The Enigmatic Ozil

It was interesting to me to see how divergent peoples opinions on certain players can be. Both Townsend and Pat Nevin called before the game of the unnecessary pick of both Santi and Ozil as play makers in our side, with the suggestion being that you play the most in form one at the moment (the difficulty there being that both have been at least very good of late).

Pat Nevin even said on 5Live last night, to which he received pelters, that Ozil had a poor game. Whereas Sky's Charlie Nicholas said he was fantastic and was the best we have seen from him at Arsenal.

Now I will disagree with both. I thought Ozil was indeed very good last night, but watching him live at the Emirates against Napoli last season was for me his most delighful and inspirational performance, and even then I thought he was in about 3rd gear.

My point being, it is interesting that such a player can divide opinion so much. Nevin raved about how brilliant Santi was yesterday, but I thought that he didn't stand out in a team full of very good performers. I think actually, maybe slightly reactively, that Santi has looked more divine for us when other players are not performing up their. I actually thought yesterday that everyone bar Ospina (who didn't have to be) and Alexis, everyone of the 14 players actually performed very well.

I thought the most pleasing aspect of yesterday's performance was the exchanges between our front 4/5 players, and it was interesting to see that we didn't really have to take the same risks with our full backs because of the threat we possessed up top. I thought Ozil, and Santi to be fair, linked that up so well, and even despite Alexis not being his usual brilliant self, it was probably the best football I have seen from us this season, particularly the first half.

I'd be curious to know what the consensus was on both Mesut's performance and ours. My personal view is is that he has not yet had an absolute 9/10 match for us, but when he is a 7/7.5, then it often brings out the higher level from the rest of the side. And that for me, has been the biggest benefit of Ozil since he arrived at the club.