Arsenal: It’s time for fans to start supporting Mesut Ozil

Mesut Ozi has lost much of the Arsenal fan base in the last year or so. It’s time for fans to start supporting the face of Arsenal Football Club.

Full disclosure: I fell in love with Arsenal because of Mesut Ozil.

As an American, soccer (if you’ll allow me to call it that) has never really been a mainstream sport. It’s getting better now, especially in my area, but for most of my teenage and young adult life, exposure to soccer was basically restricted to FIFA (the video game, not the corrupt, money-laundering organization) and the World Cup. I followed the Premier League for a few years as a “general fan”, casually looking for somewhere to place my allegiance, and I landed on Arsenal several years ago, largely due to the presence of Mesut Ozil.

It’s easy to see why…or at least it was. When at his peak, he plays absolutely beautifully. Whether playing or watching sports, I’ve always been or been a fan of the creator. Clearly Mesut Ozil fits that archetype, and it didn’t take long for me to become fascinated with him and, thus, Arsenal.

For a bit, it was fine loving Mesut Ozil. Most fans were behind him, even though he’d had the criticisms about his work rate and willingness to defend. He continuously changed the game for the Gunners, and pretty much everyone was willing to accept his flaws if it meant we got to witness his magic on the pitch.

I’d say things have changed quite a bit.

There is a faction to which I belong – an ever-shrinking one I must admit – whose sentiment is still the above: Ozil changes the game and makes the team better, so Arsenal fans can and should look beyond the flaws. The other faction is definitely the popular opinion these days: Ozil is trash, a waste of money, has a horrible attitude, needs to be sold, etc.

I’ve established with you where I stand with all of this: my bias is very obvious. I fervently believe that Mesut Ozil makes his team better, and I think turning on him is a big mistake.

The hate has gone too far. Way too far.

I think the biggest argument against Ozil is his impact on the wage bill, which is only exacerbated by the club’s limited budget and inability to spend generously on transfers, this past window notwithstanding. I do think the uptick in spending this summer alleviated the pressure from him a bit, but all it takes is one poor performance once he’s playing regularly, and it’s back to square one.

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I love Ozil’s style of play, but his global brand presence shouldn’t be passed over, either. Just take a look at his social exposure: he has 20.9 million Instagram followers (Arsenal has 15.6 million) and 24.3 million Twitter followers (Arsenal has 14.9 million). Mesut Ozil is absolutely massive on a global scale: there’s a reason why fans in Singapore and Dubai and this past preseason across the United States go crazy for him despite all of the bad (read: awful) press through the summer. I’d bet that Ozil’s brand marketability and the revenue he generates makes that £350k/week seem much more palatable.

The final piece of my argument is a soft one: Arsenal just “looks better” with Ozil on the field. There were so many times last year – particularly during that spell when Ozil wasn’t playing much in the first half of the season – that we had no fluidity in the opponent’s half. It seemed like any time we were threatening, someone would waste a chance – Iwobi and Kolasinac come to mind most easily. We were seemingly always missing that one final moment of patience, brilliance, or magic that Mesut Ozil provides more than most.

Plenty of pundits, Jose Mourinho included, have praised Arsenal’s front three of Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and Nicolas Pepe while still identifying the need for a creator to sit behind them and distribute. Many have tabbed Dani Ceballos to fill that role, but Ozil clearly has the ability to unlock chances like few others. Plus, Ceballos also has the ability to sit a bit deeper without being a massive defensive liability.

Ozil has his drawbacks. I’m not going to deny that. He isn’t a presence defensively, and you can definitely question his effort at times. This preseason, however, it looked like he had a renewed vigor and desire to prove to Unai Emery, Arsenal fans, and maybe even himself, that he deserves to keep his place in the starting lineup and, potentially more notably, among Arsenal’s quasi-club legends.

Mesut Ozil is a microcosm of Arsenal: breathtakingly beautiful when he’s on his game, and absolutely maddening when he’s not. I fully realize he has his drawbacks, but I still firmly believe that he is the most purely talented player in this squad. As far as I’m concerned, he still has every bit of magic that made all Arsenal fans – at one point or another – fall in love with him.

So, maybe, just for a month or so (ideally like nine months), Arsenal fans can back off of the instant “Ozil is worthless” comments 14 seconds after Arsenal posts anything on Twitter, and back the man who, like it or not, is the face of Arsenal now and for the foreseeable future.

Oh yeah, he’s not going anywhere anyway.