Arsenal Vs Leicester City: This is the Mesut Ozil standard

Mesut Ozil was brilliant in Arsenal’s 3-1 win over Leicester City on Monday night. This is now the standard that the German must stick to throughout the season.

There are few players that I love watching play football as much as Mesut Ozil when he’s playing like he did on Monday night. The Arsenal midfielder made his first start of the season in his much-coveted number 10 position. It led to a scintillating attacking performance from the Gunners in a 3-1 win over Leicester City.

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Ozil was at the heart of everything, especially after the troubling first half hour. He drifted throughout the pitch, lending the ball to his teammates, receiving it once again, playing another pass, pulling Leicester defenders into spaces they didn’t want to go, before threading incisive, cutting balls into the channels to open up those very spaces.

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This was Ozil at his best. He was the critical figure in every goal: a drive and caressed finish for the first; a wonderful pass through to Hector Bellerin for the second; a flick, dummy-run-over, and squared flick for the third goal. There are few players in world football that inspire as much joy as Ozil when he is on song. And he was so brilliantly on song here.

In Sky Sports’ analysis after the match, you could see that both Graeme Souness and Jamie Redknapp were hesitant to lump too much praise on Ozil. They both recognised the excellence of his performance and exalted his undeniable game-changing influence, but they also raised questions regarding his consistency, his commitment, his anonymity in the big games. And, although it may sound like sour grapes after such a sumptuous showing, they are right.

For however much I love watching Ozil play when he is playing as he did against Leicester, I hate watching him all the other times, when he shows as much interest in the match as a dog does in its owner when there is a ball to play with or food to eat or a cat to chase, when he meanders throughout pitch, dragging his feet through the grass, slumping his shoulders, his head drooping, when he goes missing, slipping into the shadows of the game, happy to hide, just when his team needs him the most.

And, oddly, it is these performances that make all those other performances so infuriating. Frustration comes from knowing that a certain action or challenge or event is achievable but failing to do so. It does not come from the best attempt failing. In that case, there is nothing more that could be done. But in Ozil’s, the very opposite so often seems true. These type of displays prove that he is capable of so much more than he produces.

Contrast the fluctuating inconsistencies of Ozil to the relentless brilliance of Sergio Aguero or David Silva or, at this point, Mohamed Salah. Or, in the past, Thierry Henry or Dennis Bergkamp or Patrick Vieira. There are many players in the Premier League that are capable of individual moments of brilliance. There aren’t many players that are capable of several moments of brilliance. There are even few that are capable of lots of moments of brilliance.

For Ozil, this is the standard that he has set for himself. This is the standard that he must reach, week in, week out. Unfortunately, I don’t think that he will.