Arsenal Vs Newcastle United: Not the game to test Mesut Ozil

Arsenal travel to Newcastle United on Saturday afternoon. For however well Mesut Ozil may play in it, this is not the game by which he should be tested.

The Premier League returns this weekend. For Arsenal, that means a somewhat tricky trip to the North East to face a struggling Newcastle United that have already fallen to Chelsea, Manchester City and Spurs this season. It is a game that they should be looking to win. And, even though it is away from home, these are the type of games that the Gunners have been winning over the past few years.

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The matches in which the technically gifted midfield can get their feet on the ball and dictate play are often the ones that Arsenal tend to win. They always have done. They can play how they want to, controlling the match with extended periods of possession and pressurising the opposition with relentless waves of one-touch, quick-paced attacking moves.

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More recently, that has in large part been because of Mesut Ozil. He is a player who excels when his team has the ball. His spatial recognition and exploitation is uniquely brilliant, his vision, awareness and ingenuity can unlock even the tightest of defences, and he enjoys receiving the ball with a puzzle to solve as he looks to unpick a congested pitch ahead of him. It’s when he’s at his best.

And Arsenal have seen Ozil in these situations play some scintillating football. His performance against Huddersfield Town last season is one of the best individual displays I have seen from an Arsenal player in many years. He was brilliant, largely because of the frequency of opportunities that he received to try and prise open the Terriers’ dogged and determined defence.

But those who are critical of Ozil are not critical of him because of the performances is those type of games. Few deny his natural talent for the game. Even his most vehement detractors will concede that he is a wonderfully gifted footballer. It is in his mental application, his actual production, his propensity to go missing, his inconsistency, that leads so many to doubt his value.

Increasingly, those qualms are looking justifiable. This season, for instance, Ozil was anonymous against Manchester City, hooked in the second half of the loss to Chelsea, absent for the West Ham United match altogether and may as well have been for the trip to Cardiff City just before the international break. He is playing as his critics deem him.

Would it now surprise me if Ozil, enjoying the freedom that he will likely receive against Newcastle, plays with verve, ingenuity and artistry, carving open Rafa Benitez’s best efforts with cute, cutting through passes, accurate, dead-eye crosses, and neat and tidy flicks and lay-offs? Absolutely not. But, this time, unlike in the past, I will not fall for it.

Ozil is the type of footballer that I relish. His brilliance is between the ears. That is why I love this sport so much. Intelligence is the most precious commodity. And that means that when he plays at his best, I so easily fall for his charm as he assists me into a state of utter adoration and reverence. But not this time. Newcastle is not the stick by which Ozil must be measured. There are other matches for that.