Unai Emery appeared to take a huge gamble when he decided to drop Mesut Ozil for Arsenal’s clash at Bournemouth but stats show his decision was completely justified.
The Spanish tactican has shown he is not afraid to leave the £300,000-a-week star on the bench despite the German’s undoubted ability.
Emery said he wanted players who will roll their sleeves up and be prepared for a battle – something that is not in Ozil’s locker.
‘We thought how we can be better in the match, a very demanding match with physicality and intensity,’ Emery said when asked about the former Real Madrid man.
The Arsenal boss is not the first manager to question Ozil’s mentality as Jose Mourinho labelled the German a ‘cry baby and coward’ during their time together at Real Madrid.
Emery obviously has the same doubts about the 30-year-old who Arsene Wenger refused to drop despite Ozil’s struggles throughout his five-year spell in north London.
This season’s stats show Arsenal are performing more efficiently in the Premier League without Ozil.
Arsenal have won all three games (against West Ham, Fulham and Bournemouth) without Ozil.
Ozil missed Arsenal’s matches against West Ham and Fulham through illness and injury respectively, so Sunday marked the first time Emery dropped his club’s highest earner.
In those three games, Arsenal have averaged 3.3 goals without their supposed star man and only 1.8 with him.
They are also conceding fewer goals with Arsenal’s opponents scoring one goal a game when Ozil is playing compared to 1.3 when he does feature.
Their win percentage drops from 100 per cent to 50 per cent when Ozil is involved.
The only real statistic that is in Ozil’s favour is the fact Arsenal’s average possession drops slightly, from 60.10% to 57.30%, when the German does not play.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who effectively took Ozil’s place in Arsenal’s starting line-up, did not exactly nail down his position on Sunday but Emery may feel like the Armenian puts in more of a shift.
With Premier League games against Tottenham and Manchester United on the horizon, Ozil may just have to get used to warming the bench for the time being at least.
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