Alexis Sanchez is not indestructible. The fears of every Arsenal fan have come to light. We’re playing on a knife edge. As it’s an ‘Arsenal’ injury we may not see our Chilean star until next year. I mean, take Welbeck for example, what does he look like now? I’ve forgotten. And that Jack Wilshere lad, he’s vanished. Arsenal players disappear. Frequently. Every single season. Wenger has to take the blame.
He buys them, trains them, plays them, doesn’t rest them, doesn’t provide backup. It’s year after year of deja vu. It’s a load of rubbish. It’s tiring. This is how the season unfolds. This is how it starts. The positives are that we are still right in the mix but, now that we’ve reached the standard ten injuries, things should quickly settle expectations back down. Ozil is still performing above everybody else in the league so he’s the only player worth anything from the weekend. But the real star this week was inevitability.
Mucking through the negatives, Mezut Ozil is an Arsenal player and he doesn’t break too often. He’s extraordinary. Maybe he wasn’t extraordinary at the weekend, but there really isn’t much to chew on here. He scored. That makes him extraordinary. Because no other Arsenal player did anything. Making them ordinary. Alexis was gold until he got injured and all but confirmed Arsenal back to the depths of reality.
The reason Ozil is excelling this season is because he’s settled, but also because, as Wenger mentioned, he is much more balanced. He’s added more goals to his game, and he looks more comfortable when in scoring positions. He still misses the odd chance, but he seems happier to score than he did a year ago. He’s taken on the role of Ramsey, acting as the player who bursts into the box to finish the move. There’s a killer instinct. This was put into perfect practise against Norwich, both him and Sanchez tasted blood following a poor goal kick and the goal was already set in motion, in their minds, way ahead of the game. Sanchez snatched the ball, looked up and found Ozil already piercing through the defence. It was easy. Ozil was in acres. He kept his cool and deftly chipped the ball home. It’s fair to say that the timid Ozil of last season would have missed. He’s the leading man now, the entire creative engine and he relishes it.
In all honesty I can’t remember Ozil doing much than score. He had some nice touches and a bit of spark in the first half, but as soon as Norwich scored the whole team just receded into their shells. It’s a game to forget.
On a quick side note…dropping Campbell after a great game simply because Ramsey was available is among the worst things Wenger’s done this season. Talk about shooting down a player’s confidence. All that says is that Wenger doesn’t trust Campbell. And if the manager doesn’t trust you, how can you improve or perform? It’s shoddy management. Wenger has his favourites and it haunts him every season.