The season has started and it hasn’t been as the majority of Arsenal fans expected. Everyone thought this season we could have a strong and convincing beginning in the league, however the team has been inconsistent and surprisingly struggled to score goals despite a number of powerful and creative players in Mesut Özil, Alexis Sánchez, Aaron Ramsey & Santi Cazorla.
Many understand that the addition of only one player in the transfer market – Petr Cech – was not enough to coup with positions which have few players of high caliber; the defensive midfielder and striker position. Among these two positions, I think a new CF with better qualities than what Olivier Giroud provides would have been a huge step to develop a competitive status in the league and in Europe.
Olivier Giroud’s goal return is good to be fair to him, but more than goals a striker in one of the best Premier League club’s needs to have a larger range of skills to get everything out of their teammates, especially a side that has the kinds of Özil and Alexis Sánchez, for example. However, let’s wait to see how this squad can perform in the season as a whole and part of this responsibility will be on Mesut Özil’s shoulders.
The German has a demanding role in what is his third season at the north London club. He has the duty to create chances, score goals and be influential in the final third. For the time being during this season – not on his best level yet, though – he has shown glimpses of what he’s supposed to do; he was fantastic and essential in Arsenal’s win against Crystal Palace, providing an assist and completing 98% (!) of his passes – most of them in the opposition’s half. Unfortunately in the first two games at the Emirates, Arsenal failed to live up to the expected.
In Özil’s shoes, we can say he had a bad game against West Ham, where he still created four chances anyway. Against Liverpool, he had a lighting second-half. In recent interviews, speaking about his aims for the campaign, Özil has said he wants to add more goals under his belt and he’s determined to achieve at least 10 goals this term . Surely it’s an exciting sign but honestly, I can’t see Özil in a selfish way – he’ll keep on creating thousands of chances and providing more assists than score goals. Although if he gets in scoring areas more often, he’ll be able to get some goals. It’s all about imposing himself during games. Things hopefully will start to model soon.
AUGUST MONTH REPORT:
Özil and Arsenal started the Premier League with a frustrating result at the Emirates Stadium vs. West Ham. The Gunners got their first league win against Crystal Palace away from home, in a sublime performance from Mesut Özil.
The German playmaker created five chances throughout the game and got an assist. Özil also completed 54 of his 55 passes, a staggering 98% passing accuracy rate – he could’ve left the pitch with two more assists; in a super counter-attack, Özil found Alexis Sánchez in a comfortable position to finish, but the Chilean took too long to take a shot; in the second half, Ramsey popped up a long ball from Giroud, the ball fell into Özil’s feet, who raised his head up and waited for a few seconds, so Ramsey could get up and then, he sent a marvelous ball between two defenders, but the Welshman’s shot didn’t hit the target. In the following game, Özil and co. drew vs. Liverpool at home in a controversial and intense game.
Wenger declared that Özil had a slight knee problem and he was out for a week and would miss the Newcastle game. After some days, with the Germany national side, the doctors discovered that it wasn’t a serious injury and the player would be available for games against Poland and Scotland in 2016 Euro Qualifiers.
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