In August, the day after Arsenal dazzled in defeating Manchester City 3-0 in the Community Shield, Mesut Özil posted a selfie with Lukas Podolski and Per Mertesacker, the trio grinning in their new training kits. “The holiday was fantastic,” wrote Özil, “but finally back to Arsenal.”
The snapshot depicts the club’s three World Cup winners, high on life after the most memorable of summers. Arsène Wenger had given them an extended break following Germany’s triumphant campaign in Brazil but reality would soon bite. The subsequent months were not kind to any of them.
Mertesacker has found the defensive going extremely tough to the point where he has been mauled by the critics. Podolski seldom played and his frustration propelled him towards a loan move to Internazionale. Özil endured a handful of lacklustre weeks and just as his poor form was becoming a cause célèbre he suffered ruptured ligaments at the beginning of October.
He reappeared in the red and white jersey last weekend. The new year brought a new-look Özil. He trotted on to the pitch with Arsenal in cruise control against Stoke, 3-0 up, and looked noticeably beefier. Wenger’s praise for the endurance work that marked his three-month rehabilitation – “he pushed his body to the limit of what you can absorb physically,” said his manager – appeared well-founded.
Could this bulked-up physique have a real impact on his game? A cameo at the end of a 3-0 home win that was fizzling out was not the ideal outing to judge but the question is a critical one in terms of perceptions of Özil the Arsenal player. After a curious 18 months in England, which has left a lot of observers gently pushing him towards the pigeon hole where expensive disappointments are filed, he remains an enigmatic talent. Reconciling the subtle touches and graceful movement with that nonchalant body language and indifference to tracking back makes it tricky to weigh up his contribution.
He had a strange year in 2014. It was sweet and sour. The German schemer is entitled to use the medals on the table argument but 2014 was also a year in which Özil’s game, and whether he is yielding the best from his skillset, came under scrutiny.
Last January, his honeymoon period after joining Arsenal for a club record fee from Real Madrid was waning. In February he missed a penalty against Bayern Munich in the Champions League that had a traumatic effect and dented his confidence. Wenger felt compelled to speak out in defence of a player whose effort levels were under the microscope. “He’s not a guy who doesn’t care,” Wenger said. “His style can sometimes look like that but he’s really the opposite character.”
Arsenal have not yet seen Özil at his finest for a prolonged spell. He has decorated more games than he has designed but what now? Is he, as Wenger suggested last week, ready and hungry to become more fundamentally important to the way Arsenal play?
Part of a possible answer may lie with the player who has become Arsenal’s beacon. Alexis Sánchez is at the opposite end of the body language scale to Özil. Sánchez is like watching Action Man while Özil steps delicately out of Merchant Ivory.
No one in their right mind should be expecting Özil to suddenly chase lost causes like a dervish but watching how Sánchez has thrown himself into the Premier League has provided an example. Özil needs to make it happen, rather than wait for it to happen for him in England. Wenger certainly hopes his more powerful physique is the key to that.
If a bolder, bulkier, perhaps even braver Özil can try to muscle in on the Premier League in a way he previously could not, even more chances could be coming Sánchez’s way. Not for nothing was Cristiano Ronaldo sorry to see Özil leave Real, grateful as he was for the multiple assists which came his way. If the frantic energy of Sánchez and the languid technique of Özil can be harnessed, the blend of qualities has the potential to make a big impression.
Strange though it seems, this £42.5m World Cup winner still has something to prove to the Premier League.
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