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Arsenal have two of the best playmakers in the Premier League in Santi Cazorla and Mesut Ozil. Cazorla leads the assists charts in the league over the last few years and Ozil is just a few assists away from beating Riquelme’s all-time assist record. This has brought about some inspiring passages of build-up play full of technique and intricacy, but unfortunately without the final product.
We are well aware of Cazorla and Ozil’s creative abilities. Cazorla has the rare privilege of ambidexterity and Ozil has an exceptional level of vision. Cazorla dictates and masterminds plays from deep in midfield thanks to his new central midfield role, with Ozil providing the assist or pre-assist in the final third. After the second week of Premier League fixtures, Arsenal had a whopping 44 attempts. Both Ozil and Cazorla lead the Premier League’s chance creation stats, creating 9 chances each.
But alarmingly, of the 18 chances between them only 1 was converted into a goal, with our second goal against Palace being ruled as an own goal. Arsenal have lacked a consistent clinical instinct in the box for a while – Giroud has blossomed into a very good striker since his arrival to the Emirates in 2012 but still has been unable to fire us to title-winning glory. This has caused some anxiety among the fans, what with the links to Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema and PSG’s Edinson Cavani only exacerbating the worry.
This could also be down to our style of play; we have been criticised for years for playing too many passes and making an attempt more awkward rather than shooting at the right time. Ozil is now under managerial instructions to take more shots at goal rather than waiting for a pass, which Wenger hopes should boost our chance-to-goal conversion rate.
As encouraging as our chance creation stats are and the visual aesthetics of elaborate build up play, ultimately scoring goals must take precedence. Ozil is no doubt looking to rejuvenate his assist stats, which is down to plenty of his created chances not being taken – his frustration on the pitch is explicitly visible through his body language whenever a chance is squandered. Danny Welbeck must step up his goalscoring stats along with Theo Walcott, who certainly relishes the chance of being Arsenal’s first choice striker after his new contract deal.
Just play Walcott and Ox and watch the goals flow. Wenger is an idiot and his ‘Wengerball’ does not work anymore. Even the great Barca have become much more direct and a threat on the counter. Heynckes’ Bayern team was the perfect example of being able to do it all.