Arsenal man has been an enigma – but now, due to a variety of reasons from his age to his team-mates, the numbers are adding up.
Goals were what Wenger wanted from Özil this year. “He plays in the position, he is a good finisher, but he doesn’t take enough chances, and he is conscious of it,” Wenger said in July. “We want 10 goals per season from him.”
Özil agreed. “I want to score more goals than in the last two seasons, and that’s my aim for this season,” he said in August. “I need to become a bit more selfish.”
But he has scored just twice so far. Big goals, admittedly, in the home wins against Manchester United and Bayern Munich. But still just two, after three months of football and 15 starts. At this rate, he should finish the season with eight.
Özil has not changed his game much this year, only improved it. He has not become a different player, just become the best creative player in the country, and by a distance.
There has always been a debate about the measurability of what Özil does on the football pitch. During his quiet first two seasons at Arsenal, there was a theory that what he does – those deft touches and clever runs – was not always recorded by the conventional metrics of goals and assists. It was almost as if his ghostly style made him elusive not just to opponents but also to statisticians. That served to explain why this clearly talented £42.5m footballer could, more often than not, leave such a light footprint on matches.
This year, though, Özil’s brilliance has been very measurable indeed. While assists are important – only David Silva and Gerard Deulofeu average more per 90 minutes than him – they are an imperfect tool, as they leave the creator at the mercy of the striker’s finish. What matters more is chances created, and in those areas Özil is destroying the competition.
Özil is leading the Premier League for chances created per 90 minutes played, with 4.99, almost 20 per cent more than second-placed Dimitri Payet, according to Opta. For only chances created from open play, Özil is at 4.14, a nearly 40 per cent margin over Eden Hazard in second. On the creation of “big chances”, the gap is narrower, but Özil is still top, ahead of Riyad Mahrez and Deulofeu.
In terms of assists, chances created, and open play chances created, Özil is in the form of his life, launching himself comfortably beyond anything he has done at Arsenal so far and even beating his best numbers from Werder Bremen and Real Madrid. Clearly, his contribution was measurable all along. This year he is simply doing more.
