Why Arsenal will miss Mesut Ozil more than Alexis Sanchez when he leaves

It was a performance which epitomised both players at their maximum. Alexis Sanchez was the headline-grabbing, all-action goalscorer, charging about like a man possessed, diving headfirst after hopeless lost balls and throwing his arms to the skies at every misplaced pass. Mesut Ozil was more like a spider at the centre of a tangled web, stealthy and furtive in his movement but also perfectly poised to ensnare the opposition. Together, despite their contrasting methods, they worked tirelessly to dismantle Tottenham on derby day. With both players in the last year of their contracts and odds on to leave in the coming months, Arsenal fans are entitled to worry about what a future without them will look like.

Though Sanchez has won more hearts and minds during his time in North London, it is Ozil who will be the greatest loss when he leaves the club. While Sanchez’s boundless energy and work rate chime with the prevailing mentality of English football, Ozil is the more subtle talent and will be harder to replace like-for-like.

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This is not to underestimate Sanchez’s contribution – 30 goals in all competitions last season were the difference between a mediocre season and a dire one. Ozil, too, had his best ever campaign in front of goal with 12 strikes across the board, but still faced scathing criticism from all quarters for his supposed lack of effort and inability to impose himself on games.

The thing is, whatever the outside perception, Mesut Ozil has imposed himself at Arsenal over the last four years. It is no coincidence that his arrival from Real Madrid presaged the club’s first silverware for almost a decade, nor that the team have at least learnt how to win major finals (if not the league title) in the time since.

There was symbolic value to his £42.5million move to the Emirates, with his club-record transfer fee heralding the end of the austerity era under Arsene Wenger and a sea change in the club’s conservative outlook. Ozil may never have bellowed a battle cry in the dressing room or organised a marathon sesh in the name of team bonding, but he has affected the mentality at Arsenal with the same meaningful understatement with which he caresses a deadly final ball.

Creative genius

The rarest and most rarified of playmakers, his best season in terms of creativity came in 2015-16. His total of 19 assists in the Premier League was only one short of Thierry Henry’s all-time record, and had Arsenal not collectively faded as the campaign went on, Ozil might not only have made assist history but also won the league title the fans so crave. As it was, Leicester became champions, with Jamie Vardy and co. heralded for their heroic overachievement. Meanwhile, Ozil remained in the background with a team of runners-up, destined to be lumped in with the underachievers despite having a truly remarkable campaign.

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Though goalscorers are the common currency of football and invariably win the greatest plaudits, there is something unique and irreplaceable about an inventive genius like Ozil – a man whose artistry with the ball is as valuable as a belting free kick into the top corner, just not as conspicuous. Strange, otherworldly and ephemeral, the German was never destined to be loved in England. While Arsenal will have other great goalscorers and all-action forwards in the future, they may never again have a creator capable of leaving such a beautiful but elusive mark on the world.