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With another late injury, like the week before, it could lead many to believe our injury curse is still very much present this season.
Nevertheless with the re-shuffle of Ramsey to his more favoured central role, Walcott up top and the inclusion of Chamberlain on the right, I was confident we’d have no problem in dismissing a fairly average Newcastle team.
After all, these are the kind of obstacles we will have to overcome if we are to take the Premier League title to the red side of London.
However as the game progressed I was left bitterly disappointed with the calibre of performance shown. Against 10 men we seemed to be surprisingly lacking creativity and pace in both our all round passing and movement in the final third.
Ok, many may argue that “hey, we got the 3 points and kept a clean sheet, away at a difficult ground, why does it matter?”. I’d agree with this but the performance we displayed was also very worrying in terms of what it potentially holds for the rest of the season.
Without Ozil we seemed to be completely incapable moving the ball quickly. One thing you can guarantee from Mesut is pace, not in the sense of movement but in terms of his footballing brain.
He sees it on a different level to even the likes of Santi and Alexis. I watched him closely towards the back end of last season when he started to find his form and even over the first 3 games he’s played this season, and what separates him from the rest is innate ability to find a forward run.
Especially when Walcott is in the team, this is key to us creating chances. If he was fit on Saturday I believe it could have been a much more comfortable game and for those Gooners who travelled up to Tyneside, it would have been a much more enjoyable game to witness.
The criticism Ozil has drawn from both Arsenal fans and the footballing world is unjust. He is key to our success this season, I believe more so than Alexis, who we can’t expect in our heart of hearts, to top his majestic display last campaign.
Mesut really is the unsung hero, because with him in the team there’s always a more clear intent to go forward and pick the gaps.
If we can keep him fit and get Giroud firing, then I believe we have a real chance this season. Of course he’s not going to get us 20 goals a season but did Dennis do that every season? Especially along side Thierry he didn’t.
Instead let’s appreciate Mesut Ozil for what he undoubtedly is – A truly fine piece of German Football engineering.
