Arsenal: Mesut Ozil Making Amends For Cristiano Ronaldo

Arsenal has a long list of players they have missed out on, including Cristiano Ronaldo, among other names. But Mesut Ozil can make up for Ronaldo.

Arsene Wengerhas compiled quite the list of guys he has just missed out on while managing Arsenal. Such names as Lionel Messi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic (twice?), Gerard Pique and, last but not least, Cristiano Ronaldo populate that list.

Related: Arsene Wenger’s 10 Best Signings

Yet to look back and moan about what we could have had is incredibly anti-productive, so instead, lets think about a few of our own players that are already making amends for some of these superstars.

Mainly, let’s look at Mesut Ozil, specially in how he compares to Ronaldo. Obviously the Portuguese attacker went to Manchester United instead of Arsenal and while at Old Trafford, he scored a whopping 84 goals in 196 appearances. It’s a shade of what he would become at Real Madrid, but it’s still impressive.

Mesut Ozil has fully made amends for those goals that Ronaldo provided for United by providing enough of his own.

Ozil has scored or assisted on 65 goals in 115 appearances across all competitions. Which trumps Ronaldo’s goal production by a pretty healthy margin (.56 to .42).

I’m not here to say that Ozil is a better player than Ronaldo. What I’m saying is that the production that Ronaldo had for United, which could have translated to a similar number for the Gunners before he moved to Real Madrid, has been outdone by our very own Mesut Ozil.

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Plus, now that the German maestro is scoring goals, his impact will far and away exceed what we initially thought he was capable of. It is expected that by the time his Arsenal career is done, he will have a solid .60-.70 goals provided for per appearance. Hard to beat that, I don’t care who you are.

Looking back is bothersome and annoying. We can’t change who we missed out on. We can’t change how frugal Arsene Wenger is or how stingy he can be in his pickiness.

But we can revel in the treasures he does find as well as the treasures he creates. Namely Mesut Ozil, who has become the centerpiece of a very high powered offense.

This is even more entertaining when considering the ridiculous rumors that Mourinho is going to try to purchase Ozil from us.

Next: Wenger's 10 Worst Signings Ever

Patience paid off with Ozil, and it keeps paying more and more by the day. Now sign that contract!