Over the past seven years, no Arsenal player has received more negative press than Mesut Özil. The Turkish-native German has had his name dragged through the mud at every given opportunity by fans and journalists alike. When Arsenal lose 5-1 to Bayern Munich, Özil is the first name to be brought up but when the club wins four FA Cups in six years, his name is nowhere to be seen.
In a breath-taking interview released this morning, Mesut Özil poured his heart out to The Athletic’s David Ornstein going into detail about the birth of his new daughter, his feelings on not taking a pay cut and how he was fit and ready to play post-lockdown.
The 31-year-old’s interview was very insightful but what was most telling is that the German seemed to imply he wasn’t selected post-lockdown due to his refusal to take a 12.5% pay cut. A pay cut that was proposed with the intention to “save staff member’s jobs,” this was, of course, a lie as the club announced the redundancies of 55 employees last week. Özil also mentioned that he was not the only player to reject the pay cut, even though it was only his name leaked to the press. This only strengthens the narrative that because of his status & wage he’s blamed the most fervently.
This season, in 18 PL appearances, Mesut Özil averaged an 88.3% pass accuracy, 46.4 passes a game, created 2.1 chances per 90 and directly contributed to 3 goals. Not impressed? Let’s see how that compares to the rest of the squad. Apart from Nicolas Pepe (40), Mesut Özil created the most amount of chances (37) for Arsenal in the league – bear in mind the Ivorian played 567 minutes more than him.
You may not see this as significant but as a team Arsenal created the 5th least amount of chances in the league last season. That’s a shocking stat for a club with our aspirations and to think that a player who’s provided 216 assists across his career can’t even get into the starting XI, says more about the club than the individual. Mikel Arteta has instilled a non-negotiables atmosphere at the club which I 100% agree with but if he’s not being allowed to select Özil due to the powers above him, then something is seriously wrong.
This is not an article to bash the club or the manager, it’s a piece to state that Mesut Özil isn’t necessarily the problem and could at least be a part of the solution. Finally, just to add a bit of flavour to the article, let the record state that after Arsenal’s record 14th FA Cup win, Mesut Özil is now officially the most successful player in the Emirates era. Sorry, I had to mention it.