Arsenal: 3 replacements for Mesut Ozil

1. Jonathan David

While Houssem Aouar is very much a creative midfielder who pulls the Lyon strings, if Arsenal wanted a more goalscoring attacking midfielder who is more productive but perhaps comes with less control in midfield, they should turn their attention to the equally young Jonathan David.

David, 20, is currently shining in the Belgian Jupiler Pro League. The KAA Gent currently has 18 goals and eight assists in 2,101 minutes. That converts to a direct goal involvement every 80.8 minutes. To put that into context, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been directly involved in a goal every 128.05 minutes and Mesut Ozil has been directly involved in a goal every 483 minutes — even Ozil’s best year, 2015/16, yielded a direct goal involvement every 121.92 minutes.

Obviously, David is doing this in the Belgian league, not the Premier League. And he is also playing a more advanced attacking midfield position. Mikel Arteta might want a more natural midfielder to replicate Pep Guardiola’s half-eight system. However, if the likes of Kai Havertz and Aouar are out of Arsenal’s range, David is lying below the limelight at present.

He might, then, be the perfect player to replace Ozil. Young, insanely productive, and available. He ticks almost all of the boxes.