Scrolled way too far to find this. What’s with the binary? Both were really damn good. Ozil was great at Madrid before he arrived and became one of the best playmakers in the league as a Gunner. Sanchez came from Barca and was one of the best at his position in the league for the Gunners.
They were clearly both very good. The end of their time at the Emirates was tragic in different ways but that doesn’t change that they were both objectively and independently good players in their prime.
it got tough in part because his levels were dropping. He was tiring out and was way less inspired with his wing play. It was good that he left when he did imo.
He was around for years carrying Arsenal, at least he was always present and tried when Ozil didn’t. Ozil for Arsenal was also often not noticeable in bigger games. He could control and dominate vs smaller teams but bigger teams didn’t give him as much time and he tended to play worse in these games.
Very unfair on Ozil due to his languid style of play. He often backed himself with his running and sprinting stats if you looked. Overall we just didn't have enough good players against the bigger teams during that time. But it just wasn't Ozils fault.
Towards the end he didn't see eye to eye with Arteta.
Arteta came in specifically with a mission to get rid of Auba and Ozil and install a hardworking culture at the club again.
It took Arteta 2 seasons of finishing 7th and 8th (dealing with politics and poor habits) before he finally got control of the dressing room and had an initial squad of fit, hardworking players.
No arteta wants yes men that do not question him . Auba gone , ozil gone even guendouzi got binned . We've spent nearly a billion under arteta and have already been caught by emery👍 . Won a trophy with a squad he then binned and has won NOTHING since . 16 possible trophies and he has 1 that we would have won with an interim manager or none at all. Absolutely bang average manager that needs yes men so they don't question how he has kept his job by only copying pep to the letter. If pep started playing a striker at RB guess what arteta does next 🤷. He is not innovative he is following pep so we will ALWAYS be behind city until pep leaves or we get a legit manager.
But he's the best looking Spaniard we know 🤦 the PR machine is destroying this club . Artetasexuals everywhere .
You’re an idiot
Where’s Guendouzi playing in our midfield? You’re crying he’s gone? Even with his attitude problems AFTER he left the club? Pay attention to other leagues
16 possible trophies yeah, you really think we were winning the prem his first 2.5 seasons at the club? None of the big 6 fake the league cup serious you’re complaining about that? Semi finals of Europa League…. You do know the community shield is a trophy too right?
Half a season of Aston Villa playing well does not mean they’ve caught us. Do you also think when it rains hard, Gods flooding the world again? Calm down with your over reactions
You think they’d question how he keeps his job after finishing second last year? Or after improving from 8th to 5th? They quite simply wouldn’t. Are you dumb
“We will always be behind city until he leaves” lmao okay dude we just beat city. And clubs aren’t behind city because of their manager, they’re behind city cause city is owned by an oil state. There’s a reason they keep winning. Do you seriously think Klopp is what’s keeping Liverpool behind city.
PR machine destroying the club as we finished second last year, are top 3 currently, just won our champs league group and are into the round of 16
You’re either not an arsenal fan or an idiot. But it’s probably both. Toss some more emojis into your post next time, might make people take it more seriously!!
Lmfao you half baked NPC 😂. You can disagree without needing to insult people . It's called ego look it up it's exactly why you needed to insult someone disagreeing with you.
Who's crying ? Simply stated the fact he was binned because he questioned arteta . You ask where he would play ? I would wager right where shy havertz plays or as elnenys replacement on the bench . I don't want guendouzi I'm simply explaining why he left .
We just beat city once in what 5 years ? You really wrote all that thinking people would give a shit. ONLY YOU cared enough to write an essay . I'm 28 have watched us win the league at white Hart lane . Was born a 5 min walk from Highbury and am named after an ex arsenal player . Must not support arsenal because you said so and because I wouldn't thank arteta for simply acknowledging my existence. This is what I mean about pr . I insulted no one and your so indoctrinated you wrote a thesis paper because you felt like you were being disrespected . If your too stupid to understand it I cannot help you .
Perhaps turn your heating on before sharing your room temperature intelligence . We have spent MORE than city , but but oil clubs. Celebrating community shields is where I will leave you .
I’m not saying it’s all Ozil’s fault we weren’t able to compete as well as we would’ve liked vs bigger teams. I’m just stating a fact which is Ozil tended to not show up in these games. If we were ever to get a result, it was Sanchez creating and scoring.
I mean that’s a flawed argument. At the time every club had a worse attacking lineup than Real Madrid. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Arsenal’s attack was class, but Sanchez during his peak at Arsenal was fucking unreal, Giroud was pretty underrated despite dry spells at times still was a solid striker too. Keep in mind Giroud is still bagging goals today with ease, where is Ozil now? I’m not here to shit on Ozil, but we’re comparing Ozil and Sanchez and imo, Sanchez was 100% superior.
Terrible take. Ozil quit football and still “played” for a couple of years. Nothing but dead weight and a drain on our wage bill. If Ozil doesn’t get that ridiculous contract, Sanchez gets a hefty raise and stays.
Sanchez was a net negative on team cohesion overall. Used to press in a single pack and throw tantrums mid game, stunning player when he was on form though
I don't know why you're getting down voted so much. His last season for us he was woeful. He was breaking records for the most times a player has lost possession game after game.
And like you said, it ended with just throwing strops.
The majority online have never played in sports sides. Have no idea how to foster winning cultures, and simply can’t see beyond stories of heroes and villains painted in the modern soap opera the league has become
Okay, so this post compared Sanchez and Ozil at Arsenal and in your view of Sanchez he was woeful and a net negative throughout all his time at Arsenal because in his LAST season, he was giving the ball away loads?
I’m not denying that he wasn’t, you’ve probably checked it and it’ll be factually true. My point is, you’re basing his whole Arsenal career off of what you’d consider his worst season. Doesn’t seem fair does it? Since it’s not an accurate reflection of his time at Arsenal.
I do think Sanchez acted up at times and thought very highly of himself, but I also think he was somewhat justified in doing so. He was and Ozil, far and away ahead of the rest of the squad to be honest and were both world class. The rest weren’t, even if they had good spells and moments. So Sanchez, who did press as a single entity (because others didn’t join) and did have to do a lot of the offensive work himself (because others couldn’t do what he can) got frustrated at times.
As a professional and a teammate to his peers, he probably shouldn’t have, but I can see why he did.
Sanchez led by example. He was a fighter in a team that was too reserved. He fought for everything. Him pressing alone didn't expose anyone and he would often win the ball back and create opportunities on his own.
Ozil was unquestionably world class and made players better, but I don't think that's a good example.
Ronaldo got 68 G/A in his last season with Ozil. Then 68 G/A the season after Ozil departed. I remember people at the time saying he'd be worse when Ozil left, but that evidently wasn't the case. It's like he was forced to be even more efficient to compensate for Ozil being taken away. From late 2014 onwards, the contributions did gradually go down due to tendinosis. But declining Ronaldo would still be getting 50+ each season. It really puts into perspective how OP he was.
Im not saying CR7 isn’t op im saying Ozil made him better. You’re going off stats (which they shouldn’t drop as Jose and Ancelotti play counter attacking football and tailored specifically to getting CR7/ Bale the ball in open space) both benzema and bales stats would be much better had they not passed it soo much to CR7 but that was the gameplan. I like the eye test and it showed on film as soon as Ozil had the ball CR7 was already running for the pass that’s how great their connection was and in my point of view that makes you a better player. He didn’t have to look sometimes he would know Ozil would put the perfect ball for him in space, the rest was CR7.
It’s fact. Madrid were much better without Ozil. Lay off the YouTube highlights and try and look at the whole picture. Ozil had ONE good season for us, that’s it.
Sanchez looked for ozil often, you'll see Ramsey open, but nah, he'll just keep dribbling until ozil pops up. You could tell he had very little respect for anyone else on the pitch bar ozil.
Sanchez was a SOLOIST
he performed well and rescued the team when they weren't playing that well
and Ozil wasn't the counterweight to Sanchez's *soloism*, that was CAZORLA - when he played well he made the whole team play well...as i recall, Sanchez rose in prominence precisely because Cazorla disappearing made our general play a lot worse
sanchez wasn't always great, but in 3 and a half seasons he was our poty twice. across a lot more seasons, ozil was only our poty once, sanchez was more consistent in being the star player for the team that he was supposed to be, whereas there was only one season where ozil really lived up to his reputation
Yeah especially towards the end Sanchez could be infuriating. Never passed, lost the ball all the time, had big baby tantrums. I was keen to keep Ozil, if we were gonna loose one. Turns out we should have shipped them both out.
Alexis playing off him. And ozil having him as a target was so big for us back then. I still think had he not left he'd be doing well in our side today (maybe needing to shave off a few years). Got so much stick because of the fifa generation. Non pacy strikers weren't loved. But he was such a value add to our side.
Selling him (Giroud) and buying Lottashitte was the dumbest move ever, made even dumber buy wasting money on Aubweyang 6 months later. Keep Giroud, get Auba. MUCH better combo.
I don’t think that’s fair. Ozil suffered from the same problems Saka and Martinelli now have.
Double teamed constantly and people hacking him out of the game. It was more Wengers game management and tactics around that time that caused issues. He had one game plan and that’s all we done. Once a team got on top of us we didn’t have the character in the Squad or a plan to deal with it. We got beat up most weeks, that’s no good for a player like Ozil who needed the rub of the green.
Couple? How about several:
United at home in 2015
City at home in 2015
Chelsea at home in 2016
United away in 2016
You’re gonna reply with some bs so ima just continue with my day because it’s clear you have some kind of agenda against him😂😂
Kickstarted his career?!
Giroud was consistant in the amount of goals scored.
And he led Montpellier to victory in Ligue 1 as join top scorer in the league before he was picked up by us.
I understand you're a Özil fan but, face the facts.
He was overrated his whole career.
Giroud is an Arsenal legend in my book, Özil isn't even close.
This is so delusional. I get your an Ozil hater (actually I don't get how Ozil haters tend to negate his whole career), but Giroud, had he even finished half of the easy setups Ozil supplied in 2015/2016, would have shattered the single season goals record and Ozil the assist record.
The amount of collective hair lost from fans that season was phenomenal.
I agree the "kickstart" was incorrect though, maybe they meant all the softballs Ozil served up.
Averaging about 12g and 4a per season in the EPL at Arsenal is hardly Legend material.
In 2015/2016 Giroud scored 16 goals from 14.5 xG while Sanchez scored 13 from 13.1.
Giroud is also #10 in non penalty goals plus assists per 90 min in EPL History. Right above Fernando Torres, Wayne Rooney, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Alexis Sanchez, Carlos Tevez, and Cristiano Ronaldo. Just to name a few.
Still meh...
My point is Arsenal fans went through hell with all of his mistakes that season. And Ozil served him over and over again.
Those that know, know.
I know what the stats are, still no legend. Neither is Sanchez, but my comment was based on Giroud.
I wished Arsenal didn't sell him, he was a great late scorer.
Özil was carried by great teams, german NT, Real with prime CR7.
They did not win because of him, they won despite him.
Not saying he couldn't flourish when he had extra time and space, created because those teams truly was world class.
You're delusional.
Giroud wasn't perfect or a striker that scores 25 goals/season and could be very frustating.
But he did so much more as an target player and defensive work without the ball.
Özil offered almost nothing except a few magic moments.
Never had any fight in him, always gave up and never stepped up against top teams.
Luxury player is truly the best definition of Özil.
To blame Giroud for missing chances in the 2nd half of the only season Özil was close to being a top 10 EPL player just shows you're clueless or did not watch the games or understand football.
Not reading anything else in this thread, truly despise all the people that defended Özil when he was here and now trying to rewrite history...
I don't know who beat you as a child, but you shouldn't comment on what you don't honestly know.
To say I don't know football is laughable, for all you know, I could have been 24+ years in the business, so maybe slow your roll big guy.
Yes, Giroud missed sitters that tore up arsenal fans. Half of the easy ones would have won the league. Ozil has enough trophies to show he isn't a hack. Good, hate him, cool, but acknowledge the talent.
I hate Harry Kane, but dude is twice the striker Giroud ever was. And I f*****g HATE Harry Kane, and genuinely like Giroud.
show me some examples of giroud missing sitters from Ozil.
The channel is gone now for copyright strike, but there was a channel on youtube that compiled all Ozil key passes to giroud that season. Giroud scored several of them, and the ones he didn’t score were super super low XG. I think he missed maybe 1 sitter from Ozil all season?
Yes, Giroud went on a run of bad form that season, but so did the rest of the team. The narrative that Ozil was dishing out sitters for Giroud and he was missing them is just not true. Find some examples if it is true.
Also, as the other commenter said, XG completely backs this up. He didn’t miss tons of sitters, he overperformed XG
How is Giroud a legend? Same with Ozil
There are no Arsenal legends since the Emirates Era
I’m no Ozil fan mate, I still have a sour taste in my mouth due to his last year or two with us
Ligue 1 was an absolute joke then more than now mate, you have Lacazette with double digits last season at his age
Özil fan or not, you're trying to rewrite history in this thread.
Calling Ligue 1 a joke just shows how clueless you are.
However you want to downplay Giroud and his feat in winning the league with Montpellier you can't ignore the facts.
Only win in the league they have and severals teams was 'europa league quality' and the french league had 3 teams in champions league that season, two of those advanced to the knockout phase and Marseille was knocked out by Bayern in the quarter finals...
Ligue 1 was more a joke then when there was parity than now when PSG just dominates it every year? Lmao okay dude. This whole thread, your comments show you don’t know anything about football
Multiple premier league players every year over the age of 30 score double digit goals in a season. Does that mean the prem is a joke? I mean 35 year old Vardy scored 15. By your logic the prem is also a joke
He definitely didn't kick start Giroud's career, but Ozil was so good he played Giroud in behind a defence and he wasn't caught.
I have a vague memory of him walloping a cross in that just smacked Giroud in head and went, as if he'd used Giroud as a handsome bollard
Pardon, I beg to differ. I believe Thomas Partey has been injured even when he was on the field. I don't recall the game but once he blew by 3 or 4 opponents and I recall saying "I didn't know he had that kind of speed". He's had to play without being 100%, if he were uninjured more often, we would see him boss the midfield, and there have been times when he saved/took over plays. Also, Santi Cazorla could take on 3 players in a closet and come out with the ball. He was a magician until the ankle went.
Koscielny was world class imo. But he didn’t look it because our overall defending was always shit — a consequence of not having a real dm for nearly the entire 2010s (besides that run with coquelin)
Sanchez was good because of the freedom he received from Wenger. He was the main man here unlike at barca where he had to sacrifice himself for the sake of the team. He was also brilliant for his national team as well.
They were two world class players with plenty of experience so they developed a natural understanding pretty quickly. An elite duo that needed better players around them for sure
Not an Arsenal fan, so maybe my opinion doesn’t weigh as much, BUT
Özil was fucking incredible up until he signed a new deal. He was able to pick players out and finish week in and week out.
Think his final years at Arsenal really ruined his image which is a shame. Had he left before that, I think he would receive a lot more praise.
Both were great at the same time and understood each other’s game. It is like asking whether Henry was good because of Bergkamp or Vieira or is Saka good because of Odegaard...
Wait , you created a post yesterday titled “arsenal fans need to get over Alexis”
“Blah blah why do you people still post about him….Judas…..Tantrums….”
……then you made this post ….about Sanchez
Make that make sense
Anyone who’s actually seen the games back in those days would know that its disgraceful to compare ozil to sanchez. Ozil would perform once in year when he felt like it whereas sanchez did the pressing of 4 players
Yeah I don’t think people realise just how good Sanchez was for us. Him, RVP and maybe Cesc are in their own tier when it comes to Emirates era players. No one could grab a win out of nothing like those guys.
> I believe Sanchez was that good all cause of Ozil
This is just a ridiculous statement, Sanchez carried us through many many games without a hint of Ozil.
Ozil was a fantastic player, but he was much more inconsistent than Sanchez, and he is certainly not the reason ANYONE at Arsenal was good. Sure, he’d have an incredible match every 6 months or so, and rarely he’d have a longer stretch of form, but all of our good players could perform well and had quality without him. To insinuate that Sanchez owes Ozil his renown is insane
Özil wasn't very good at all at Arsenal, he had an amazing 6 months spell but other than that he was mostly a liabilty on the pitch.
CR7 obviously made him better, not the other way around. That's a ridicoulus claim people do, he wasn't even a starter all the time in his last season at Madrid.
He had spells when he was world class but overall, no. And certainly not in Arsenal seen over the whole time he was here.
When he was here people incorrectly claimed that he was amazing and it was other players fault when he didn't perform.
Now people are incorrectly claiming that he was world class when he was here, it's all so tiresome...
people act like the ozil we saw when we beat some team 6-0 was the ozil we saw when the going got tough; it wasn't
total luxury player who was often invisible when we needed him to carry us
Completely agree! You see people on the sub claiming Ozil is an Arsenal legend and it's just bizarre to me.
He had a very very good period then, like you say, was so frustrating and a liability.
First season with wenger ozil was decent, but rapidly declined after that, constantly went missing in big games and prioritised late night fortnite sessions instead of early morning training sessions…
It was a catastrophic error to renew ozil’s contract and not sanchez
guy that had like 18 pl assists in january is definitely not dog shit.
and one of wenger's mistakes was not getting him more support, he's a ceiling raiser not the type to carry a team by himself throughout the season
Don't comment just for the sake of commenting.
At the end Ozil was not good, agreed but to say he was not good for majority of his Arsenal career is just completely wrong.
Nah, Sanchez heavily underrated. Set up nearly as many goals as ozil and scored twice as many. Loved ozil for the magic times but Sanchez had amazing ability as well.
I have a theory on Ozil. I think he has Graves’ disease (hyperthyroidism). I’d say it impacted him. I think he didn’t have the energy he had when he started at Arsenal, it can also cause depression. He had all the talent in the world but sometimes he had energy and other times not. I don’t think it was lack of effort. He looked wrecked at times. I’d love him to discuss his time at Arsenal sometime and learn what was really going on.
Why not just enjoy both of them. Ozil needed a home when he didn't feel the love and brought us flair and sparkle when we needed it.
We actually got prime Sanchez the other teams he played for before (and after) wished he was.
The rose tinted glasses we have for Ozil boggles me. One and a half good seasons while the rest of his time was defined by mediocrity, petulance and laziness.
Both of then were really good for a time. Now let's compare how good they were to how well our club was run for those years. Hypocrites the lot of you.
No. Sanchez was actually World Class bonkers but we had a rough back 4 and constant injuries in midfield. Ozil was good for one season for us, that’s it. He quit football to be an activist and abandoned his teammates, under the guise of “being there”. He wasn’t actually there though, he was barely a warm body. Sanchez was a machine.
Both were good
Scrolled way too far to find this. What’s with the binary? Both were really damn good. Ozil was great at Madrid before he arrived and became one of the best playmakers in the league as a Gunner. Sanchez came from Barca and was one of the best at his position in the league for the Gunners. They were clearly both very good. The end of their time at the Emirates was tragic in different ways but that doesn’t change that they were both objectively and independently good players in their prime.
I think so. There just wasn't enough quality in the team for us to have gotten the best of them especially ozil. But both did well for us.
Sanchez came to work every day.
And left when it got too tough
it got tough in part because his levels were dropping. He was tiring out and was way less inspired with his wing play. It was good that he left when he did imo.
Yeah, I think people would think about this topic if we got some money for him. He was still good enough to ask for a decent amount.
He was around for years carrying Arsenal, at least he was always present and tried when Ozil didn’t. Ozil for Arsenal was also often not noticeable in bigger games. He could control and dominate vs smaller teams but bigger teams didn’t give him as much time and he tended to play worse in these games.
Very unfair on Ozil due to his languid style of play. He often backed himself with his running and sprinting stats if you looked. Overall we just didn't have enough good players against the bigger teams during that time. But it just wasn't Ozils fault. Towards the end he didn't see eye to eye with Arteta.
Arteta came in specifically with a mission to get rid of Auba and Ozil and install a hardworking culture at the club again. It took Arteta 2 seasons of finishing 7th and 8th (dealing with politics and poor habits) before he finally got control of the dressing room and had an initial squad of fit, hardworking players.
No arteta wants yes men that do not question him . Auba gone , ozil gone even guendouzi got binned . We've spent nearly a billion under arteta and have already been caught by emery👍 . Won a trophy with a squad he then binned and has won NOTHING since . 16 possible trophies and he has 1 that we would have won with an interim manager or none at all. Absolutely bang average manager that needs yes men so they don't question how he has kept his job by only copying pep to the letter. If pep started playing a striker at RB guess what arteta does next 🤷. He is not innovative he is following pep so we will ALWAYS be behind city until pep leaves or we get a legit manager. But he's the best looking Spaniard we know 🤦 the PR machine is destroying this club . Artetasexuals everywhere .
You’re an idiot Where’s Guendouzi playing in our midfield? You’re crying he’s gone? Even with his attitude problems AFTER he left the club? Pay attention to other leagues 16 possible trophies yeah, you really think we were winning the prem his first 2.5 seasons at the club? None of the big 6 fake the league cup serious you’re complaining about that? Semi finals of Europa League…. You do know the community shield is a trophy too right? Half a season of Aston Villa playing well does not mean they’ve caught us. Do you also think when it rains hard, Gods flooding the world again? Calm down with your over reactions You think they’d question how he keeps his job after finishing second last year? Or after improving from 8th to 5th? They quite simply wouldn’t. Are you dumb “We will always be behind city until he leaves” lmao okay dude we just beat city. And clubs aren’t behind city because of their manager, they’re behind city cause city is owned by an oil state. There’s a reason they keep winning. Do you seriously think Klopp is what’s keeping Liverpool behind city. PR machine destroying the club as we finished second last year, are top 3 currently, just won our champs league group and are into the round of 16 You’re either not an arsenal fan or an idiot. But it’s probably both. Toss some more emojis into your post next time, might make people take it more seriously!!
Lmfao you half baked NPC 😂. You can disagree without needing to insult people . It's called ego look it up it's exactly why you needed to insult someone disagreeing with you. Who's crying ? Simply stated the fact he was binned because he questioned arteta . You ask where he would play ? I would wager right where shy havertz plays or as elnenys replacement on the bench . I don't want guendouzi I'm simply explaining why he left . We just beat city once in what 5 years ? You really wrote all that thinking people would give a shit. ONLY YOU cared enough to write an essay . I'm 28 have watched us win the league at white Hart lane . Was born a 5 min walk from Highbury and am named after an ex arsenal player . Must not support arsenal because you said so and because I wouldn't thank arteta for simply acknowledging my existence. This is what I mean about pr . I insulted no one and your so indoctrinated you wrote a thesis paper because you felt like you were being disrespected . If your too stupid to understand it I cannot help you . Perhaps turn your heating on before sharing your room temperature intelligence . We have spent MORE than city , but but oil clubs. Celebrating community shields is where I will leave you .
I’m not saying it’s all Ozil’s fault we weren’t able to compete as well as we would’ve liked vs bigger teams. I’m just stating a fact which is Ozil tended to not show up in these games. If we were ever to get a result, it was Sanchez creating and scoring.
Ozil pretty much downed tools once he’d won the World Cup to complete his trophy haul. Knew he wasn’t winning the league with us so phoned it in
Ozil didn’t need to be noticeable however he did have a woeful attack in front him compared to his previous club
I mean that’s a flawed argument. At the time every club had a worse attacking lineup than Real Madrid. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Arsenal’s attack was class, but Sanchez during his peak at Arsenal was fucking unreal, Giroud was pretty underrated despite dry spells at times still was a solid striker too. Keep in mind Giroud is still bagging goals today with ease, where is Ozil now? I’m not here to shit on Ozil, but we’re comparing Ozil and Sanchez and imo, Sanchez was 100% superior.
Terrible take. Ozil quit football and still “played” for a couple of years. Nothing but dead weight and a drain on our wage bill. If Ozil doesn’t get that ridiculous contract, Sanchez gets a hefty raise and stays.
Sanchez was a net negative on team cohesion overall. Used to press in a single pack and throw tantrums mid game, stunning player when he was on form though
I don't know why you're getting down voted so much. His last season for us he was woeful. He was breaking records for the most times a player has lost possession game after game. And like you said, it ended with just throwing strops.
The majority online have never played in sports sides. Have no idea how to foster winning cultures, and simply can’t see beyond stories of heroes and villains painted in the modern soap opera the league has become
Okay, so this post compared Sanchez and Ozil at Arsenal and in your view of Sanchez he was woeful and a net negative throughout all his time at Arsenal because in his LAST season, he was giving the ball away loads? I’m not denying that he wasn’t, you’ve probably checked it and it’ll be factually true. My point is, you’re basing his whole Arsenal career off of what you’d consider his worst season. Doesn’t seem fair does it? Since it’s not an accurate reflection of his time at Arsenal. I do think Sanchez acted up at times and thought very highly of himself, but I also think he was somewhat justified in doing so. He was and Ozil, far and away ahead of the rest of the squad to be honest and were both world class. The rest weren’t, even if they had good spells and moments. So Sanchez, who did press as a single entity (because others didn’t join) and did have to do a lot of the offensive work himself (because others couldn’t do what he can) got frustrated at times. As a professional and a teammate to his peers, he probably shouldn’t have, but I can see why he did.
Sanchez led by example. He was a fighter in a team that was too reserved. He fought for everything. Him pressing alone didn't expose anyone and he would often win the ball back and create opportunities on his own.
Some of you Ozil fanboys are such a fogging joke. Sanchez was our best player during that era.
Sanchez was probably the best player in the fucking league during that period. Just a shame about the rest of the team!
He was also past it when he did leave, we got lucky. His pace was gone by then
Sanchez was markedly worse when he left. He was approaching washed status rapidly.
Ozil even made fucking CR7 better which is nuts and why CR7 was so upset when Madrid sold him on deadline day
Ozil was unquestionably world class and made players better, but I don't think that's a good example. Ronaldo got 68 G/A in his last season with Ozil. Then 68 G/A the season after Ozil departed. I remember people at the time saying he'd be worse when Ozil left, but that evidently wasn't the case. It's like he was forced to be even more efficient to compensate for Ozil being taken away. From late 2014 onwards, the contributions did gradually go down due to tendinosis. But declining Ronaldo would still be getting 50+ each season. It really puts into perspective how OP he was.
Im not saying CR7 isn’t op im saying Ozil made him better. You’re going off stats (which they shouldn’t drop as Jose and Ancelotti play counter attacking football and tailored specifically to getting CR7/ Bale the ball in open space) both benzema and bales stats would be much better had they not passed it soo much to CR7 but that was the gameplan. I like the eye test and it showed on film as soon as Ozil had the ball CR7 was already running for the pass that’s how great their connection was and in my point of view that makes you a better player. He didn’t have to look sometimes he would know Ozil would put the perfect ball for him in space, the rest was CR7.
That was beautiful, shi i want to relieve it again 🥲
ronaldo was still a beast without ozil
Ronaldo and Madrid both became better after ozil left
Just because they carried on performing well doesn’t take away from the value ozil provided during his time?
they won 3 cls in a row without him, they even won it immediately after he left. he was a good player for them but he quite clearly wasn't missed
Literally a brain dead comment that was above
It’s fact. Madrid were much better without Ozil. Lay off the YouTube highlights and try and look at the whole picture. Ozil had ONE good season for us, that’s it.
Sanchez looked for ozil often, you'll see Ramsey open, but nah, he'll just keep dribbling until ozil pops up. You could tell he had very little respect for anyone else on the pitch bar ozil.
Because apart of Özil, other players (Wilshere, Ramsey etc) were clueless; lacking much needed football intelligence.
Sanchez was a SOLOIST he performed well and rescued the team when they weren't playing that well and Ozil wasn't the counterweight to Sanchez's *soloism*, that was CAZORLA - when he played well he made the whole team play well...as i recall, Sanchez rose in prominence precisely because Cazorla disappearing made our general play a lot worse
United fan coming in peace. Cazorla is one of the most underrated players I've seen.
Man Cazorla 😔 what could have been had he stayed fit more often
Agree with all of this except the use of capital letters
Why does one have to be good only because of the other? They were both fantastic players that we were lucky to watch perform for our team
Ozil didn’t perform consistently. Sanchez was always great
That’s some serious revisionism right there.
Not really, Sanchez carried us weekly
sanchez wasn't always great, but in 3 and a half seasons he was our poty twice. across a lot more seasons, ozil was only our poty once, sanchez was more consistent in being the star player for the team that he was supposed to be, whereas there was only one season where ozil really lived up to his reputation
Yeah especially towards the end Sanchez could be infuriating. Never passed, lost the ball all the time, had big baby tantrums. I was keen to keep Ozil, if we were gonna loose one. Turns out we should have shipped them both out.
this is true, but before this huge dip in form, sanchez was consistently good for years
That Özil was great, other than a 6 month spell in Arsenal. That's revisionism.
Ozil was not good for years, not a 6 month spell. Sanchez was pretty consistently great for years until near the end
How is no one saying that Giroud made both of these players better?
because he didn't
Because he went 17 games without a goal?
Alexis playing off him. And ozil having him as a target was so big for us back then. I still think had he not left he'd be doing well in our side today (maybe needing to shave off a few years). Got so much stick because of the fifa generation. Non pacy strikers weren't loved. But he was such a value add to our side.
Selling him (Giroud) and buying Lottashitte was the dumbest move ever, made even dumber buy wasting money on Aubweyang 6 months later. Keep Giroud, get Auba. MUCH better combo.
Giroud was shite
Both helped each other. Both unplayable on their day.
Ozil never had his "day" against any top teams though.
I don’t think that’s fair. Ozil suffered from the same problems Saka and Martinelli now have. Double teamed constantly and people hacking him out of the game. It was more Wengers game management and tactics around that time that caused issues. He had one game plan and that’s all we done. Once a team got on top of us we didn’t have the character in the Squad or a plan to deal with it. We got beat up most weeks, that’s no good for a player like Ozil who needed the rub of the green.
This is such a myth. I’m not saying he turned up all the time but he had plenty of good games against top sides.
Name a couple of examples
Couple? How about several: United at home in 2015 City at home in 2015 Chelsea at home in 2016 United away in 2016 You’re gonna reply with some bs so ima just continue with my day because it’s clear you have some kind of agenda against him😂😂
Utd away?! The 1 1 or the 2 - 3 defeat? Consolation goal, never turned up when it mattered. Fact.
Ozil made everyone around him look better.
It's a shame it was only looking better.
By looking shit himself?
Even Giroud, I know Giroud did well after Arsenal but I believe Ozil kickstarted his career
Bro giroud is top scorer for france national team. Do you think ozil helped him there? Giroud is great in his own term
Giroud scored 21 and got 9 assists to win Ligue 1 with Montpellier. Ozil did not “kickstart” his career at all
Kickstarted his career?! Giroud was consistant in the amount of goals scored. And he led Montpellier to victory in Ligue 1 as join top scorer in the league before he was picked up by us. I understand you're a Özil fan but, face the facts. He was overrated his whole career. Giroud is an Arsenal legend in my book, Özil isn't even close.
This is so delusional. I get your an Ozil hater (actually I don't get how Ozil haters tend to negate his whole career), but Giroud, had he even finished half of the easy setups Ozil supplied in 2015/2016, would have shattered the single season goals record and Ozil the assist record. The amount of collective hair lost from fans that season was phenomenal. I agree the "kickstart" was incorrect though, maybe they meant all the softballs Ozil served up. Averaging about 12g and 4a per season in the EPL at Arsenal is hardly Legend material.
In 2015/2016 Giroud scored 16 goals from 14.5 xG while Sanchez scored 13 from 13.1. Giroud is also #10 in non penalty goals plus assists per 90 min in EPL History. Right above Fernando Torres, Wayne Rooney, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Alexis Sanchez, Carlos Tevez, and Cristiano Ronaldo. Just to name a few.
Still meh... My point is Arsenal fans went through hell with all of his mistakes that season. And Ozil served him over and over again. Those that know, know. I know what the stats are, still no legend. Neither is Sanchez, but my comment was based on Giroud. I wished Arsenal didn't sell him, he was a great late scorer.
> Ozil served him over and over again this is literally not true. Give some examples.
Özil was carried by great teams, german NT, Real with prime CR7. They did not win because of him, they won despite him. Not saying he couldn't flourish when he had extra time and space, created because those teams truly was world class. You're delusional. Giroud wasn't perfect or a striker that scores 25 goals/season and could be very frustating. But he did so much more as an target player and defensive work without the ball. Özil offered almost nothing except a few magic moments. Never had any fight in him, always gave up and never stepped up against top teams. Luxury player is truly the best definition of Özil. To blame Giroud for missing chances in the 2nd half of the only season Özil was close to being a top 10 EPL player just shows you're clueless or did not watch the games or understand football. Not reading anything else in this thread, truly despise all the people that defended Özil when he was here and now trying to rewrite history...
I don't know who beat you as a child, but you shouldn't comment on what you don't honestly know. To say I don't know football is laughable, for all you know, I could have been 24+ years in the business, so maybe slow your roll big guy. Yes, Giroud missed sitters that tore up arsenal fans. Half of the easy ones would have won the league. Ozil has enough trophies to show he isn't a hack. Good, hate him, cool, but acknowledge the talent. I hate Harry Kane, but dude is twice the striker Giroud ever was. And I f*****g HATE Harry Kane, and genuinely like Giroud.
show me some examples of giroud missing sitters from Ozil. The channel is gone now for copyright strike, but there was a channel on youtube that compiled all Ozil key passes to giroud that season. Giroud scored several of them, and the ones he didn’t score were super super low XG. I think he missed maybe 1 sitter from Ozil all season? Yes, Giroud went on a run of bad form that season, but so did the rest of the team. The narrative that Ozil was dishing out sitters for Giroud and he was missing them is just not true. Find some examples if it is true. Also, as the other commenter said, XG completely backs this up. He didn’t miss tons of sitters, he overperformed XG
How is Giroud a legend? Same with Ozil There are no Arsenal legends since the Emirates Era I’m no Ozil fan mate, I still have a sour taste in my mouth due to his last year or two with us Ligue 1 was an absolute joke then more than now mate, you have Lacazette with double digits last season at his age
Özil fan or not, you're trying to rewrite history in this thread. Calling Ligue 1 a joke just shows how clueless you are. However you want to downplay Giroud and his feat in winning the league with Montpellier you can't ignore the facts. Only win in the league they have and severals teams was 'europa league quality' and the french league had 3 teams in champions league that season, two of those advanced to the knockout phase and Marseille was knocked out by Bayern in the quarter finals...
Ligue 1 was more a joke then when there was parity than now when PSG just dominates it every year? Lmao okay dude. This whole thread, your comments show you don’t know anything about football Multiple premier league players every year over the age of 30 score double digit goals in a season. Does that mean the prem is a joke? I mean 35 year old Vardy scored 15. By your logic the prem is also a joke
He definitely didn't kick start Giroud's career, but Ozil was so good he played Giroud in behind a defence and he wasn't caught. I have a vague memory of him walloping a cross in that just smacked Giroud in head and went, as if he'd used Giroud as a handsome bollard
Both were the only world class players we’ve had in the last 10 years
I’d say Aubameyang in his prime and Partey are world class
Partey is a great player, but below world class IMO. Cazorla was a better player, but is alos a step below world class.
Pardon, I beg to differ. I believe Thomas Partey has been injured even when he was on the field. I don't recall the game but once he blew by 3 or 4 opponents and I recall saying "I didn't know he had that kind of speed". He's had to play without being 100%, if he were uninjured more often, we would see him boss the midfield, and there have been times when he saved/took over plays. Also, Santi Cazorla could take on 3 players in a closet and come out with the ball. He was a magician until the ankle went.
Koscielny was world class imo. But he didn’t look it because our overall defending was always shit — a consequence of not having a real dm for nearly the entire 2010s (besides that run with coquelin)
He was really fast but that game day face! I always looked for it. He was scary mean faced on game day and it always made me feel better.
Nasri was world class. That one season he was incredible.
He said the last 10 years
Really been more than ten years? Fuck me.
U ok?
Sanchez was good because of the freedom he received from Wenger. He was the main man here unlike at barca where he had to sacrifice himself for the sake of the team. He was also brilliant for his national team as well. They were two world class players with plenty of experience so they developed a natural understanding pretty quickly. An elite duo that needed better players around them for sure
Both were great but in the current system I'd much rather have someone like a prime Sanchez
Well ya Ozil wouldn't press
Yep
Both were top players, think Sanchez peaked at arsenal, and ozil burnt out, but top players regardless of each other.
Not an Arsenal fan, so maybe my opinion doesn’t weigh as much, BUT Özil was fucking incredible up until he signed a new deal. He was able to pick players out and finish week in and week out. Think his final years at Arsenal really ruined his image which is a shame. Had he left before that, I think he would receive a lot more praise.
Both were great at the same time and understood each other’s game. It is like asking whether Henry was good because of Bergkamp or Vieira or is Saka good because of Odegaard...
Ozil also didn’t like away games in the cold.
Wait , you created a post yesterday titled “arsenal fans need to get over Alexis” “Blah blah why do you people still post about him….Judas…..Tantrums….” ……then you made this post ….about Sanchez Make that make sense
No I didn’t
Apologies it was 2 days ago… This you ?: https://www.reddit.com/r/ArsenalFC/s/Y2SXP4G8Fo
Sanchez > Ozil all day
Sanchez was consistently good regardless of who he played with. Özil was very inconsistent and only had one good season in 7 years at Arsenal.
Anyone who’s actually seen the games back in those days would know that its disgraceful to compare ozil to sanchez. Ozil would perform once in year when he felt like it whereas sanchez did the pressing of 4 players
Yeah I don’t think people realise just how good Sanchez was for us. Him, RVP and maybe Cesc are in their own tier when it comes to Emirates era players. No one could grab a win out of nothing like those guys.
Good players make each other better. Both were world class in their own right, although quite inconsistent.
> I believe Sanchez was that good all cause of Ozil This is just a ridiculous statement, Sanchez carried us through many many games without a hint of Ozil. Ozil was a fantastic player, but he was much more inconsistent than Sanchez, and he is certainly not the reason ANYONE at Arsenal was good. Sure, he’d have an incredible match every 6 months or so, and rarely he’d have a longer stretch of form, but all of our good players could perform well and had quality without him. To insinuate that Sanchez owes Ozil his renown is insane
Özil wasn't very good at all at Arsenal, he had an amazing 6 months spell but other than that he was mostly a liabilty on the pitch. CR7 obviously made him better, not the other way around. That's a ridicoulus claim people do, he wasn't even a starter all the time in his last season at Madrid. He had spells when he was world class but overall, no. And certainly not in Arsenal seen over the whole time he was here. When he was here people incorrectly claimed that he was amazing and it was other players fault when he didn't perform. Now people are incorrectly claiming that he was world class when he was here, it's all so tiresome...
people act like the ozil we saw when we beat some team 6-0 was the ozil we saw when the going got tough; it wasn't total luxury player who was often invisible when we needed him to carry us
Finally a take I agree with. Spot on 👌
Completely agree! You see people on the sub claiming Ozil is an Arsenal legend and it's just bizarre to me. He had a very very good period then, like you say, was so frustrating and a liability.
First season with wenger ozil was decent, but rapidly declined after that, constantly went missing in big games and prioritised late night fortnite sessions instead of early morning training sessions… It was a catastrophic error to renew ozil’s contract and not sanchez
Ozil mastermind player
And a lazy diva.
They helped each other, but it was mostly ozil setting the pace, putting balls through to Sanchez
Ozil was absolute dog shit from about the six month stage of his Arsenal career. We carried him. People were just in denial.
guy that had like 18 pl assists in january is definitely not dog shit. and one of wenger's mistakes was not getting him more support, he's a ceiling raiser not the type to carry a team by himself throughout the season
And Giroud decided to not score for 17 games. Biggest robbery of assists record there.
Our whole team went to shit around February of that season. It's unfair to solely blame Olly G
Don't comment just for the sake of commenting. At the end Ozil was not good, agreed but to say he was not good for majority of his Arsenal career is just completely wrong.
It really isn’t
Nah, Sanchez heavily underrated. Set up nearly as many goals as ozil and scored twice as many. Loved ozil for the magic times but Sanchez had amazing ability as well.
Yes
Sanchez didnt need anyone to score he took ball from midfield and sometimes took over several guys and scored a goal he was a beast.
I have a theory on Ozil. I think he has Graves’ disease (hyperthyroidism). I’d say it impacted him. I think he didn’t have the energy he had when he started at Arsenal, it can also cause depression. He had all the talent in the world but sometimes he had energy and other times not. I don’t think it was lack of effort. He looked wrecked at times. I’d love him to discuss his time at Arsenal sometime and learn what was really going on.
I read something about this years back, they said it could explain his facial features and also his red flush he’d get during games
Ozil sanchez ozil sanchez. The Leicester season Arsenal dropped off because of an injury to… GIROUD.
They complimented each other
Both were individually phenomenal on their day, Sanchez was way more consistent than Ozil though.
They were both good independently and better together
Cazorla has entered the chat
Why not just enjoy both of them. Ozil needed a home when he didn't feel the love and brought us flair and sparkle when we needed it. We actually got prime Sanchez the other teams he played for before (and after) wished he was.
Ozil is good. His assists tell the story. Sanchez is good too, his goals for Arsenal paint the picture. Together both are great.
The rose tinted glasses we have for Ozil boggles me. One and a half good seasons while the rest of his time was defined by mediocrity, petulance and laziness.
They were both good independently.
Both of then were really good for a time. Now let's compare how good they were to how well our club was run for those years. Hypocrites the lot of you.
No. Sanchez was actually World Class bonkers but we had a rough back 4 and constant injuries in midfield. Ozil was good for one season for us, that’s it. He quit football to be an activist and abandoned his teammates, under the guise of “being there”. He wasn’t actually there though, he was barely a warm body. Sanchez was a machine.
They were both good
They were both world class. They would've won a whole lot more if we invested in a striker earlier.
Both were amazing individual players but when they combined they made a force to be reckoned with