Mesut Ozil is priceless.

Lot of talk past ten days about Ozil (I can't be arsed to umlaut every time, or anytime so forgive me)


"He's overrated"

"He's not lit up the league"

"He doesn't look like he's interested, he's made a mistake coming to Arsenal"


These are the views and quotes of people who haven't watched Mesut Ozil at all, whilst he might not be scoring 4 every game and assisting 11, he gives Arsenal intangible qualities.



1. He Creates Uncertainty in the Opposition & Fans

Perfect example was away at West Brom, after he had started the move and effortlessly skipped 70 yards to play a part in the equaliser, I vividly remember with about five minutes to go with Arsenal pressing and West Brom faffing clearances, he picked up a loose ball and evaded a challenge, there was an audible gasp from the home support and they were worried about what he would do. That's a rare quality.


2. Makes the Opposition think about Double Teaming him

The analogy to use here is NFL, if you have someone with a star reciever or tight end then the common plan is to stick 2 defensive backs on him, or if you have a star pass-rusher, you stick 2 offensive linemen on him, this frees up other players to make plays they wouldn't normally make. You maybe could pin some of Jack Wilshere's form or Aaron Ramsey's form on the fact they can fly under the radar a bit more.


3. He (Inadvertently) reduces my blood pressure thinking about Transfer Windows

The money is there. If the player is right, it'll happen. I probably am being a bit blasé about it as I'm still on a Ozil shaped cloud. I no longer fret or get angry about the media drawing attention to the fact we won't spend. It's one narrative gone. Imagine we win a trophy, people punditting on Arsenal will have to do actual research next season.

4. Wait Until he has a full season..

And realises he's better than 97% of the Premier League. That'll be fun.

There are some great Football Statistic accounts on Twitter and some utterly fucking horrendous ones but I'd much rather judge a player on what I see, not a heat map.

What is that famous quote about Statistics? ;-)