Arsenal Vs Chelsea: Getting tired of Mesut Ozil

Arsenal play another big game on Saturday when they travel to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea. I am getting tired of Mesut Ozil’s anonymity in these games. It’s time for him to make a statement.

I am a huge Mesut Ozil fan. I always have been; I always will be. Many of the criticisms I believe are false and unfounded. He is unfairly scapegoated consistently, for club and country, he is a complex individual who often goes misunderstood and misused, and, I believe, he has still never been used properly during the five years that he has been at Arsenal.

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Many highlight his apparent laziness, his languid style, his disinterest, his unwillingness to work. Others question his commitment and character. Plenty doubt his production, especially his goal total, and even more ponder whether he is worth carrying in the midfield and building the team around.

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To varying extents, they are accurate critiques of the German. Some I wholeheartedly disagree with, others I have a little more sympathy for. But I do not find myself making any of those arguments in criticism of Ozil. In fact, if there is one line of thinking that is an accurate one, it is none of those. It is not his laziness. Not his character or leadership. Not his production or positional uncertainty.

The one thing that really grates on me regarding Ozil is his performances in the big games, against the best teams. He consistently goes quiet when it matters most. Now, sometimes, there are extenuating circumstances for these anonymous displays. The style that Arsenal implement does not suit him. He is rushed back from an injury. He actually played well but his teammates played so poorly that it made him look worse.

But over the five years that he has spent in north London, Ozil has rarely taken over a big game. Never has he wrestled control of the game, dictating the play, mastering the match, fighting to ensure that it runs in Arsenal’s favour.

Contrast his level of performance in these games to that of, say, Eden Hazard or Kevin de Bruyne or Mohamed Salah. They are big-game players. Ozil is the very opposite of that. It was proven again last weekend versus Manchester City, largely dominated by Benjamin Mendy down the City left flank.

In fairness to Ozil, he worked hard. He tracked Mendy time and time again, he was industrious and diligent. But he provided very little going the other way, making several painfully poor mistakes in the final third that cost chances to score. He now has a chance to redeem himself as Arsenal travel to Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening to face Chelsea.

I am getting tired of watching Ozil go missing in these games. It happened last week. It has happened repeatedly over the past few years. I am getting tired of it happening again. Unfortunately, I fear that it might.