Arsenal: Mesut Ozil changing the ground he stands

Arsenal have been waiting for years for Mesut Ozil to put together a little known thing called consistency, but he may be surpassing those wants already.

Arsenal’s 3-3 draw against Liverpool had it’s blinding frustrations and its unbridled elation. It was a difficult match to judge individual performances because everyone was all over the place. Yet, continuing a recent trend, perhaps the greatest trend to pop up in the past decade, Mesut Ozil was not one of those erratic players.

It’s been a developing trend that I’ve been following. Given how harsh I can be on Ozil, I’ve been setting standards for what could convert me to want to see him stay. Well, he surpassed those standards about four matches ago, but it’s only getting better.

Ozil is different now. You could say that it’s just a flash in the pan and he’s been “different” before, but never this kind.

He has established a new foundation, anew round level. Even in his 19 assist season, he had some stinkers sprinkled in. He has now had nine positive matches of his last ten, but more impressively, and this may sound counter-intuitive, but four of his last five have been solid, quality outings that weren’t spectacular.

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Why is that better? Because Ozil has always been a boom or bust guy. Ever since he came to Arsenal. He is now hacking through tough match-ups, like Liverpool, like West Ham, and he is doing so capably, without being a passenger along for the ride.

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Maybe he isn’t showing as much as he does in his best games, but he is showing far more than he has in what used to be his worse games. And that is the name of the game.

Once you establish this new bottom level, you set a standard that is far easier to build around and build for. When Ozil was all over the place, you never knew what you could rely on or if you could even rely on anything. He would disappear for weeks at a time.

Now it’s looking like we can rely on him. He is becoming our best player all over again, and now that we can count on steady production no matter the style of the match or the opponent, we can prepare for what we want to put around him.

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Of course, this is all assuming he wants to stay. Though, given the obvious change, I don’t see why he wouldn’t.