Arsenal: Maybe Mesut Ozil just needed Dani Ceballos

Mesut Ozil was subtly superb for Arsenal against Newcastle United, and like everything else, it likely comes down to the presence of Dani Ceballos.

There were a lot of talking points that came out of that Newcastle match, mainly out of the attack. Arsenal‘s slumbering superstars finally woke up, as we saw class performances from just about everyone even remotely involved in the attack. Mesut Ozil, however, stood above most of the goal scorers, bar Nicolas Pepe.

Ozil came to life in a big way, though his slick slipping and sliding was missed out on early on, when the rest of the attack was still waking up from their month-long nap.

It wasn’t until Dani Ceballos had started to rub off on his teammates, though, that we really say Ozil at his best again. He had been doing it pretty effectively all match, but as we have long known, Mesut Ozil against the world doesn’t work. He needs support.

Someone like Dani Ceballos.

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We’ve spent over half a decade trying to figure out how to get the most out of Ozil and the general consensus has always been that he needs support. He’s a luxury player that needs a solid foundation to operate off of.

Ceballos gave Ozil that. I keep talking about this, but it needs to be said now, in context to Mesut Ozil. Ceballos provided something no one else in that midfield has able to provide—not Granit Xhaka, not Matteo Guendouzi, not Lucas Torreira. He provided movement on and off the ball.

Ceballos was a master of passing and then hitting a gap moving forward, giving his teammates someone to look for that wasn’t just a back or sideways pass. He gave the kind of support Ozil needs for his own movement to come off effectively. It doesn’t do much if Ozil is looking for movement and there isn’t any, but with Ceballos flowing around him, and thus Ozil contributing the same kind of movement, it served to wake up everyone else.

And what do we know about Ozil? The more his teammates move, the more he can find. And Ozil won’t miss a teammates moving into dangerous areas.

Maybe that’s the key to Ozil’s success—Dani Ceballos. I mean hell, I just explored the possibility that Mustafi’s career could be resurrected, so it’s unfair to not explore the same with Ozil after a performance like that.