Arsenal vs Chelsea: Mesut Ozil has a chance to do something special

Arsenal are traveling with a depleted squad at a particularly troublesome position, but it’s up to Mesut Ozi to do something special with it.

Unai Emery’s goal is to give this Arsenal squad a formation that puts them on the front foot from the off. I know that last time he faced Chelsea, it was the 4-3-3, but this time around, that might not even be an option. In fact, it almost definitely won’t be.

But a three-back is the best way to go anyway. And given the necessity to start our best players, you want to have both Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in their from the start, which leaves three slots for midfielders.

Those three will most likely be Granit Xhaka, Lucas Torreira and… Mesut Ozil.

While the former two have proven to me that they can be counted on, it’s the latter, the main man that we want to sell this summer, that I am most worried about.

Obviously.

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As it stands, with no Aaron Ramsey and no Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Unai Emery will have little to no choice in starting Mesut Ozil and the German maestro’s favorite position – the No. 10.

Ozil has been awful this year, one of the main reasons why the club has struggled to find consistency as a whole, because he has himself been so hit and miss (but mostly miss). He’s notched just two assists all year and his created chances fell below 2.0 per 90 minutes for the first time since…. ever.

But here, against Chelsea, Ozil has a unique opportunity to make a serious statement. To step up and assert himself as the superstar that he is and should be. I’m not saying that it would sway me into thinking that he should stay, but it sure as hell couldn’t hurt.

All season long we’ve been waiting for him to click, and every time we thought he might have done it, he disappeared not long after. And just like that, he was back to where he started.

There are a lot of players who go into this match wondering if it will be their last, some of whom know for a fact that it will be there last. Ozil has to know that he is in the crowd of uncertainty.

If he really wants to stay to fight for his space, to be something special in North London, to essentially hit the reset on his struggles with Unai Emery in charge, finishing off his worst season ever with a capstone of excellence in the Europa League final would go a long way towards that end.