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From an overseas player with wide bulging eyes to the savior of the club, it only took five games for Mesut Ozil to complete his journey from the former to the latter in front of the Arsenal fans. In his short stint at the club Ozil has proved himself to be a classic example of how a single player can uplift an entire team and give confidence to the fans.
Arsenal, who started of their season on the back foot after an opening day defeat against Aston Villa, sent shock waves around the league when they announced the signing of Ozil on the deadline day. There were plenty of factors which contributed to the surprise element of the deal with the major one being Arsene Wenger’s decision to finally go out and spend in the market for a star rather than a youngster and did he strike the bulls-eye or what?
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Ozil only needed ten-minutes of playing time to show the fans what he is made of after the German produced immense skill and intelligence to set-up Olivier Giroud to score a simple yet magical goal against Sunderland. Ozil linked up beautifully with the likes of Aaron Ramsey and Mathieu Flamini and made delightful moves that reminded of the English midfield which consisted of the Steven Gerard, David Beckham and Frank Lampard.
Instead of showing the awkwardness of a record signing Ozil just stepped up and played like a player who was bought up at the club. And all of a sudden the Arsenal fans who wished to be in the Champions League spot started seeing dreams of a title challenge.
Ozil sparkled again in his second outing in the Premier League after he set up all three goals of the Gunners against Stoke City and thus giving him the title of “assistor” in the internet troll world. Many pundits suggested that Ozil would have a tough time to replicate his impressive assists in La Liga as Arsenal was missing a superstar goal scorer like Cristiano Ronaldo but the £42.4 million man proved everyone wrong when he helped transform Olivier Giroud into a goal scoring forward that Arsenal needed the most. Giroud was not the only one who reaped the benefit of Ozil’s impact players like Ramsey and Jack Wilshere were also given a lift by the German and it will be interesting to see when Wenger finally give chance to Nicklas Bendtner to link up with Ozil.
Though he is not a Ronaldo or Lionel Messi when it comes to skill and talent, Ozil with his work rate has shown that he can uplift a team and make it rise from the edge of another average season. It might be too early to confirm the outcome of his impact but he has definetly transformed Arsenal into a club that the other clubs fear. And if the Arsenal fans believe that this season might be theirs, they have all the right to do so with this magician in the midfield.
