Who would have thought it, by playing a World Class player in his favoured position, granting him the freedom to get around the pitch that he desires, results in World Class performances.

This is now Mesut Ozil’s 3^rd season at the club. It has been a love hate relationship. People’s comments on his ability have tended to side on whether you back Wenger or despise him.

Back him, and you would have pointed to obscure statistics showing that he has the highest pass percentage in the Premier League using his little toe on his right foot.

Believe he is useless and you would have questioned his work rate, desire and toughness.

What has happened this season though is he has come into his own. This season, he has been Arsenal’s stand out performer.

Before now, he was a scapegoat. He had not performed to his previous high ability at Real Madrid. Plenty of myths as to why he had no performed. Mainly surrounding where he had been played. People tended to ignore the fact that he played every (or almost every,  I do not have the energy to look it up) minute in Germany’s World Cup winning side. And that he had previously played on the wings countless times for club and country.

It was easy to blame the positioning and therefore the management, for his struggles. Or perceived struggles.

What a lot of the criticism came down to was a lack of understanding about Mesut Ozil the player. He was not a Messi. A Neymar. A Hazard. A player who would pick up the ball, take it past 4 players and bend one in the corner. He is just simply not that type of player.

Now people are starting to appreciate his set of skills, a very particular set of skills, skills he has acquired over a very long career.

Whilst I have slightly contradicted myself talking about positions, it is the freedom that he has been given playing in the middle that has now seen him flourish.

Ozil follows the ball. When you watch him closely, he is always there, always available, within a 10 yard pass of the ball. He loves to be involved. Playing in the middle means he can follow the ball, left and right, without it destroying the sides structure.

He drifts into pockets of space, where he is hard to pick up, dragging players out of position, creating space for other players to move into.

His movement, his ability, everything about his game at the moment is exceptional.

He is the king of assists. But we already knew that didn’t we?

With 9 assists this season, he has 3 more than the next highest on the list, David Silva, with 6.

In fact, he has more assists this season than Juan Mata, Cesc Fabregas, Eden Hazard and Coutinho. Combined. Between them they have just the 8.

Of course, there will still be those who will always be on Ozil’s back, unable to ever accept him as the talent he is. However, these people are idiots. what they are doing is using Ozil as a pawn to bash Wenger. An example of how Wenger ruins players (untrue). An example of how Wenger can not spend big money (whilst also demanding that Wenger need’s to spend big money).

It is mad to think that Mesut Ozil has only just turned 27. It seems like a decade ago that he ran past the heavy legged Gareth Barry for Germany. He is entering his peak. And will continue to get better.

With the way Ozil plays, he does not rely on blistering pace. Realistically, he has another 6/7 years in him at the top level. Pulling the strings at Arsenal.

In 1995, Arsenal signed a 26 year old Dutchman named Dennis Bergkamp. 11 seasons and 423 appearances later, he became an Arsenal legend.

If Ozil wants to, he can also become an Arsenal legend.

He is that good.

Keenos

Well it finally happened. After a positive few weeks with some brilliant victories, Arsenal have crashed and not quite burned. Taking the Sheffield Wednesday defeat out of it, Arsenal have another crisis to deal with. And it is a familiar old enemy.  Injuries.

I have lost count now how many season’s have been wrecked by injuries. Some of it is unlucky. Much of it is having too many players with poor injury records. Most of the issues stem from the squad being too small, too lightweight, under resourced.

And here we once more sit, only in October, facing our first injury crisis of the season.

With 8 players out, we top physioroom.com’s league table. Again.

It is the usual suspects out injured once more, leaving us short on both central midfield and on the right wing.

We just about have the centre of the park covered, with Coquelin, Cazorla, Ozil & Flamini available, but even then, we are just one injury from Glen Kamara being on the bench.

The worry for this weekend is the right side of midfield. 6 of the 8 injured have played on the wings in recent years. Alongside this, two of our fit midfielders (Ozil & Cazorla) could also cover there. But with the 7 outfield players that are injured, it leaves us dangerously short.

So what are our options?

Move Cazorla or Ozil, and play Flamini in the middle

Is Flamini good enough? Probably not. But it is the option that would keep the most experience in the side, and meaning that players are playing in positions they have played in before. My favourable one would be Ozil to go outwide and Cazorla to remain in the middle. The reasoning behind this is that we will need the attacking midfielder to drop deep, as neither Coquelin or Flamini are exactly great passers. Cazorla is superior to Ozil in doing this.

Also, Ozil is a little bit quicker than Cazorla, and more adept to playing on the wing.

We would lose some of our width, as Ozil will look to drop inside, however he would be interchangeable with Cazorla, and hopefully if he dropped inside, Cazorla would fill in outside.

An alternative is playing Calum Chambers central midfield alongside Coquelin.

Push a full back forward

On the right wing, we could start Debuchy at right back and push Bellerin forward. Hector Bellerin certainly has the pace to cause problems on the wing. And at worst, he would just need to get chalk on his boots. His pace is enough to cause a full back problems. It would give the side width. Giroud would be able to feed off his crosses and it would ensure the middle of the park remains strong. The big worry would then be Debuchy at right back. If Montero plays, he would rip Debuchy a new one.

Alternatively, we could play Gibbs on the left wing, with Sanchez moving across to the right. Monreal and Gibbs would be a bit more solid defensively than Debuchy & Monreal, but maybe not as good going forward. Gibbs ha splayed on the wing in his youth, and has often been used as a defensive substitute on that side of the park, and linked up well with Monreal. He can play there if needed.

Trust in youth

Joel Campbell (ok he is not young anymore) or Alex Iwobi could both play on the right wing providing cover. but both looked useless on Tuesday night.

Had Campbell put in a half decent performance, he would have got his opportunity. But he did not. same go’s for Iwobi.

Arsenal could look at trying to do a deal to recall Serge Gnabry, who Tony Pullis basically said will not start for WBA in the near future. It will not happen for this weekend, but Arsenal should explore the situation for forthcoming games.

Keenos

Follow @KeenosAFC