Arsenal: Mesut Ozil Return Complicates Perceived Progress

Arsenal will be welcoming back Mesut Ozil against West Brom, but the German might actually get in the way of the strides the Gunners have made.

Arsenal’s priority number one should be getting back to some sort of consistency. And that all starts in the shambolic midfield that has been the major problem area for this club in recent weeks. They have been trying new and innovative ways to try to shape things up and they may have found something.

The 4-3-3 is definitely the way to go with the midfield scheme they’ve been using. Letting Granit Xhaka sit deep and flanking him with Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has turned this attack three-dimensional. It can come from any side or right down the middle.

I always thought it would take a catastrophe to change Arsene Wenger traditional 4-2-3-1 and, for the most part, it actually did.

So that would seem to be the thing to lean on going forward. A holding midfielder and two workhorses outside of him are a fantastic combination of power, control and attack.

But then there is Mesut Ozil. The German maestro has been missing for all of these “progressive” steps and has only just now returned to the fray.

Which means that, knowing Wenger, we will revert back to a 4-2-3-1 to fit Ozil in. meaning that Theo Walcott will stay wide right and either Ramsey or the Ox is getting dropped (Ox short-term, as his injury has intervened).

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Which is ludicrous, but I don’t see how this could play out any other way. Rather than keeping this three dimensional attack that starts from deep, we will most likely revert back to a one-dimensional attack that is wobbly and unstable.

Mesut Ozil has not been on top of his game this season and while we would all love to see him back at his best, perhaps the best choice might be to put him out wide and let him prove he is up for the challenge before blowing up all this progress just for his sake.

If not, it’s like Ozil is holding the club hostage, and nobody has time for that.

The 4-3-3 has been fantastic and it has looked fluid and it has been exactly what we needed. The next step should be finding away to fit Ozil into what has been working and what looks promising going forward. Not how can we stop the progress to fit Ozil.

Next: 5 Gunners Who Can Restart Under Allegri

West Brom can be a prickly cactus when it comes to scoring goals against them. I’d hate to see a lukewarm Ozil have to slip right back into that commander’s role.

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