Arsenal: Sorry Kevin de Bruyne, Mesut Ozil is still king

Arsenal playmaker Mesut Ozil has fallen under heavy criticism this year, but it is far too early to say Kevin de Bruyne has unseated him, and the numbers prove it.

Mesut Ozil once racked up 19 Premier League assists with Arsenal. It was just two years ago and, had the second half of the season not gone so sour, he undoubtedly would have managed to break the 20 assist record.

But that was not to be. Still, he became the assist king of England and it was going to take a huge performance from anyone to unseat him.

Ozil was not at his best last year and the other candidate for assist king, Kevin De Bruyne, was. He managed 18 assists, falling one shy of the mark of his German counterpart, but averaging .56 assists per 90, just like Ozil’s average the previous year.

This year, De Bruyne has carried right on with that .56 assists per 90 number, so naturally, the claim is out that he is the new assist king. But I, for one, disagree. And you know it’s legit if I disagree because I have been harsh on Ozil all year.

It wasn’t all that long ago that I was announcing that Kevin De Bruyne was miles better than Mesut Ozil. Do I regret it? Perhaps. But at the time, it was true. He was. Now that the world has settled back down and Ozil actually has a complementary host of world class players to work with, he is returning to his form.

So much so, that his numbers are not all that different from De Bruyne’s, and, by extension, from his superb 2015/16 season.

While De Bruyne has kept up that .56 assists per 90, Ozil has come alive with an impassioned charge of late, raising his clip to .49 assists per 90, not at all far behind the Belgian with all the toys.

It would be unfair to look at the assist king throne without considering the number of chances created. Nobody does it like Ozil. In his breakout year, he managed 4.27 chances created per 90 minutes. De Bruyne has never gotten higher than the 3.29 he has this year.

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Meanwhile, Ozil is rocking out with a 4.18 this year, just behind his 2015/16 average.

You may be sitting there thinking “so what,” so I’ll go ahead and tell you so what. Mesut Ozil struggled massively through the beginning of the season. He couldn’t seem to gel with his team mates while De Bruyne was having a ball with the plethora of attacking options at Manchester City.

That run is over. Paired up with the dynamic front three, Ozil has come to life in a big way, notching five assists in his past six matches to elevate himself to De Bruyne’s playing level.

But the chance creation has always been that high. And should it remain that high and should his team mates remain on the same level as they have been in the past month or so, then Ozil will not only match De Bruyne’s creative output, he will surpass it.

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We will see what happens at the end of the season. By trajectory alone, Ozil is in a better position. It’s just a shame that he has a far less reliable base than De Bruyne. Regardless, until you unseat the king, you can’t claim to be the king.

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