Arsenal: Mesut Ozil deals crushing blow to two key nemeses

Arsenal captain Mesut Ozil was the star of the show against Leicester City and with it, he dealt two key blows to his primary two foes.

I went about hypothesizing before the Leicester City match who would be the Arsenal captain. I figured Mesut Ozil would be the least likely, but Unai Emery begged to differ and again, we saw why I’m the one sitting behind a computer screen and Emery is the one barking from the sidelines.

Ozil spent thirty minutes in absolute anonymity but, after the shock of that first goal set in, he became something else. Someone else. He was a magic man, where every touch was pure gold and every pass had dynamic, deadly intentions.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a simple ball played poorly in the 45-50 minutes or so he had between when he switched on and when he was subbed off to a roaring standing ovation.

It was Ozil’s first demonstrably good match of the season. He was the unanimous man of the match, even considering the first half hour spent in utter frustration. Ozil was the game-changer, he picked up the slack, he created chances, he took his own chances, he was a masterclass.

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And, in the process, he dealt a firm, impactful message to his two biggest foes – his haters, and himself.

I said that Ozil became someone else in this match, but the truth is, he became himself. He threw off the heavy backpack of self-doubt and degradation and became the masterful creator that he has proven to be more times than not. Good like finding a 50 minute timeframe where Ozil was better than what he was against the Foxes. Which just goes to show the doubters, myself included, that he isn’t just a peripheral player now. He can still do things like what we just saw and that means that we can still hope and, dare I say, expect them as well.

Not even Ozil’s haters could say a bad word about him, barring the first half hour. This was textbook Ozil, the guy that is so highly regarded as an artist within the sport. Just seeing him at his peak again was enough to rejuvenate the leaking faith in him, and it likely had a similar effect on the man himself.

Ozil was fantastic, and he needed to go on the attack against two of his biggest foes. Hopefully this is the first step towards winning the war.