Arsenal: Mesut Ozil adaptation emulating Kevin de Bruyne

In Arsenal’s win over Newcastle United on Saturday, Mesut Ozil flourished in a deeper midfield role. The positional adaptation is akin to Kevin de Bruyne’s at Manchester City. He could yet emulate the Belgian’s brilliance.

Pep Guardiola is a brilliantly intricate and detailed manager. There was a video that surfaced in recent weeks portraying his meticulous, and somewhat demanding, preparation and instruction in training, as he was gesticulating, frantically, at Raheem Sterling, seemingly showing him how to receive the ball on the half-turn, opening the inside of his torso such that he can be more explosive in breaking in either direction. Sterling himself later confirmed this in an interview with BT Sport.

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That pedantic coaching — I say pedantic in the best of manners — does not stop with the technique of the individuals. It also applies to the tactics of the collective. And perhaps the most substantial and influential alteration that he has made is to the position of Kevin de Bruyne.

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The Belgian, playing in a double-pivot alongside David Silva, as Guardiola himself has coined the role, is instructed to play a little deeper, providing more control and command than creativity and vision. It is not necessarily a position that many would think he is best suited to.

Up until this point, de Bruyne’s game has centred on the creation and scoring of goals. In being stationed slightly deeper, that, seemingly, nullifies such an influence — he does have six goals and eight assists this season, even with the positional shift. And that is an adaptation that Arsene Wenger copied with his gliding, elegant, incisive creative midfielder.

In the 1-0 win against Newcastle United on Saturday afternoon, Wenger, in a somewhat surprise move, clearly asked Mesut Ozil to make his starting position when the team was in possession a little deeper, providing a metronomic, repeated, reliable and consistent element to the hosts’ passing through the midfield areas. It worked.

No Arsenal player had more touches than Ozil. No Arsenal player made more passes. No Arsenal player created more chances. No Arsenal player had more possession — Ozil had a 10.4% share of the possession. All figures are per Who Scored.

He maintained a 90% pass completion rate and made eight key passes. That figure has only been matched or beaten twice this Premier League season. Once was by Ozil, in a blistering, carving, cutting performance against Everton, where he again made eight key passes. The other was by one Kevin de Bruyne, in a 2-1 over Southampton. That should not be a surprise.

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One game does not mean that Ozil is suddenly emulating de Bruyne. It would be ridiculous to say that it is. But it was a nice, unexpected wrinkle to the make-up of the Gunners’ midfield that had an impact. I look forward to seeing more of it in the future.