Unai Emery seemed to be a satisfied man after Arsenal progressed into the Europa League last 16. This was after he was nursing serious ego damage issues due to what he could term as the worst performance of his reign. The other lot that seemed to be satisfied would be Arsenal fans who on Thursday evening saw Mesut Ozil’s recall.
“We play another 90 minutes next week and I am sure it is going to be different,” said Emery after the miserable 1-0 defeat in Belarus at BATE Borisov.
“The key is in his hands,” said Emery yesterday, most likely having already decided to give Ozil the chance to undo the BATE lock. “I ask him in our conversation for consistency, to be available for us for training, when you can train consistently you can help us with your best performance in the games. He needs to be available consistently for training, without the injuries, without the sickness. Without that we cannot see the best Ozil with us.”
After watching Ozil complete 90 minutes for only the seventh time this season, both parties, Arsenal supporters and Emery, will claim that what they witnessed further strengthened their original arguments. Ozil offered a neat performance with the odd moment of inspiration, a flick and a disguised pass here and there, to satisfy his fans’ anticipation.
Mesut Ozil was employed in a central role behind Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with a brief to ensure the centre-forward was better served than Alexandre Lacazette last week, when the France star was so starved he could no longer contain his frustration. Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alex Iwobi were handed the opportunity to redeem themselves either side of the playmaker, and it was towards Iwobi on the left that Ozil naturally drifted.
Ozil distributed the ball with the kind of tentativeness one might expect of player who has missed just over half of Arsenal’s matches and, as Emery suggested, more training sessions. Everything was safe and short, with Ozil having the second-highest number of touches while retaining the second-best passing accuracy.
With two corners being nodded in by centre- backs, Arsenal’s goal was as a courtesy of an on goal. A third of their 22 shots on goal came from set-pieces, with BATE’s goalkeeper Denis Scherbitski enjoying a relatively calm evening, despite so much of the play moving around his box. Ozil had three opportunities to test BATE’s goal keeper but resulted in tripping over in the first, volleying over in the second and shanking wide in the third.
Arsenal supporters who gave Ozil’s name a more enthusiastic reception than any other when it was announced before kick-off will wait with baited breath to discover whether their hero will get another chance to get his eye in this weekend. The Gunners take on bottom half opposition in two home games in the coming six days before a week in which they face Tottenham and Manchester United either side of the first leg of the next round of the Europa League – a competition Emery prioritised very early on, and the importance was evident in the manager’s touchline demeanour.
Ozil’s inclusion demonstrated that Emery is willing to consider the playmaker. But the manager will require far more convincing in the coming week if Ozil is to play even a supporting role during a period which could further define Arsenal’s season.