Mesut Özil made his Premier League debut against Sunderland on 14 th September 2013,
following a move from Real Madrid that could end up costing Arsenal a reported £42m in
total.
While the diminutive German playmaker has come under fire for under performing
recently, there’s no doubt that he has been integral to Arsenal’s performances since
his move.
Since his debut, Özil has featured in 105 of the 136 games that Arsenal have played
in the period, starting 102.
In that time, Arsenal have won the third most games of any side in the
Premier League, and scored the third most goals, despite not winning the title in this
period.
They’ve also created the fifth most chances.
Özil’s assist total since debut is the highest of any Premier League player, with
37.
Indeed, in this period, only four players have managed
30 or more assists: Mesut Özil – 37 (105 games played)
Christian Eriksen – 31 (122 games played) Cesc Fabregas – 31 (87 games played)
David Silva – 30 (103 games played) In terms of total attacking output, Özil,
who also has 20 goals to his name, is tenth in this
period and only Christian Eriksen, one place and two goals’ output ahead of him, is arguably
the same type of player: the others in the list are strikers or inside forwards with
a licence to get into the box, not playmakers.
Indeed, Eriksen is the only player who matches up to Özil in overall output, once chances
created is considered.
Özil has created the most in the period since he debuted, 353.
Eriksen is next, with 334; they are the only two players
who have created more than 300 chances in this period.
A key measure of Özil ’s importance to Arsenal, though, is his proportional effect
as a creative player.
Of the eight players who have created 200 or more chances for one team
since Özil ’s debut, Özil has created the greatest proportion of his team’s total
chances.
His 353 chances represent 22% of Arsenal’s total
of 1606.
Eriksen’s 334 are 20.5%, and Eden Hazard is next, having created 18.3% of Chelsea’s
chances since that September in 2013. Indeed, even Swansea and West Ham, two teams supposedly
dominated by one creative player, have relied less on Gylfi Sigurdsson
and Dimitri Payet for creativity than Arsenal have
on Özil since his debut:This season, though, Özil has not performed at the same level.
He has scored five goals but only has four assists (equal 20 th in the
Premier League).
Alexis Sanchez, Theo Walcott, and Olivier Giroud have all achieved a greater
total attacking output than Özil for Arsenal, and
the German midfielder is only joint 30th overall in this season’s table for total attacking
output.
Özil ’s total 3.36 chances per game since debut has dropped to 2.77 per game this
season, still very good, but implying that his drop off in assists isn’t simply that
his created ​ chances are not being converted.
Having said that, Özil is still integral to Arsenal’s creative
output, but he’s now sharing that burden increasingly with Sanchez, who is a greater
all- round threat.
Özil is responsible for 20.8% of Arsenal’s created chances, less than Sanchez’s
21.5% but still joint 7th in the Premier League overall (with Ross Barkley).
The form of Sanchez might have eased some of Özil’s burden, and he’s creating
fewer chances per game in absolute terms, but relatively
speaking, to other players in the league, he ’s still an outstanding playmaker.
Just because Arsenal are less reliant on him doesn’t
mean that Özil has become a bad player, and criticism of him overlooks just how much Özil
still does for the team.