Arsenal have managed another emphatic win, this time against Watford, this week and it was pretty enjoyable to watch, but what did we learn?
1Mesut Ozil is officially better than Eric Cantona…maybe
Ozil has reached 50 Premier League assists faster than anyone else in the history of the competition after delivering the free-kick that led to Shkodran Mustafi’s headed goal against Watford.
Despite the German ‘nicking a living’ while at Arsenal, he’s doing pretty well on the pitch. This season, he’s provided 10 assists over all competitions, which might not be his highest tally yet but places him in joint fourth in the league behind the likes of Kevin de Bruyne for Manchester City (14), Leroy Sane (11), and teammate Henrikh Mkhitaryan (9).
50 – Mesut Özil has become the fastest player to reach 50 Premier League assists, doing so in just 141 games and breaking the record previously held by Eric Cantona (143 games). Magic. pic.twitter.com/yMZquraDd3
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 11, 2018
Mesut Özil: the fastest player to reach 50 assists in Premier League history: 141 games.
Faster than Cantona (143)
Faster than Bergkamp (146)
Faster than Fàbregas (165)
Faster than David Silva (166)
Faster than Beckham (170)〽️
— Jake Entwistle (@JakeEntwistle) March 11, 2018
Ozil has copped his fair share of criticism since he signed for Arsenal in 2013. Even when he has amazing games, which happens more often than the media would lead you to believe, he’s rarely praised.
I don’t know, maybe it’s because he came from Real Madrid for £42.5m, which was actually a large amount of money five years ago, or people think he’s ‘lazy’ because of his ‘body language’ despite the playmaker being proven to run more than most of the Arsenal team.
Whatever it is that most people seem to dislike about Ozil, Gooners adore him. There’s a reason why no one really cares that he’s being paid £300k-per-week.
Even though his season has been up and down again, he’s still managed to reach 50 assists faster than Cantona, Fabregas and many others during his Arsenal career.
Now that the 29-year-old has signed a new contract, his performances have been solid and I’m sure they’ll continue to improve with the team’s confidence.
Both he and Henrikh Mkhitaryan are really finding their rhythm now and learning how to play with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in front of them. Again, in Miki’s case.