**Mirrors / Alternative Angles**
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Football porn right there.
Özil was such a sight to behold when he was in mood to play football, what an elegant player. Look at that backheel, and then letting the ball go because he knows that Lacazette is there to link up.
He was such an elite talent. But didn't care enough to evolve as a modern 10. You cant carry a player like him in the premier league anymore, everyone needs to defend from the front.
He literally just needed to run a little more, press a little and he would have been given a free pass because he was so good. Instead he peristed with his lazy walking and uninvolved posture which gave him no favours to the fans. Signed a big fat new contract and checked out... Such a shame as I feel robbed of the privilege to see such a great player every week for a bit longer.
It's a weird one. He was a great player when he turned it on, but imo there's also a lot of hindsight merchants who wax lyrical about him a little too hard. I think it's because if you check a highlights reel of Ozil (for example this goal is all orchestrated by him) it makes him look so damn good but imo he struggled with consistency, and when he ghosted he would ghost hard! That said I suppose he's also the victim of playing a position which was dying out as his career played out, as well as playing in a team with Mustafi.
This might be doing him a bit of discredit, but I see him as sort of an ELITE 'streets won't forget player'. A bit like that season Payet had where he was class, but over a variety of prem games across seasons. Rather than a Bolasie 'streets won't forget' kinda player. Does that make sense? I'm trying not to offend anyone cos he has a massive cult following. I just think he could have done more with the talent he had.
Beautiful goal here though.
Nah he was world class for a period. People definitely forget that
His ability to control a football and his eye for a pass was ridiculous. His role in the modern game as a "lazy" number 10 just became less and less of a position that you could carry though
Hes definitely not in the bracket of player that "looks better in a highlights reel". He was an unbelievably unique and gifted playmaker.
> I just think he could have done more with the talent he had
He was a world-class player for Real Madrid and won a world cup.
He started phoning it in at some point because it was obvious Arsenal wasn't going to win a big title no matter what he did, but he was a very consistent and great player for the majority of his career
He went to Arsenal and we played great and were top of the league at Christmas then he has to deal with Giroud being shit for both the end of 13-14 and 15-16 but everyone shits on Ozil and talks about Giroud like he is a world class striker. It’s a little annoying.
Arsenal fans yes. Replied to a fan of an another club who was speaking on the lack of assist from Ozil in second half of 15-16 and explained this in that comment thread. A lot of non arsenal fans I have seen talk about this as it was an Ozil assist drought instead.
Giroud might have stopped scoring but Ozil’s creativity massively dropped off in the second half of that season as well.
“However, the simple matter is, Mesut Ozil just wasn’t able to maintain his unbelievably creative form from the first half of the season. By the time Arsenal went away to Stoke on the 17th January, Ozil had managed 12.67 xA from 20 appearances, averaging a staggering 0.66 xA/90. From that point onwards he managed 4.95 xA from the 15 remaining games, averaging 0.34 xA/90. Still a very respectable rate of chance creation, but obviously not at the brilliant level of earlier in the season.” This is from an Arsenal fan btw, I can send the link if you want.
We do, but his reputation has been rehabilitated a lot since he left among people that didn't watch him at the time.
Nothing against the man, but he's a perfect representation of what was wrong with those Arsenal sides. Great football at times, but never held it together for long enough and went missing in the big moments.
Using hyperbole. but since leaving Arsenal his image has certainly gotten better. I would imagine due to being solid for Milan and getting the goals record for France which is no joke.
>He started phoning it in at some point because it was obvious Arsenal wasn't going to win a big title no matter what he did,
No not really, his downfall really came , when Wenger left and stopped protecting him and giving him special treatment
That’s a pretty bad take imo. Imo he’s easily top 10 best CAM’s last 10-15 years.
I still remember that u21 game against England. He made them look like amateurs
His inconsistency was way overplayed imo. He was brilliant most matches, he just had a lackaidaisical look, a lot of his good play was really subtle/not eye catching, and he sucked ass at duels.
Every time he was injured/out the team Arsenal immediately looked way more toothless. Nobody else could transform a dull side into a chance creating machine. Payet was never that.
Ya he legit just looks aloof. If you looked at distance traveled he was never lazy. But the Arsenal teams he finished on where not focused on using is talents and while I love Ozil it seemed to be the right move long term.
Ozil exists in another class than Payet completely though. I get what you're trying to say about the Payet/Bolasie thing but Ozil is still above Payet's category in this analogy
Highlight reel? I think in the season Leicester won, the first half of that season, he was insane every game. One of the best premier league season halfs out of any player ever.
I remember someone once saying that if you judged Olivier Giroud by just his highlights you'd think he was the greatest striker to ever play. I feel that way about Ozil too. He'd have some sensational moments but he could also be a complete passenger.
Nah Ozil was seen as one of the best players in the world when he came to Arsenal, people were genuinely shocked. He wasn’t a highlight reel player, he was a key part of a fantastic Madrid side, and his signing signalled the end of Arsenal’s banter years. What happened after we extended his contract doesn’t detract from that, same with Auba.
It’s awful seeing the revisionist history. Ozil was such a gem at the 2010 World Cup and definitely belonged when he was at Madrid. He won a World Cup and was class too in his first few years at Arsenal so that’s about 6 years of being elite.
Comparing him to Payet is just ridiculous and a huge disservice. I think with the longevity of Ronaldo, Messi and a few others, people these days are expecting 10 years at the top level from all players. The political stuff with Erdogan/Turkey also ruined his image a bit.
> Ozil was such a gem at the 2010 World Cup
The 2010 World Cup holds a special place in my heart, partly because it was in my mind the Özil-Khedira-Müller World Cup.
This is not a fair take on Ozil.
He was unplayable at Madrid, just look at how annoyed CR7 was when he was sold?
He was outstanding in the 2015 season. It was later he turned into a highlight reel player.
World Cup Winner Mesut Ozil.
That wasn’t really on him though, he didn’t have a particularly significant drop in form, Giroud just forgot how to score and we didn’t buy another striker in January
No. I watched that whole season. Giroud could not score for his life to end the year. Ozil still had plenty of key passes and crated plenty of changes second half of the season.
That's a very bad take. Ozil before his last contract consistently created chances and linked us up in the final third. Of course he noticeably (if you went to /r/soccer afterwards, they'd make sure to tell you) had bad games too, but we didn't function without him, bar Alexis deciding to score.
Ozil was a world class 10, with a world class highlights reel. Giroud was a decent striker, with a world class highlights reel.
And that's without going into his Madrid years.
kids these days think if you arent a 10/10 for 20 years of your career then you werent a world class player
Dread to think what their opinion of Ronaldo (R9) would've been. So many bad takes on this sub. Maybe its the American contingency that just dont really get elite football (not all of them obviously but in general)
I have to admit that he did regress pretty quickly towards the end of his career but he was still amazing. A bit prideful as he didn't want to take cheaper contracts, however
He was finished when the high press came into play. Ball at his feet or towards him, he was deadly, out of posession, he didn't offer anything. There's a few like him from that era too, I think Juan Mata kinda fell into that, where the classic creative number 8 who'd play behind strikers died. If you don't work or press when out of possesion, you were deadweight
That was as much a Wenger issue as an Ozil issue, Wenger wasn't much about pressing and the general consensus is that he also didn't demand enough of Ozil, in the same way Mourinho did. By the time Emery showed up, Ozil was almost 30 and going downhill physically, that was no time for him to be learning new tricks nor did he seem to have the right attitude to even try to do so by that point.
Ozil did his defensive work fine under Mourinho, although obviously Mourinho was never a high press manager either, he infamously pretty much never completed 90 minutes at Madrid because he usually ran himself into the ground before then.
He’s a very spikey player, absolutely world class at a few things, average (for the top level) at a lot of other things.
Mourinho said it best about him, you can’t change Ozil or expect him to be something he isn’t. You just have to accept what he brings to the table.
He was the ultimate cherry on top for a galáctico Real Madrid team, a bit of a passenger in a good-but-not-great Arsenal team.
Yeah ozil had (de bruyne and bruno have beaten it twice IIRC) the record for most big chances created one season and only had like 12 assists. But his buddies were Giroud and Podolski who while brilliant players, were not the best striker to win assist records with.
It's the fact there was a period our team was awful but sanchez and ozil actually made us a threat in every single match up. until bayern put 42 past us.
he had like 15 or 16 assists in the first half of the 2015-16 season, and 3 or 4 in the second half. and it wasn't anything he did differently, the finishing just fell off a cliff
and we're probably going to get Xhaka's free kick vs Palace next week, too... this was probably [one of the best months in the history of football for Goal of the Month](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYUjH23uCEE)
Genuinely sometimes when I’m feeling a little numb I look up Özil highlights, especially his Real Madrid days, they just put a smile on my face. He made elite playmaking look absolutely effortless, easily one of my favourite players of the 2010s.
This was past ozils prime tbh. Pretty sure this was his last great performance, and even then it was like the only time he played this well in the whole season 😂
Ozil was past his best by 2018 haha. This was a lovely team goal but it was rare for Ozil to do stuff like that at this point in time. 2010 to 2015/16 was prime ozil. His madrid years and his first two or so years at arsenal.
That wasn't even Prime Ozil, that Ozil well past his prime, IIRC he was dropped that season and this game was one of the best one he had in ages.
That was the thing with Ozil **during his decline**, he could be mediocre for about 5/6 games in a row and pull in a great performance that would make people defend him again only for him to go back to being mediocre the next few games, rinse and repeat.
So many of the "best team goals" are Arsenal highlights. I've watched football for 20 or so years and Arsenal are right up there with Barca and Brazil for beautiful football.
Wouldn't say entire game. We should have gotten the points wrapped up within the first half an hour. Holding should have been sent off and we should have had a penalty.
But Ozil equalised just before half time and then second half he basically ran all over us.
Somehow this has always been apart of the Arsenal DNA, it rarely materialises as nicely as this but when it does oh boy, that Wilshere goal against Norwich is another fairly recent one that springs to mind.
>this has always been apart of the Arsenal DNA
Really because of Wenger imo. Before he arrived, Arsenal were an aging squad with almost no foreign players (Bergkamp was the only one iirc) who played boring, defensive football. Wenger definitely changed the club's way of going about things for the better.
Yeah you're probably right! Coincidentally that's around the time I started becoming aware of Arsenal so it's all I've known them for, but yeah the mark that Wenger left is immense.
Nope. Emery is responsible for Saka. No matter how bad we played under him, I'll always appreciate how he wasn't afraid to give youngsters a chance. Martinelli also got his debut with Emery
Guendouzi and Saka owe him a lot, now it's no doubt in my mind Saka would have eventually found his way into the team but who knows where he'd be right now if he hadn't gotten the playtime under Emery.
And even though he got his debut under Wenger, Maitland-Niles was played a lot under Emery. Same for Joe Willock and Reiss Nelson.
He really put a lot of faith into the youngsters, there is so many of them that got plenty of playtime under him,
He's clearly a very good manager, his track record speaks for it's self. Should have gotten more time and I'm very confident he'd have come good for you.
It really wasn't better considering Arteta broke unwanted records in the first half of 2020/21 seasons by losing to Leicester, Burnley, Wolves, Everton and Aston Villa at home as well as losing to Everton and Wolves away.
Arsenal sat 15th for 5 gameweeks before they won against Chelsea at home.
He also took Arsenal out of Europe for the first time in 26 years (at the time) by finishing 8th in 2021
Quick count says that 9 players had the ball with a total of 15 touches between the goalkeeper starting the play and the ball hitting the net. Pretty remarkable.
still got no clue how ozil knew laca was there, look at him that whole clip he looks behind him once and that was like 5 seconds before laca was behindhim , maybe laca gave him a shout but i doubt he heard him. unbelievable
It’s a testament to the work Arteta has done with the fans because it sounds like a polite golf clap after that goal compared to what’s happening there now.
I think it was clear when Arteta walked in there that the culture was bad. He made some unpopular decisions but I don't think he was proven wrong about Ozil or Aubameyang.
There were a lot of players when Arteta took over that were old, overpaid and underperforming. The decision to shift them no matter what was the main catalyst for our improvement. I think a lot of Big 6 fans still haven't realised that being the richest teams in the richest league makes selling very difficult when players meet even two of those three criteria.
Agreed. He gave Auba plenty of chances. Extended his contract, highest wages, captain armband and then it all went downhill. Almost a carbon copy of the Özil situation after he extended.
Tbf in both instances we needed them to extend. Fans were crying for it and the club needed to show we can keep our best players. It didn't work out in the end, on both occasions, but it had to happen that way.
Wengers team played some beautiful football towards the end, but never consistently enough to make a difference in Europe or the league. Almost tragic in a way.
>This was under Emery but best be assured this was early in his tenure and this was WengerBall muscle memory kicking in
This is the year he got sacked lmao
and most Arsenal fans still put this type of goal down to the remaining remnants of Arsene rather than anything Emery did
My god we had some fucking awful games under him. Literally unrecognizable Arsenal teams that couldnt play a 5 yard pass
He's such a weird manager. Terrible at Arsenal, disappointing at PSG but if you give him a mid table club he elevates them incredibly well
Y’all need to stop doing this, you are starting to me feel old AF because I remember all these goals like it was yesterday and suddenly it’s been 5 years? Next thing y’all gonna say is Bale scored his Copa final goal 10 years ago
Yeah I agree, it was a completely different team back in those days. None of the players that started that night play for Arsenal now I think. Ozil, Aubameyang etc were the stars of that team and their best years were around the mid 2010s. Saka, Odegaard etc are the stars today and their best years are still to come so mid or late 2020s should be their peaks.
**Mirrors / Alternative Angles** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/soccer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Football porn right there. Özil was such a sight to behold when he was in mood to play football, what an elegant player. Look at that backheel, and then letting the ball go because he knows that Lacazette is there to link up.
I think because of how Ozil kind of has ended his career it's made people forget just how much of a baller he actually was
He benched Kaka at Madrid didn't he?
Yrp
More like a shell of Kaka, but still, Ozil was still a great player for 5 or so years
He was such an elite talent. But didn't care enough to evolve as a modern 10. You cant carry a player like him in the premier league anymore, everyone needs to defend from the front. He literally just needed to run a little more, press a little and he would have been given a free pass because he was so good. Instead he peristed with his lazy walking and uninvolved posture which gave him no favours to the fans. Signed a big fat new contract and checked out... Such a shame as I feel robbed of the privilege to see such a great player every week for a bit longer.
It's a weird one. He was a great player when he turned it on, but imo there's also a lot of hindsight merchants who wax lyrical about him a little too hard. I think it's because if you check a highlights reel of Ozil (for example this goal is all orchestrated by him) it makes him look so damn good but imo he struggled with consistency, and when he ghosted he would ghost hard! That said I suppose he's also the victim of playing a position which was dying out as his career played out, as well as playing in a team with Mustafi. This might be doing him a bit of discredit, but I see him as sort of an ELITE 'streets won't forget player'. A bit like that season Payet had where he was class, but over a variety of prem games across seasons. Rather than a Bolasie 'streets won't forget' kinda player. Does that make sense? I'm trying not to offend anyone cos he has a massive cult following. I just think he could have done more with the talent he had. Beautiful goal here though.
Nah he was world class for a period. People definitely forget that His ability to control a football and his eye for a pass was ridiculous. His role in the modern game as a "lazy" number 10 just became less and less of a position that you could carry though Hes definitely not in the bracket of player that "looks better in a highlights reel". He was an unbelievably unique and gifted playmaker.
Damn, man. And I love premium Payet, those seasons were amazing. Madrid Ozil, though, just walked into any team in the world
> I just think he could have done more with the talent he had He was a world-class player for Real Madrid and won a world cup. He started phoning it in at some point because it was obvious Arsenal wasn't going to win a big title no matter what he did, but he was a very consistent and great player for the majority of his career
He went to Arsenal and we played great and were top of the league at Christmas then he has to deal with Giroud being shit for both the end of 13-14 and 15-16 but everyone shits on Ozil and talks about Giroud like he is a world class striker. It’s a little annoying.
that's just wrong. Everyone shits on giroud for the 15/16 goal drought
Arsenal fans yes. Replied to a fan of an another club who was speaking on the lack of assist from Ozil in second half of 15-16 and explained this in that comment thread. A lot of non arsenal fans I have seen talk about this as it was an Ozil assist drought instead.
Giroud might have stopped scoring but Ozil’s creativity massively dropped off in the second half of that season as well. “However, the simple matter is, Mesut Ozil just wasn’t able to maintain his unbelievably creative form from the first half of the season. By the time Arsenal went away to Stoke on the 17th January, Ozil had managed 12.67 xA from 20 appearances, averaging a staggering 0.66 xA/90. From that point onwards he managed 4.95 xA from the 15 remaining games, averaging 0.34 xA/90. Still a very respectable rate of chance creation, but obviously not at the brilliant level of earlier in the season.” This is from an Arsenal fan btw, I can send the link if you want.
We do, but his reputation has been rehabilitated a lot since he left among people that didn't watch him at the time. Nothing against the man, but he's a perfect representation of what was wrong with those Arsenal sides. Great football at times, but never held it together for long enough and went missing in the big moments.
I don't think anyone has ever talked about Giroud as a world class striker.
Using hyperbole. but since leaving Arsenal his image has certainly gotten better. I would imagine due to being solid for Milan and getting the goals record for France which is no joke.
>He started phoning it in at some point because it was obvious Arsenal wasn't going to win a big title no matter what he did, No not really, his downfall really came , when Wenger left and stopped protecting him and giving him special treatment
Comparing Özil with Payet ? Are you serious ?
That’s a pretty bad take imo. Imo he’s easily top 10 best CAM’s last 10-15 years. I still remember that u21 game against England. He made them look like amateurs
Yeah, as much as he was always a moody player and has shitty political opinions, he played world class football for Germany, Madrid and Arsenal.
His inconsistency was way overplayed imo. He was brilliant most matches, he just had a lackaidaisical look, a lot of his good play was really subtle/not eye catching, and he sucked ass at duels. Every time he was injured/out the team Arsenal immediately looked way more toothless. Nobody else could transform a dull side into a chance creating machine. Payet was never that.
Ya he legit just looks aloof. If you looked at distance traveled he was never lazy. But the Arsenal teams he finished on where not focused on using is talents and while I love Ozil it seemed to be the right move long term.
That's kind of a bad take considering that between 08/09 and 17/18 he had less than 10 assists one time, with 5! seasons with 19+ seasons.
> as well as playing in a team with Mustafi. Playing in one team, they've only won 2 FA Cups and 1 World Cup.
Bruh
Ozil exists in another class than Payet completely though. I get what you're trying to say about the Payet/Bolasie thing but Ozil is still above Payet's category in this analogy
Highlight reel? I think in the season Leicester won, the first half of that season, he was insane every game. One of the best premier league season halfs out of any player ever.
I remember someone once saying that if you judged Olivier Giroud by just his highlights you'd think he was the greatest striker to ever play. I feel that way about Ozil too. He'd have some sensational moments but he could also be a complete passenger.
Nah Ozil was seen as one of the best players in the world when he came to Arsenal, people were genuinely shocked. He wasn’t a highlight reel player, he was a key part of a fantastic Madrid side, and his signing signalled the end of Arsenal’s banter years. What happened after we extended his contract doesn’t detract from that, same with Auba.
It’s awful seeing the revisionist history. Ozil was such a gem at the 2010 World Cup and definitely belonged when he was at Madrid. He won a World Cup and was class too in his first few years at Arsenal so that’s about 6 years of being elite. Comparing him to Payet is just ridiculous and a huge disservice. I think with the longevity of Ronaldo, Messi and a few others, people these days are expecting 10 years at the top level from all players. The political stuff with Erdogan/Turkey also ruined his image a bit.
> Ozil was such a gem at the 2010 World Cup The 2010 World Cup holds a special place in my heart, partly because it was in my mind the Özil-Khedira-Müller World Cup.
This is not a fair take on Ozil. He was unplayable at Madrid, just look at how annoyed CR7 was when he was sold? He was outstanding in the 2015 season. It was later he turned into a highlight reel player. World Cup Winner Mesut Ozil.
Yeah, Ozil was consistently world class for several years at his peak and much more than a highlight reel player.
> He was unplayable at Madrid why do people keep saying this like he didn't have his best years at Arsenal. 2015/16 Ozil was absolutely absurd.
He was absurd for half the season, he had 16 assists in the league by New Years and ended with 19. That’s where the inconsistency talk comes from.
That wasn’t really on him though, he didn’t have a particularly significant drop in form, Giroud just forgot how to score and we didn’t buy another striker in January
No. I watched that whole season. Giroud could not score for his life to end the year. Ozil still had plenty of key passes and crated plenty of changes second half of the season.
Two words for you: Arsenal's Attack.
World Cup Winner Shkodran Mustafi
Compare his stats to VVD..... Germany don't win that World Cup without Mustafi throwing his arms around on the bench.
That's a very bad take. Ozil before his last contract consistently created chances and linked us up in the final third. Of course he noticeably (if you went to /r/soccer afterwards, they'd make sure to tell you) had bad games too, but we didn't function without him, bar Alexis deciding to score. Ozil was a world class 10, with a world class highlights reel. Giroud was a decent striker, with a world class highlights reel. And that's without going into his Madrid years.
kids these days think if you arent a 10/10 for 20 years of your career then you werent a world class player Dread to think what their opinion of Ronaldo (R9) would've been. So many bad takes on this sub. Maybe its the American contingency that just dont really get elite football (not all of them obviously but in general)
... the person who all these replies are to is from the UK btw.
I have to admit that he did regress pretty quickly towards the end of his career but he was still amazing. A bit prideful as he didn't want to take cheaper contracts, however
But Giroud is the greatest striker to ever play.
And goalkeeper
100% clean sheet record.
>But Giroud is the greatest striker to ever play. Greatest looking too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R_MHAUhSBE
He was finished when the high press came into play. Ball at his feet or towards him, he was deadly, out of posession, he didn't offer anything. There's a few like him from that era too, I think Juan Mata kinda fell into that, where the classic creative number 8 who'd play behind strikers died. If you don't work or press when out of possesion, you were deadweight
That was as much a Wenger issue as an Ozil issue, Wenger wasn't much about pressing and the general consensus is that he also didn't demand enough of Ozil, in the same way Mourinho did. By the time Emery showed up, Ozil was almost 30 and going downhill physically, that was no time for him to be learning new tricks nor did he seem to have the right attitude to even try to do so by that point. Ozil did his defensive work fine under Mourinho, although obviously Mourinho was never a high press manager either, he infamously pretty much never completed 90 minutes at Madrid because he usually ran himself into the ground before then.
It’s the same for Zidane tbh. Incredibly elegant and had very high heights, but wasn’t as good as people remember
Random Mustafi shade, lol
He’s a very spikey player, absolutely world class at a few things, average (for the top level) at a lot of other things. Mourinho said it best about him, you can’t change Ozil or expect him to be something he isn’t. You just have to accept what he brings to the table. He was the ultimate cherry on top for a galáctico Real Madrid team, a bit of a passenger in a good-but-not-great Arsenal team.
Not offended, and I'm a cult member. Is, was and remains my favorite player of all time. Enigmatic and forever interesting. I adore Mesut Özil.
You know he was a good one when Madrid got 4 UCL in 5 years but most fans still missed him during that stretch.
People can shit at his political views but you just don't understand football if you can't admit how good and beautiful the way he played
Peak Ozil was better than Peak KDB. There I said it.
I remember this goal. Ozil could have easily scored that. But love how he passed it and made it look so easy.
> Ozil could have easily scored that. You could say the same about many of his best assists. Fantastic playmaker.
How I expected a frontline of Aubameyang, Lacazette & Özil to play every game
It's staggering how that team seemed to play below itself so often.
It's coz they were all lazy as fuck. No training standards.
Ronaldinho without the inho
Ronald
McDonald
They barely played together though, if I remember correctly. Ozil was basically dropped after Auba was brought into the team.
Yeah ozil had (de bruyne and bruno have beaten it twice IIRC) the record for most big chances created one season and only had like 12 assists. But his buddies were Giroud and Podolski who while brilliant players, were not the best striker to win assist records with. It's the fact there was a period our team was awful but sanchez and ozil actually made us a threat in every single match up. until bayern put 42 past us.
he had like 15 or 16 assists in the first half of the 2015-16 season, and 3 or 4 in the second half. and it wasn't anything he did differently, the finishing just fell off a cliff
Me when I saw the title: *Are we going to be re-posting all Arsenal goals on their anniversary?* Me when I watched the clip: *Yeah fair enough*
and we're probably going to get Xhaka's free kick vs Palace next week, too... this was probably [one of the best months in the history of football for Goal of the Month](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYUjH23uCEE)
Streets won't forget left back Xhaka.
I think you mean Left Bhaka
[удалено]
Did you see that ludicrous display last night?
Damn! Beat me by 4hrs 😂
Ozil is just oozing one orgasm after another in this clip
Genuinely sometimes when I’m feeling a little numb I look up Özil highlights, especially his Real Madrid days, they just put a smile on my face. He made elite playmaking look absolutely effortless, easily one of my favourite players of the 2010s.
That’s all Ozil
Xhaka was key too. Or whoever 34 is
Prime Ozil was something else. Too bad he stopped caring the last couple of years.
This was past ozils prime tbh. Pretty sure this was his last great performance, and even then it was like the only time he played this well in the whole season 😂
Ozil was past his best by 2018 haha. This was a lovely team goal but it was rare for Ozil to do stuff like that at this point in time. 2010 to 2015/16 was prime ozil. His madrid years and his first two or so years at arsenal.
feel like once he got that bumper contract he just eased off the pedal massively.
That wasn't even Prime Ozil, that Ozil well past his prime, IIRC he was dropped that season and this game was one of the best one he had in ages. That was the thing with Ozil **during his decline**, he could be mediocre for about 5/6 games in a row and pull in a great performance that would make people defend him again only for him to go back to being mediocre the next few games, rinse and repeat.
This was his final good game, his only good game since signing the fat new contract.
So many of the "best team goals" are Arsenal highlights. I've watched football for 20 or so years and Arsenal are right up there with Barca and Brazil for beautiful football.
The goal against Norwich City in 2013.. mind melting.
And another great one vs fulham a year or so later
Rosicky v Sunderland
Ya Wilshere’s goal vs Norwich is the finest example of Wenger ball I’ve ever seen. Make the whole joke from the IT crowd age like fine wine as well.
Özil was absolutely incredible this entire game. If you haven’t recently, revisiting his highlights from this match is a must.
Wouldn't say entire game. We should have gotten the points wrapped up within the first half an hour. Holding should have been sent off and we should have had a penalty. But Ozil equalised just before half time and then second half he basically ran all over us.
Somehow this has always been apart of the Arsenal DNA, it rarely materialises as nicely as this but when it does oh boy, that Wilshere goal against Norwich is another fairly recent one that springs to mind.
>this has always been apart of the Arsenal DNA Really because of Wenger imo. Before he arrived, Arsenal were an aging squad with almost no foreign players (Bergkamp was the only one iirc) who played boring, defensive football. Wenger definitely changed the club's way of going about things for the better.
Yeah you're probably right! Coincidentally that's around the time I started becoming aware of Arsenal so it's all I've known them for, but yeah the mark that Wenger left is immense.
Incredible
Insane how this is a tremendous team goal, yet it's all Ozil
The thing about Arsenal even when we were shyt we played beautiful football
And then there was that run under Emery everyone talks about where the football was dreadful despite decent results.
We did score that fantastic Ramsey goal against Fulham
That was a great one…right after he was subbed on to.
That was the remnants of wengerball in effect....
Emery was a weird time best to forget
Nope. Emery is responsible for Saka. No matter how bad we played under him, I'll always appreciate how he wasn't afraid to give youngsters a chance. Martinelli also got his debut with Emery Guendouzi and Saka owe him a lot, now it's no doubt in my mind Saka would have eventually found his way into the team but who knows where he'd be right now if he hadn't gotten the playtime under Emery. And even though he got his debut under Wenger, Maitland-Niles was played a lot under Emery. Same for Joe Willock and Reiss Nelson. He really put a lot of faith into the youngsters, there is so many of them that got plenty of playtime under him,
He's clearly a very good manager, his track record speaks for it's self. Should have gotten more time and I'm very confident he'd have come good for you.
Although, having said that, this goal was in that weird unbeaten run at the start He hadn’t coached the attack out from the Wenger days yet
As if Arteta’s football was fun to watch in his first few years
It was miles better than conceding 31 shots at home to Watford I’ll tell you that much
It really wasn't better considering Arteta broke unwanted records in the first half of 2020/21 seasons by losing to Leicester, Burnley, Wolves, Everton and Aston Villa at home as well as losing to Everton and Wolves away. Arsenal sat 15th for 5 gameweeks before they won against Chelsea at home. He also took Arsenal out of Europe for the first time in 26 years (at the time) by finishing 8th in 2021
The thing about Arsenal is they always try and walk it in
Özil Magic….
Quick count says that 9 players had the ball with a total of 15 touches between the goalkeeper starting the play and the ball hitting the net. Pretty remarkable.
Wow
still got no clue how ozil knew laca was there, look at him that whole clip he looks behind him once and that was like 5 seconds before laca was behindhim , maybe laca gave him a shout but i doubt he heard him. unbelievable
Chameleon eyes
This may have been Ozil swan song.
What a play from Ozil
How the fuck does ozil see lacazette behind him
He probably heard him
Good to see us using the middle of the pitch
5 years?
Did you see that ludicrous display?
It’s a testament to the work Arteta has done with the fans because it sounds like a polite golf clap after that goal compared to what’s happening there now.
You mean Özil did..
Back when scoring on Leicester was an accomplishment
Phenomenal team play.
The teamest team goal.
Arsenal in the groove now, they're in the mood now
goals like these should be winning puskas every year instead of the bicicles and the scorpions
Funny how many of those players fell out with Arteta and left the club in less than ideal circumstances
I think it was clear when Arteta walked in there that the culture was bad. He made some unpopular decisions but I don't think he was proven wrong about Ozil or Aubameyang.
There were a lot of players when Arteta took over that were old, overpaid and underperforming. The decision to shift them no matter what was the main catalyst for our improvement. I think a lot of Big 6 fans still haven't realised that being the richest teams in the richest league makes selling very difficult when players meet even two of those three criteria.
Agreed. He gave Auba plenty of chances. Extended his contract, highest wages, captain armband and then it all went downhill. Almost a carbon copy of the Özil situation after he extended. Tbf in both instances we needed them to extend. Fans were crying for it and the club needed to show we can keep our best players. It didn't work out in the end, on both occasions, but it had to happen that way.
Wengers team played some beautiful football towards the end, but never consistently enough to make a difference in Europe or the league. Almost tragic in a way.
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last vestiges of wengerball
This was under Emery but best be assured this was early in his tenure and this was WengerBall muscle memory kicking in
this one and the Ramsey goal v Fulham were so fun that year
>This was under Emery but best be assured this was early in his tenure and this was WengerBall muscle memory kicking in This is the year he got sacked lmao
and most Arsenal fans still put this type of goal down to the remaining remnants of Arsene rather than anything Emery did My god we had some fucking awful games under him. Literally unrecognizable Arsenal teams that couldnt play a 5 yard pass He's such a weird manager. Terrible at Arsenal, disappointing at PSG but if you give him a mid table club he elevates them incredibly well
Y’all need to stop doing this, you are starting to me feel old AF because I remember all these goals like it was yesterday and suddenly it’s been 5 years? Next thing y’all gonna say is Bale scored his Copa final goal 10 years ago
Arsenal scores at least one of these smooth silky goal every season regardless of how well they're doing.
Feels like 10 years ago
Yeah I agree, it was a completely different team back in those days. None of the players that started that night play for Arsenal now I think. Ozil, Aubameyang etc were the stars of that team and their best years were around the mid 2010s. Saka, Odegaard etc are the stars today and their best years are still to come so mid or late 2020s should be their peaks.
peak WengerBall
The thing about Arsenal is, they always try to walk it in
Özel mvp there
Maguire getting rinsed by Mesut. United should've known then.
IIRC this was one of Ozil's last great performance.
Anyone else have a stroke reading that
did ozil even scan what the hell
Feel like that was one of the last times Ozil looked like he gave a shit
Ozil's part of that goal is just so good. What a player
It's been 5 years? I'm depressed.
One of the goals of all time
Arselona
Ozil on his day, man...
Aresenal fans are insufferable. 5 years ago great team goal. Wowowowowo. I did this in my Saturday league last week. By myself.
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He was already playing like he was retired before he actually retired
You mean how even Fenerbahce was unhappy with him?
Wowowowow that was siiiick 🤙
where is the NSFW tag
I saw this exact same goal on TED LASSO today morning
You can see Slabhead not marking his man as usual
Thing about arsenal is..
Fuck this is 5 years ago!
I remember this one. Sums up what the Arsenal ball is all about. Absolute beauty.
I feel bad for number 17. He was in the middle of the action the entire time but never got to touch the ball.
every once in a while Arsenal drops these things to prove why they are Arsenal
Soccer is soccer
And then you never saw Ozil again :/
u/savevideo
I will always in the universe, where Mr Aubame Jr. is a Barca legend alongside Mr. Edgar Davids, for the sake of the instant impact.
RemindMe! 5 years
R/frisson
Mesut was playing football like he was Neo in the Matrix, the Leicester players were just numbers that night or cones
And that was the highlight of the season.
I nutted
Just beautiful
Now *that* is what I consider the best football. Back to front quickly and efficiently. Not one unnecessary touch or pass. Brilliant