given his slow start to life at Arsenal.

But Ozil begs to differ about that ‘revelation’ hullabaloo. He opines, as quoted by Turkish Football: “Our forwards now convert my assists. You have to put the numbers into perspective. I’ve also played a lot of good final passes in the last two seasons, but nobody converted them. This year, our attackers turn my assists into goals, and those assists appear in the stats.”

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Ozil may very well be driving the team, but it is a bit pompous of him to throw his team mates under the bus and blame them for his ineffectiveness in the past two years. Adjusting to the Premier League is a slow process sometimes, there is no shame in that. But there is shame in defying the statistics and pinning it on Arsenal.

Based on Squawka‘s comparison matrix, Ozil is having the greatest year of his life not just in assists but in the chances created department. Which leads us to wonder why exactly he has decided to pin it on his team mates. This year Ozil is averaging a massive 4.61 chances created per 90. Last year is was at 3.39 and the year before it was 3.19. Having 3+ chances created a game is still very impressive, but he has upped his game this year and it is obvious.

Granted, an extra 1.3 key passes per game is not enough to exponentially grow assists. Ozil may have the smallest of gripes, but to pin the entire thing on his team mates is rather unbecoming, especially when it is grossly apparent that he is a better player this year than in his previous two years at Arsenal.

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Let’s also consider the rate at which his team mates are scoring. Olivier Giroud is only scoring .05 more goals per 90. That is hardly enough to justify accusations that he is now scoring more goals, especially given how many of Ozil’s passes go to Giroud. Alexis Sanchez, meanwhile, is averaging the exact same number of goals per 90, .49. Walcott’s goals per 90 is down from .99 last year to .32 this year. Aaron Ramsey is up by .06. These are Arsenal’s premier goal-scorers, so who exactly is Ozil pointing at as the forwards that are converting his passes now as opposed to in the past?

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It is wonderful to see Ozil performing so well on the pitch for Arsenal, but statements like these leave me a little nervous. The last thing Arsenal needs is someone thinking they are bigger than the team. Alexis never got into such words when he was carrying the team.