Zaza
Active Member
My form actually nose dived when Alexis came back into the team.Özil got 2 assists vs City without Cazorla, he got the assist in the NLD after Cazorla went off feeling and he got the match-winning assist vs Leicester without Cazorla too. So I'm not sure if Cazorla was the reason Özil was getting so many assists.
I do think however, having Ramsey-Coquelin or the alternative being Elneny with Giroud up front, Walcott, Campbell vying for the wide positions was never gonna help Özil or Alexis for that matter.
I do think have two playmakers on the pitch does make it harder for the opposition, it's a bit easier when you know if you stop Özil you stop most of Arsenals attacking capabilities as the team just doesn't function like it should. With Cazorla he's effectively another number 10 just playing deeper so opposition can't just focus on Özil because it'll free up space for Cazorla. Even then I think having all 4 of Özil, Alexis, Cazorla and Ramsey on the pitch at the same time made it so difficult for opposition because you have 4 extremely talented footballers all dangerous when given time and space playing in the way Wenger wants which is constant movement and quick passing to create spaces to exploit the opposition. Now imagine if we had Aubameyang back then and top holding midfielder too. We'd have been unstoppable.
Believe it or not - we were actually doing well with Joel Campbell playing on the right.
Cazorla was who we missed the most instead of Alexis.