Mesut Özil is a player who divides opinion like no other – some say he’s lazy, ineffective and a luxury player, others say he’s a genius and that the role he plays is underrated and that only true connoisseurs of the beautiful game can appreciate what he brings to the game.

Supporters of Özil will also point to the statistics, especially the assists and passing accuracy.

But does that matter to the fans?

Statistically, players like Steven Gerrard aren’t the best but attributes like desire, fight and determination cannot be quantified using facts and figures. Football supporters base their opinions on what they see on the pitch, and does watching Mesut Özil excite the fans?

If you want my opinion then I am on the fence.

I appreciate that in a quick and powerful team like Real Madrid that has warriors like Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema to run onto Özil’s subtle through-balls then he looks like a class player – but playing alongside Olivier Giroud who is more of a target man and with the injury to Theo Walcott – the one man with genuine pace – then he looks ineffective.

You cannot dispute that the most expensive signing in Arsenal’s history has not set the world alight with his performances. He was excellent for a spell when he first arrived, and gave everyone around the club a massive boost, but since then he’s gone off the boil.

Is it because he lacks the desire and fight to impose himself on games? Is it because he’s being played out of position? Or is it because he just doesn’t have the players around him to take advantage of his best attributes? Perhaps Özil’s game is limited to a certain style of play.

So that’s why I’ve setup a poll to see whether Arsenal fans believe that he has been a success or failure so far since his arrival just over 12 months ago.

You can vote below and don’t forget to leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below!

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Without Olivier Giroud for the next 4 months at least, Arsenal have a selection dilemma. We’ve brought in Danny Welbeck who is a definite upgrade on Yaya Sanogo, and despite Arsene Wenger’s insistence that Alexis Sanchez can play as the main striker, Welbeck is the player who is currently best suited to the central role in this moment in time. He’s quick, can hold the ball up and is good in the air.

But what is our strongest starting eleven?

With everyone else fit, I would suggest that the following is the strongest starting eleven for Arsenal:

We have an abundance of midfielders to choose from, and from the “defensive” midfielders the captain Mikel Arteta is the best option. People criticise his lack of pace and say he’s too old, but he’s clearly an influential player on and off the field and always gives 110% – and most importantly he leads by example. Flamini is a decent backup, but not as solid or as disciplined as Arteta.

The main man has to be Welbeck, with Sanogo only really good enough as a late substitute or backup if desperately required. So who should play behind him?

This might be a controversial choice but when choosing Arsenal’s “strongest” eleven, I have to leave out Mesut Özil. In the big games, you want fight, desire and pace and unfortunately, he hasn’t really shown any of those when it matters. That’s why I’ve picked Theo Walcott and Alexis Sanchez as the support acts for Welbeck. They are unbelievably quick and can cause any defence problems with balls over the top.

Aaron Ramsey picks himself, as Arsenal’s most important player and Santi Cazorla is chosen as his ability on the ball and the way he keeps Arsenal ticking has become vital in recent seasons.

The back four picks itself, with the Koscielny and Mertesacker partnership clearly first choice. Despite the improvement Monreal has shown in recently weeks, Gibbs is still the better left back and Mathieu Debuchy is our only real out and out right back. Calum Chambers has been excellent this season, showing he can play at centre back and right back with ease but at 19 can’t really be considered to be first choice just yet.

So there you have it, my strongest Arsenal starting eleven.

Do you agree? Who would be in your strongest Arsenal eleven? Leave your team selection and comments in the section below!

Arsenal made a transfer deadline day signing and brought in Danny Welbeck from Manchester United, but still a few days on there has still been no word from Arsene Wenger about the England strikers arrival.

Seems strange doesn’t it?

After signing Alexis Sanchez, Calum Chambers, Mathieu Debuchy and David Opsina, Arsene Wenger has released an official statement about their arrivals, complimenting them and basically “endorsing” the signing.

But on the official Arsenal website as of now, the only comments are from an Arsenal Blog which Arsenal.com has sourced.

Isn’t it strange Arsene hasn’t commented yet?

Was Danny Welbeck even an Arsene Wenger signing? Or was he a signing from the higher ups?

What do you think? Leave your comments in the section below!

Now the dust has settled after the closing of the transfer window, we know our squad for the forthcoming season. Olivier Giroud is injured, so our available centre forwards are Yaya Sanogo and Danny Welbeck.

While Yaya Sanogo is a talent, he is raw and young. But Danny Welbeck, despite having his detractors, is an established Premier League player, someone who doesn’t need to acclimatise to the English game and is improving all the time. He has pace and with a role down the middle can cause teams all kinds of problems.

Criticisms include having a poor goalscoring record, having scored 20 goals in 90 games for Manchester United. People argue that a lot of those appearances have been as a substitute, and he’s been played out of position as Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie were the main men at Old Trafford.

So depending on your stance, you can put a negative or positive spin on his arrival at The Emirates.

So what do you think?

Have Manchester United made a mistake and will Danny Welbeck be a success at Arsenal? Or have Manchester United offloaded a misfit who can’t score goals and doesn’t have what it takes to be a consistent, regular goalscorer?

Leave your comments in the section below and don’t forget to leave your vote!

Arsenal fans are upset with the signing of Danny Welbeck, and even more upset about missing out on Radamel Falcao.

But let’s put this all in perspective.

Two years ago, Falcao was immense. At Athletico Madrid, he was simply phenomenal. Behind Messi and Ronaldo, for me he was the third best player in the world. He was quick, aggressive, direct, and had the ability to score some really outstanding goals.

And as the lads on Football Weekly pointed out, two seasons ago along with Edinson Cavani, they were two two most coveted Number 9’s in world football – and they both moved to France in mega money moves.

But since then, they have been disappointing. Both Falcao and Cavani have failed to impress in a league with is inferior to the Premier League, La Liga and even Serie A. While players such as Gareth Bale and Luis Suarez have drastically improved, seeing their careers go in an upward trajectory, the careers of Cavani and Falcao have stalled somewhat.

And don’t forget, Falcao demands ridiculous wages and is almost 29 years old. Added to this, he’s had 3 major surgeries so far in his career, implying that he might struggle for fitness.

So passing on those two and signing Danny Welbeck makes sense, and is the sensible choice.

Arsene was never going to put Arsenal’s financial situation at risk by signing someone on loan who you can’t guarantee will even be match fit and someone we’d have to pay ridiculously high wages.

Welbeck however is only 23 and has his best years ahead of him. He is quick, direct, fit and knows where the goal is. He is willing to learn and at £16 million, could represent excellent value for money (something else Arsene would have considered).

Before the window closed we just wanted someone better than Sanogoals and Welbeck is big improvement on him.

The squad we have is competitive and now the window is closed we must get behind the team we have.

#COYG!