Arsenal: Mesut Ozil, Henrikh Mkhitaryan role reversal wins the day

Arsenal thrive when Mesut Ozil can operate out of the shadows and Henrikh Mkhitaryan was a major conduit for that. Things changed though, and that’s fantastic.

One of the main things I loved about Henrikh Mkhitaryan coming to Arsenal was the fact that he would be able to take the spotlight off of Mesut Ozil. We’ve said it so many times, Ozil needs to be out of the picture to be at his best.

Let him operate behind the scenes, and he is going to split the defense open. Call upon him when needed, and he will deliver. Call up on him when you’re out of ideas and it may get clunky. You need to defend Ozil.

Mkhitaryan has been amazing at stealing the spotlight from Ozil. He works so hard and carries the ball so well that it was just a byproduct of his natural style.

Against CSKA Moscow, we saw that change for the first time. Rather than let Mkhitaryan take center stage, Ozil decided to do everything himself. He led the team in chances created and touches and added two assists to an absolutely defining day.

You will never see Ozil better.

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Ozil managed over twice the number of touches per minute as his Armenian counterpart. He led the team in touches, in fact, and as is always the case with Ozil, there is rarely an idle touch. These were purposeful, driven touches that led to trouble areas for the Russians.

Ozil dominated the stat sheet and the broadcast. He was everywhere, like we haven’t seen in quite some time.

In turn, this allowed Mkhitaryan to fade and only rise to the forefront when needed. He had about four or five huge moments where he stepped out of the shadows and made an impact. Granted, nothing really came off for him, but on a different day, those fractions of being off may be pinpoint again.

The point remains the same. To see Ozil and Mkhitaryan switching roles opens the door to unlimited possibilities. We don’t know if this can be a regular thing, as Moscow were quite poor overall, but just the idea of having a see-sawing scale between Ozil and Mkhitaryan is enticing enough.

Of course, we also might just learn that Ozil doesn’t need as many chances to truly be successful. He can take those four or five opportunities and make the most of them whereas Mkhitaryan may need that hyperactivity to generate more chances for himself and therefore have a better chance of converting.

Next: Arsenal vs CSKA Moscow Player Ratings

I honestly don’t care which it is. Mkhitaryan was a threat against Moscow. A big one. If those fractions were reversed, he could have left with a handful of goals and assists. And that was all thanks to what I call the Silva/De Bruyne effect. You really can’t completely negate them both.

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