Arsenal: Mesut Ozil fires clear reminder to his teammates against AC Milan

Arsenal showed up in impressive fashion against AC Milan and, in the process, Mesut Ozil delivered a key reminders to his teammates about who he is.

Arsenal’s stunning win at the San Siro over AC Milan is enough to toss the annoying monkey off the club’s collective back for awhile. You would be hard-pressed to find a bad performer. There was hardly a hiccup to speak of.

Mesut Ozil, who has fallen under intense scrutiny yet again after the last four losses, was quiet against AC Milan. If you were to look for match photos of Ozil against Milan, you’d only find a handful. He was far-removed from the spotlight.

He only touched the ball 50 times. Seven guys had more touches than that, 16 if you throw AC Milan’s ranks into the mix.

Yet Ozil walked out of the match with the second highest player rating here at Pain in the Arsenal for one simple reason – this is what the German maestro does best.

Check out the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal Podcast here!

At times his pressing was funny in how little effort he exerted. At times he would disappear for chunks of minutes at a time. But when the ball touched his feet, it’s like the lights in the room were switched on, because something was going to happen.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

Ozil flowed about the pitch like a specter, finding everything he was looking for. He provided just two chances, but both were converted for goals.

It was a hugely understated performance and his own personal highlight reel wouldn’t be loner than 30-45 seconds, because he wasn’t that big of an influence on the match throughout the course of the 90 minutes.

But that is how it should be, and Ozil reminded his teammates of that today.

Ozil operates from the background. He is the man behind the curtain. We have always know this. When I call for him to step up, I don’t mean that he needs more touches, or needs to be a bigger difference maker. I simply mean that he needs to do more with what is given to him.

Against AC Milan, he couldn’t have done much more with what was given to him. He was perfectly fine letting a powerful midfield run the show, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan stealing all of the attention up front.

Ozil sat in the little pocket of security between these two forces and lapped up everything in front of him.

Next: Arsenal vs AC Milan Player Ratings

May this be a reminder that this is the ideal way to use the German maestro. Although I’m sure we will need reminders again in the future.

Home/Arsenal News