Özil Signing Changes Things

Next Bergkamp???

International weekends are the absolute worst thing once the season starts. It feels like you need to be doing something, but you don’t want to do anything except for watch football. Of course, the matter isn’t helped at all since we have to wait another week before we can see our new star man play.

I watched the second half of the Germany-Austria game yesterday, to see how our new boy is in action. To sum it all up for you, he is incredibly sound in possession, good in tight spaces, and is sort of like the anti-Denilson. As I am sure you are all aware, Denilson only passed the ball sidewards, as Özil is always looking forward. Özil played as a lone striker in the last 10 minutes of the game which could be a preview of something that may happen at Arsenal. Can Wenger be set to play with the false number 9? We certainly have enough midfielders to do so.

Midfielders are probably the most important part of any team. Games are won or lost in midfield (although the same goes for defence). Arsenal’s game is dependent on the midfield though, so a strong and large midfield has to be in order if Arsenal’s style of football is to be functioning properly. Arsenal’s midfield without Özil is very strong, so it was surprising to see Arsenal make a midfielder as their marquee signing of the Summer.

Obviously, Wenger wanted to sign a creative goalscorer, or get two for the price of one (Di Maria and Benzema). After we missed out on Suarez, Wenger had to make the decision over who to go after. It made perfect sense for us to try and get Di Maria and Benzema, but unfortunately for us, neither of them wanted to leave Madrid. Out of nowhere came the Cabaye bid, which I am not even sure why we bid for him.

Signing Flamini practically ended our Cabaye chase, and to be honest, I would rather Flamini on a free than spending £20m on a player who was probably not going to be in our first team. Flamini is also a versatile player, being able to play right back and the centre of the park. The Flamini signing didn’t go so well at first with Arsenal fans, mainly because we all wanted to sign a big marquee player.

At the end of the transfer window, we weren’t sure at all what we were going to get. We were linked with about 250 players, but none of them even seemed like real targets, not even Özil. However, we were all pretty certain that we would get someone from Madrid as Wenger spoke of the “domino effect” that would occur once Bale joined the Spanish giants.

Shortly after Bale left Spurs, Arsenal were revealed to be in advanced talks over signing Mesut Özil. At first, I was excited but I was also confused over why we needed to sign a creative midfielder. But if you look at the stats and really think about the club, you will see that Özil is a perfect signing. Our midfield is very good but we still were lacking a real Fabregas-esque player. Cazorla is very good, but he is not someone who I believe is going to be able to pull all the strings together by himself. Wislhere has potential, but his injury problems and expectations have overwhelmed him. Zelalem looks to be a real talent, but at 16 you don’t want him playing too many games. Rosicky is getting up there in years, so this looks to be his last season. Özil on the other hand, is 24 and better than all the players mentioned before.

So transfer deadline day came and we eventually got our man, but I was very  disappointed that we weren’t able to get a striker. If you look at the Arsenal squad, there is a big difference in quality throughout all of the positions. Having Bendtner and Park up front is not what I would have expected at the begging of the season.

Bendtner spent all Summer making a fool of himself as he rejected at least 5 clubs due to his incomprehensible wages. In the end, he wasn’t even able to join Crystal Palace. There was the agreement with Arsenal to let him go, but because we couldn’t find a striker, he had to stay. I personally thought that Demba Ba on loan would have been a great signing. We would have got him for a season while we tried to sign a real striker in the Winter or next Summer. Now, we are sweating every time Giroud plays. Please let Sanogo be the next Henry.

The only reason I can find, or hope to find, for Arsenal not signing a big name striker was because they are planning on spending in January. We all know that Suarez was our number one target this Summer, and he may be our number one target this Winter. It’s sort of hard to predict what will happen in January but we all need to hope that it is something good.

Özil joining is not just great on the field though, His singing has uplifted the spirits of every single Arsenal fan. Plus, he may have changed the way clubs look at us. We now know that the club is willing to spend £40m+ on a player and that we can attract the top players. Now that Özil has joined, I want to find one striker who doesn’t want to play in our midfield. If we can attract a big name striker, we would truly, truly, be title contenders once more.