Arsenal: Mesut Ozil vs Henrikh Mkhitaryan comparison tells all

Arsenal maestro Mesut Ozil is constantly under siege from all angles and with no assists to his name, it’s even worse. But let’s do a simple comparison.

Arsenal were sitting pretty with Mesut Ozil in 2015/16 when he broke just about every assist record standing in the first few months of the season. It looked like he may well be on his way to 30 assists, but then it all slowed. Olivier Giroud fell off of his pace and Ozil fell with him.

It hasn’t been the same since. But the thing that keeps everyone somewhat reasonable is the fact that Ozil continues to create chances at a higher rate than any other player out there.

You’ve seen the graphics. Since his arrival, no one has more assists or more chances created. You just can’t argue with that.

This year, Ozil had yetto tally an assist and it’s a shame. That’s his calling card, but nothing has quite been working out on him. So naturally, he is under fire again for this crucial zero on his stat card.

But for all of you that want to judge him and say that he’s not right for the Premier League, let’s do one simple comparison. When it comes to the best creators in the top flight in England, there are two guys that are the early front runners, averaging 3.8 chances created per appearance.

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Those two men are Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. The two most consistent creators in the Prem. The differences is that Mkhitaryan has five assists and Ozil has, well…. zero. But how much can you criticize one man and praise another when they do their end of the bargain – creating the chance – equally the same. The praise is just differentiated between whose teammates are better finishers.

I have been highly critical of Ozil myself, but the huge, undeniable fact that we all need to face up to is that he is still doing his portion of the work to the same high standard he always has. No one creates more chances than him. Period. That’s all you need to say.

With Alexandre Lacazette firing already and Alexis Sanchez returning, the assists will start coming so long as he keeps creating all of those chances. Which he has always done. And once he starts getting the assists again, you’d have to think that all of the criticism will just disappear.

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But until then, at least we can appreciate the brilliance that is then maestro.

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