Arsenal: Mesut Ozil Disappearance A Positive Turn

Arsenal scrapped a point from their trip to White Hart Lane, completely devoid of Mesut Ozil contributions. Statistics hint that that may actually be a good thing.

If you had said before the match that Mesut Ozil would create zero chances, many Arsenal supporters would have predicted a lopsided two or three to nil scoreline. No chances from Ozil? Certainly that means no Arsenal goals.

But that was not the case. It was only a draw, but the fact that Arsenal was able to bare down and pull anything from the match was incredibly positive. Add to that the fact that Ozil was doing a Theo Walcott and the positiveness has to take on an entirely new level.

For starters, it removes the mantra of Arsenal’s dependency on him. Arsenal drew this game courtesy of some unlikely sources – Hector Bellerin and David Ospina. On the creative end, Bellerin delivered the most chances of anyone on the team – three. Two of which were turned into goals.

Alexis provided for whatever else the Gunners needed creatively, with Ramsey pitching in as well.

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Accomplishing such a result in spite of Ozil’s disappearance is one reason to be excited. But there is another reason why his disappearance should be exciting. This season’s history shows that any time Mesut Ozil disappears, he is due for something special.

Mesut Ozil had never failed to create a chance in a Premier League match so far this year. He did fail in the same regard against Bayern Munich in that 5-1 loss. But as far as England, this was a first. That does not mean he has not had bad games, though. Another notable match where Ozil had a less than stellar game was in the first match up with Chelsea. Ozil created just one chance as his team was thwarted by the Blues and their captain, Mike Dean.

However, it’s what happened after this match that matters. Directly following, Ozil went on his now famous run of six straight matches with an assist, a Premier League record. But the streak was more than that. If you include goal contributions (a goal or an assist), the streak was eleven games.

In those eleven games, he contributed 12 assists and four goals – the majority of his numbers this year.

The next time Ozil pulled a disappearance was also against Chelsea. Again, being a man down surely impacted it, but his creativity was not much of a weapon. What happened after that match?