Arsenal Vs Manchester City: Prove me wrong, Mesut Ozil

Arsenal host Manchester City on Sunday afternoon hoping to upset the champions. At the heart of their team will be Mesut Ozil, who needs to prove me and the rest of his doubters wrong.

Well, when you are playing £350,000 per week for a footballer, you expect him to turn up in the biggest games. Like plenty other star players have done so for their respective teams, Arsenal are still waiting for Mesut Ozil to truly prove his worth. So what better game for him to change the tune than against the champions?

The Gunners host City on Sunday afternoon hoping to do the impossible. Even with City’s recent poor performances and results, they are the strong favourites. And justifiably given both their quality and Arsenal’s crisis of confidence and form.

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This is the game, then, when a World Cup winner can stand up and be counted. When a world-class talent can become a world-class player. When his team needs him the most, even in a game that does not ostensibly suit his style, to deliver.

For Ozil, it is these big-game performances that have led to the derisory comments engulfing his time in north London. Especially when away from home, when his team did not dominate possession and they needed to dig in, Ozil routinely went missing. And while this match may come at the Emirates, the same sentiments persist.

Against a City team that average north of 60% possession per game, the highest by far in the Premier League, Freddie Ljungberg will be looking for a combative, industrious, hard-working, committed performance from his players, with his attackers pressing at times and tracking runners and his midfielders running the hard yards.

As you might have guessed, that is not Ozil’s natural game. But that does not mean he is not capable of. Anyone can run, right? All it takes is effort, willingness, a positive attitude to get your head down and work hard. These are personal qualities; they have nothing to do with how capable a footballer you may or may not be.

But Ozil has repeatedly displayed that he does not possess these characteristics. He is lazy, selfish, unwilling to work hard. He does not defend, he presses languidly, without the necessary intensity and attitude, and he rarely tracks back.

Such is his quality, many fans suggest that dealing with these shortcomings provide a net positive to the team. His creativity is unmatched in the squad, his passing smoothes out the entire team, and he adds an element of quality and calmness in possession that very few players in the world can replicate. But those contributions are far less valued against a team that will dominate possession like City.

It is time, then, for Ozil to prove that he is willing to run the hard yards, to do the dirty work, to actually try. It is time for him to prove his doubters — of which I am one — wrong. I will not be holding my breath.