Will Magee
Mesut Özil, our £42m breakthrough signing. Mesut Özil, World Cup holder. Mesut Özil, pass master, king of the assist and all-round midfielder maestro. Mesut Özil, fans’ favourite? Hmmm.
From the mixed reaction he gets from the supporters, you would never guess that Arsenal’s number eleven is one of the best in the game – a player with a legitimate claim to the oft misused ‘world class’ tag. He was absolutely superb against Liverpool on Saturday. Flowing across the midfield four, making acres of space for teammates, dragging Mamadou Sakho and the ailing Kolo Toure about like a sadistic 12-year-old torturing virtual ragdolls on The Sims – he did it all. His nonchalant feint in the third minute nearly gave Cazorla the opener. In the thirty-seventh minute his perfect cross-field ball found Ramsey, who in turn set Bellerin away – 1-0. Three minutes later, he won a foul from Sakho outside the area. Dusting himself down, he curled a sublime free kick past the despairing dive of Mignolet and in. Gorgeous.
When he was substituted in the second half, the majority of the crowd were rightly on their feet to applaud. Still, I couldn’t help but notice that the standing ovation wasn’t quite complete; there were plenty sitting nearby to me who seemed – somehow – underwhelmed. What struck me even more was some of the enduring grumbles I overheard during the game. As Özil stepped up to take his free kick, a couple of blokes next to me groaned theatrically. They were silenced pretty quickly but others remained audibly unenthused; as I shuffled off to get a horribly expensive lager at half time, I was amazed to hear another fan express disbelief at the second goal – Özil had been ‘the worst player on the pitch’ up to that point, apparently.
It seems to me that, no matter how well Özil plays, the complaints persist. So what’s the problem? Is he too languid, too casual? This seems an odd gripe for Arsenal fans considering how we all go weak at the knees at the very mention of Robert Pirès’ blasé footballing cool. Likewise, I’m not sure Özil actually is that casual; on Saturday’s Match of the Day, as Alan Shearer highlighted the various facets of our defensive work, there was considerable focus on Özil’s commitment to pressing, tracking back and tackling when we were without the ball.
Is it that he hasn’t delivered enough goals and assists? Well, no. He certainly had a dip in productivity toward the end of last season, but that coincided with a return from injury. Apart from that, his first season in the Premier League – notoriously difficult for overseas imports – yielded up a healthy seven goals and 14 assists in all competitions. His second campaign has so far seen a return of five goals and six assists, despite three months out with knee ligament damage.
Right, fine, but has he lived up to his price tag? This question, especially coming from our fanbase, is ludicrous. We all spent years imploring Arsène to spend more money on top quality, yet some of us are willing to indulge the idea that – when it comes to Özil – we’ve now spent too much. His game is good, his statistics are good and his arrival, by no coincidence, has heralded some long-awaited silverware for the club. There are no two ways about it – he’s given more than a decent return.
Accordingly, it seems to me that the problem isn’t with Özil himself. Part of the problem is to do with the negative media narrative concerning him, surely. Ever since Real Madrid president Florentino Perez made his potentially slanderous comments about Özil’s personal life – a distasteful parting shot after his move to Arsenal, no doubt intended to vindicate Perez in sanctioning the deeply unpopular transfer – the British tabloid press have had the means and motivation to make a story of Mesut. Since then, every off game and every dip in form has been met with suggestive headlines and accusations of laziness; likewise, all criticism has been hugely inflated – Neil Ashton’s assertion last year that Özil was ‘nicking a living’ springs to mind as a particularly farcical example of this.
If some of us have gone along with the negative narrative, that’s unfortunate. However, it’s suggestive of another part of the problem. In light of repeated disappointments over the last few years – our Champions League exits, the constant almosts of the Premier League et cetera – it seems that we, as a fanbase, have become a bit masochistic. All of us have an odd fascination with torturing ourselves over the things that go horribly wrong at the club, and it’s very easy to lose sight of the things that go right.
The fact that Mesut Özil plays for the club is something that’s gone right. Perhaps it’s time that we forget all the narrative nonsense, put aside our obsession with failings for a moment and appreciate Özil for what he is – an exceptional, world-class footballer, and a massive asset to the Arsenal.
