Arsenal: Is Aaron Ramsey actually better than Mesut Ozil?

Arsenal’s super star crop may have a new head honcho. Is it possible that Aaron Ramsey is actually better than star man Mesut Ozil? Let’s find out.

Arsenal are starting to build a nice collection of superstars, despite the fact that their “main man” Alexis Sanchez slithered away in January and has since figured out that the grass is, in fact, not always greener on the other side.

In his stead, Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey have been absolute show-stoppers, and they seem to only be getting better.

That said, if you asked all of the Gooners in the world who the best player at Arsenal was, I guarantee you the majority would say Mesut Ozil. Even including everyone on the team now. It’s hard to argue that, after all. Ozil’s abilities are truly unlike anyone else in the world.

But is it possible that Aaron Ramsey is even better than the German? That is what I am here to dig into. Now, granted, there is no easy way to do this. Are we talking just goal contributions? Because if so, the two are tied this year at 17 goals contributions a piece (Ramsey ten goals, seven assists; Ozil five goals 12 assists).

Although Ozil has played 2,593 minutes compared to Ramsey’s 1920.

If you go back and compare them since Ozil arrived, Ramsey has 49 goal contributions and Ozil has 78. Yet if you factor in injuries and time off and whittle that down to goal contributions per minutes played, you see a different story again. Ramsey has played 8,788 minutes and Ozil 12,016. As such, Ramsey contributes to a goal every 179 minutes and Ozil to one every 154 minutes.

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Still very close. But I reckon we have to talk about what they are doing now to judge which one is better right now and, right now, Ramsey is winning in the goal category.

Pushing beyond that, we have to consider the rest of their game that doesn’t reflect in goals and assists. Ozil obviously wins in creating consistent chances. He’s creating 3.4 a match and Ramsey just 1.1.

But it’s in the rest of the game that I think gives Ramsey his key argument to stand on. And that’s simply in Ramsey’s ability to make things happen. There isn’t a stat for “making things happen,” unfortunately. This all comes down to watching him play. Needless to say, Ramsey’s movement and ability to penetrate off the ball, and even on, makes gives him a leg up on Ozil, who primarily relies on his ability to pick out a pass to make an impact.

When you factor in defensive work, it’s no competition, much like creating chances was no competition in favor of the German.

Sounds pretty inconclusive. How do you compare two players, who are quite different, and determine who is better? It’s all a matter of opinion. You really have to ask yourself who you would rather lose less, and that is purely up to personal taste.

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As for me, I’m not even sure I can answer that. You lose two vastly different things if either goes missing. But as of right now, in this very moment, if I absolutely had to choose to be without one or the other, I’m going to opt for Ramsey over Ozil. Which is why I started this futile debate in the first place.

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