Arsenal verdict: Mesut Ozil tries to stay relevant by embarrassing Gunners on social media before poor Leicester defeat
MESUT OZIL was at it again, tweeting footage of his goal in the 3-1 win against Leicester two years ago ahead of the game against the same opponents.
What he failed to mention was that it was just about his last decent performance in an Arsenal shirt before being dumped from the squad by Mikel Arteta.
Ok, Gooners. A little warmup for tonight to get in the mood for the big clash against @LCFC
— Mesut Özil (@MesutOzil1088) October 25, 2020#YaGunnersYa #M1Ö #goodmemories @Arsenal @premierleague https://t.co/Xk5yS43nQd
Now the only way he can keep himself at the centre of attention is by trying to embarrass the club on social media at every opportunity.
But Arteta is not going to rise to Ozil’s trolling and now the team has to find another source of inspiration if they are going to be serious top four challengers this season.
Jamie Vardy’s 11th goal in his last 11 games against Arsenal highlighted the Gunners’ lack of a cutting edge and condemned them to their third defeat in their last four League games.
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And Arteta will be tearing his hair out in frustration at his team’s failure to break down an obdurate Leicester defence despite dominating right from the start.
The Spaniard will take some comfort from the fact that now everyone in a red shirt puts in a proper shift and no longer shrinks at the first sign of physical adversity.
But that will be little consolation for Gunners fans who are already beginning to fear they could be witnessing yet another false dawn at the Emirates.
The arrival of midfield anchorman Thomas Partey has given wing-backs Hector Bellerin and Kieran Tierney licence to bomb forward and they relished the opportunity to pin Leicester into their own area.
Yet for all their corners and crosses into the box, Arsenal couldn’t turn their possession into goals.
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That wasn’t due to the absence of a creative player like Ozil but simply because Alex Lacazette was in such ponderous form at the sharp end of the Gunners’ attack.
The Frenchman did have the ball in the net early on when he glanced in from a Dani Ceballos corner but Granit Xhaka was judged to be impeding keeper Kasper Schmeichel.
But every time the ball flashed across the face of the Leicester goal after that, Lacazette was simply unable to apply the finishing touch which the game was crying out for.
Ozil’s supporters – and there are still plenty of those – will claim that their man could provide the missing spark to open up defences.
But that ship has sailed and now Arteta’s team are already in danger of losing touch with the leading pack.
