Arsenal and Mesut Ozil: A little explanation goes a long way

Arsenal didn’t have Mesut Ozil against Fulham, but guess what? It all worked out, because this is what happens when someone explains something.

Arsenal‘s win against Fulham was a thrilling one to watch, because everything really came together to work as one, and there aren’t many better ways to win a match than that.

But, of course, it was the attack that carried the bulk of the credit, as they were able to slot home five goals, all of which came from one member or another of the elite attacking corps that we’ve come to know and love.

All except Mesut Ozil. The German play-maker was missing against Fulham, a match that many expected him to flourish in, given the porous nature of the opposing defense. But Ozil wasn’t there, and that adds to his recent history of not being there, amid mystery illnesses and surprise absences.

This time, however, it was established why he wasn’t there. It was because he suffered a back injury in training, as confirmed by Unai Emery himself.

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There really shouldn’t ever be so much drama around missing a game or two. Not like Ozil has accumulated. But it’s the nature in which he is always missing that makes it strange. Consider when he left the team hotel the morning of the Burnley match at Turf Moor last year. Even Arsene Wenger was baffled by that one.

There were illness absences mixed in there, but then Ozil’s agent came out and said his client was having back problems. Which was never covered in the talks about Ozil’s many misses.

Add to that the confusion that developed between Emery and Ozil earlier this year, where it was clear that things were not being communicated between two rather important parties.

The disenchantment raged on between Ozil and the fans, who never quite understood why he couldn’t make it to matches, or why he wasn’t healthy. And that was bound to happen again with a miss against Fulham.

Only it didn’t, because a little explanation by Emery solved everything and, just like that, the drama can be killed before it even started.

Hopefully this sets the precedence going forward that it needs to be known why certain players aren’t available. It was made perfectly clear why Ozil couldn’t be there and it was also made clear why AUbameyang couldn’t. This is the new standard, so let’s stick to it.