Arsenal: Mesut Ozil’s birthday points to deeper problem

Mesut Ozil turned 30 years of age on Monday. His birthday points to a deeper problem at Arsenal: the age of many of their key attacking players.

Arsenal have revamped their offensive weapons in recent seasons. Alexandre Lacazette was signed a little over a year ago for a club-record £47 million. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang then beat that very record six months later, signed for £52 million. And Henrikh Mkhitaryan swapped places with Alexis Sanchez in the same January window. Suddenly, the Gunners attack looked very different indeed.

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Since that time, these three players and Mesut Ozil have been the centrepiece of the team’s attacking threat. Lacazette and Aubameyang are the team’s leading scorers. Ozil and Mkhitaryan the leading assisters.

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And Ozil, perhaps the most talented and important of the quartet, turned 30 on Monday, a feat that was widely celebrated on Arsenal media channels. He has been in north London for five full seasons, this being his sixth, and has committed the prime of his career to the latter Arsene Wenger years and now the commencement of the Unai Emery era. It would not be unfair to say that he has maybe two or three years of his best form left.

His turning 30 points to a far deeper problem in the squad. Mkhitaryan will turn 30 in January. Aubameyang will turn 30 next June. Lacazette will be 28 next May. The latter may have plenty of time remaining, but Arsenal signed both Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan knowing that they did not have too many years to offer. In essence, these were ‘win now’ signings. Or at least, ‘get back into the Champions League now’ signings.

That’s fine as long as the immediate plan works, but if Emery is unable to guide this team back into the Champions League and into title contention, then not only will the club be left with overpaid players who failed to fulfil their expectations, but these players would be on expensive wages that could not be afforded without any long-term security.

The best age to be signing players is between 21 and 27. In this age range, you can buy a player who has plenty of their peak years remaining and have the ability to re-sell them for decent value. For Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang and Ozil, their best years are quickly running out and their resale value diminishes with every passing season.

The same could be said for Sokratis, who was signed in the summer, and Aaron Ramsey, Nacho Monreal and Petr Cech. These are all key components of this current team. It’s not inconceivable that, bar Sokratis, none are with the team next season. And even Sokratis could easily be deteriorating by then.

The age of this squad is a little concerning. There are plenty of older players reaching the back-end of their prime that will need to be succeeded in the coming years. And Ozil is now one of them. A revamping could be on the cards once again.