Arsenal’s £42.4Million man has already made waves in his first month at Arsenal; four matches and four assists is a good return for any player. However, there’s no question that there is much more to come from the German.
When any player starts at a new club it’s expected for him to need time to settle (unfortunately for some, like Giroud, the press don’t allow it), just finding a house and getting your family sorted can take weeks if one is moving country. Furthermore, Ozil signed in the middle of an international break, meaning that he couldn’t even begin to think about all the logistics of life for a fortnight. Yet when he made his at the Stadium of Light he was able to take a truly magnificent touch before slotting to Olivier Giroud at the near post for the first of many assists (hopefully).
After a perfectly strong performance in the week against Marseille, he came back to North London with most expecting him to be exhausted, having travelled back from France. However, although against Stoke he struggled to get into the game at times like he did so often at Real Madrid, he managed to revolutionise Arsenal’s play in that Arsenal scored three goals from three of his set pieces. Normally Arsenal are lucky to score three goals from set pieces all season, so three of them in one game all from one man’s boot makes us all even more excited about his play.
That said, four matches in fifteen days is a lot to ask of any player, particularly one who is settling in to a new country. Therefore when Arsenal travelled to Wales to play Swansea, Ozil looked exhausted. He did manage to have a few moments of genius in the 90 minutes; look at his one-two in the build up to Gnabry’s goal, but he wasn’t able to control the game at any point, and his ability to play with intensity was clearly diminishing throughout the match.
So, when Arsenal play Napoli this evening (at the time of writing) I think it would be better if Ozil was played as a super-sub, just for today. Ideally, Arsenal would still have Santi Cazorla to play in that role so that Ozil wouldn’t be so heavily missed, but the Spaniard is still injured. However, the return of Arteta means that a council of three containing Wilshere, Ramsey and the Basque midfielder could easily combine effectively. With Ramsey in the form he is in, he could easily move further up the pitch with Wilshere and Arteta taking their usual positions, or perhaps Wenger could take a risk and put Arteta in the role he played in before Song left (remember that vain of form he had when Arsenal won seven matches on the trot)? Either way, those three have more than enough talent to see off Napoli; particularly if Higuain isn’t fit.
There is no question that Mesut Ozil is a man who loves his football and wants to play every game, and maybe I’ll be proved wrong tonight and he’ll tear Napoli to pieces. But even if he does, Wenger must be wary of a burn-out. Very few outfield players can play every minute of a campaign, particularly if you are playing in the Champions’ League. Therefore Ozil can’t be expected to destroy teams every week. Once he is settled in he could very easily start to play with superhuman stamina and play much more often with the same intensity than most players, but whilst he’s settling in to life in London, Wenger should be careful of over-playing him, otherwise little niggles come up and he could suffer the same fate that the likes of Jack Wilshere have endured in recent times.
