Arsenal vs West Ham: The Mesut Ozil paradox continues

Arsenal’s attack was missing one key ingredient against West Ham – an ingredient that resembles Mesut Ozil. But it isn’t right? We know better, right?

Arsenal could not have looked any flatter against West Ham. Their attack was a horror show. The kind of horror show where nothing happens and you go hoe disappointed that the movie was so bad and didn’t do anything for you.

Which isn’t how it was supposed to happen. When you start Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang together, there are supposed to be a surplus of goals. One is a golden boot frontrunner, the other is a creative striker that scores as well as he assists.

But there was nothing. Not an iota of creativity from this attack. They looked like they were going up against a brick wall. There was no creativity in the midfield behind the attack.

Combined, the Arsenal attack created seven chances. That’s altogether, as an entire team. Two of which came from Ramsey, who played all of a half hour.

Meanwhile, Snake Nasri and Felipe Anderson created seven chances all on their own. By the way, I’m pretty sure Felipe Anderson was better than our entire attack combined.

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There was a clear gap where the chance creator would have been, hinging the deep midfield with the strikers. This is a role so clearly ready for someone like, oh I don’t know, Mesut Ozil. Ozil, the No. 10, the assist master, the *insert fanboy attribution here* – he’s someone that would make a difference, right?

This is what we always fall into, this trap, this paradox. Where we see the flatness of the attack and start preaching about how Ozil will make everything better once he gets back from whatever injury is plaguing him this time.

And maybe he will. Maybe, for one glorious foray, Ozil will create five chances, get a now-rare assist, and make all his fanboys have a pants party. And then he will fade away again. Or maybe we don’t even get the foray. Maybe Ozil just disappoints.

It doesn’t make a lot of sense, hence the paradox. You have this void that requires someone like Ozil, who is supposed to be the best player at doing exactly what we need him to do, but he rarely does it consistently.

Hi, Unai Emery, this is your task, that you already accepted, so have fun with all this.