This is why many preferred someone like Suarez or Rooney over Higuain, who is more of a pure finisher than a creator, and (when the deal still seemed a possibility) there was plenty of talk of playing Suarez with Giroud rather than instead of. This is really a killing-two-birds-with-one-stone scenario (the two birds being the need for a creative player and the need for a striker), albeit with one of the birds more being important than the other (the need for a striker). I’ve heard Özil described as the “icing on an unfinished cake” but this is just plain wrong – he helps to both partly complete the cake and provide the icing. To carry on the slightly convoluted two birds example, with Özil’s arrival we’ve absolutely incinerated one of them (the need for a creative player) and managed to partially wound the

Happy Christmas Goonfam!

I say this not due to our collective receipt of the most exciting (Özil-shaped) present we could possibly have hoped for, but because I returned from Dimensions Festival in Croatia yesterday with such a fuzzy head that I woke up this morning genuinely believing that the festive period was just around the corner.

I positively skipped to work today and still feel disturbingly happy sitting at my desk checking through hundreds of unread work emails. And with Özil’s unveiling just an hour away (at the time of writing) I’m confident this feeling will continue until at least this afternoon. Spoil it on pain of death.

I’ve been away and webless almost since the news filtered through, and I’m sure that 42.5 million articles have already been written on the subject of Özil during that time. With little idea what’s been said so far, I’m not worried about repeating what’s already been said and, even if I say nothing new, you’ll probably still read it anyway.

If you’re anything like me you’ll be so desperate to continue the buzz that you’ll immerse yourself in anything even remotely Özil-related: Özil-scented candles, umlaut-shaped glasses, humorous German limerichs – anything. And with good reason.

But despite the evident optimism I’m still seeing a fair amount of griping, mainly because we failed to address a key issue and sign another striker. What’s interesting, however, is that this discontentment would almost certainly have not been as prominent had we signed a striker and never been linked to Özil at all.

I find this very odd since we are clearly in a better position now than we would have been had we bought any of the strikers we were linked to instead of Özil. The most likely scenario for us going forward is now Özil and a striker, which is much better than just a striker.

Knowing that some will disagree with what I say, and potentially for the wrong reasons, I want to clarify a few things before I start.

These are some of the things I argue in this article:

•    If we were going to end the window with Özil or one of the strikers we were linked to, it’s much better that we ended it with Özil
•    You should be no less content with Arsenal signing Özil and no striker than you would have been if we’d signed one of the strikers we were linked to and had never been linked to Özil

And also some of things I don’t:

•    We do not need a new striker
•    We should be content that we bought Özil but not a striker
•    There was a straight choice between getting Özil and getting a new striker
•    Either a striker or Özil would have addressed all of our issues

Why we are better off with Özil than a striker

Better

Firstly, Özil is better in every way than any of the strikers we were linked to this summer. Better at football, better for uniting our fans and better for creating a positive buzz at Arsenal. Just better.

Given a straight choice between any of the forwards we were linked with – Suarez, Higuain, Jovetic, Rooney – or Özil it would be Özil every single time, even given the fact that we are still lacking a striker.

Think about all the players bought in the PL over the past 10 years and ask yourself, how often has anyone signed a player of Özil’s calibre? Despite our inability to sign a striker, we’ve signed the best player we could have possibly signed this summer, and one the best players to be signed by a PL team ever.

In fact, the capture of Özil is in almost worth 2 signings, simply due to massive discrepancy between his quality and that of other players we could have signed, or that our rivals did sign. Lamela and Eriksen or Özil? Navas and Jovetic or Özil? Willian and Schurrle or Özil? Fellaini and…or Özil? You might not necessarily say Özil every time, but you’d probably consider your answer pretty carefully.

Two birds

Secondly, the striker issue has become so black and white that it actually masks a more complex set of needs.  We not only called for a second striker but also someone creative, who could fashion their own chances or chances for others.

In our squad last year we lacked creativity, and ideally we all wanted someone that could help share that burden and also provide the additional goals and squad depth we required.

This is why many preferred someone like Suarez or Rooney over Higuain, who is more of a pure finisher than a creator, and (when the deal still seemed a possibility) there was plenty of talk of playing Suarez with Giroud rather than instead of. This is really a killing-two-birds-with-one-stone scenario (the two birds being the need for a creative player and the need for a striker), albeit with one of the birds more being important than the other (the need for a striker).

I’ve heard Özil described as the “icing on an unfinished cake” but this is just plain wrong – he helps to both partly complete the cake and provide the icing. To carry on the slightly convoluted two birds example, with Özil’s arrival we’ve absolutely incinerated one of them (the need for a creative player) and managed to partially wound the other (the need for a striker).

Özil is a player who not only plays well himself, but improves other players in your team. His benefits lie not only in his own direct contribution, but also in his ability to counteract his teammates’ inadequacies and enhance their positive qualities. His arrival has by no means solved our striker problem, but it has certainly lessened it by allowing us to get a lot more from other options in the striker position.

In 10/11, with service from Nasri, Walcott and Fabregas, an on-form Chamakh started up front for Arsenal* and we were within 4pts of the league leaders after 17 games when Robin van Persie took his place. Özil is an assists machine, and the improved service he provides – also in collaboration with Cazorla, Wilshere, Rosicky and Ramsey, who will find more space with the focus on him – means that finishers such as Walcott (and Podolski upon his return) become much more viable striker options for us now than they were last year.

Our gain, their loss

Thirdly – and this is often overlooked – if we hadn’t signed him it’s pretty likely that another big PL team would have. Real Madrid needed to sell, he was made available and they would almost certainly have offered him around until he was gone.

There was a lot of talk that Man U and perhaps even City rejected him, but don’t doubt that one of our competitors would likely have taken the plunge and bought him last minute, even if they didn’t necessarily need him – he’s just that good. At the very least, a European rival would have gobbled him up and made competing on that grand stage even more difficult
.

In this way he is both our strength and someone else’s weakness – a huge double swing in our favour, relative to his unbelievable quality as a footballer. And the negative swing for an understaffed team like Arsenal, lacking in genuine world class quality, would have been even bigger should we have been the ones to miss out.

No-one signed a better player than us in the PL this summer, and so any situation in which a PL rival signed Özil would have seen a relative loss for us somewhere along the line, even if we’d captured a quality player in the process. If we’d signed Suarez, or even Rooney, and United had signed Özil, would we be in a better or worse position versus United than we are now?

More to come

Fourthly, had we landed a creative striker like Suarez earlier in the window we wouldn’t likely have put so much effort into buying Özil for so much so late on in the window (despite what we would hope). Our recall of Bendtner and attempt to land Ba on deadline day, however, show that we are still very much in the market for a striker.

Given this, it’s likely that in the long term we will possess a stronger squad than we would have done had we, say, spent £50m on Suarez since we will probably end up with a quality new striker AND Özil, which is a far, far superior situation to be in.

Raised expectations

It’s fair to say that most Arsenal fans would have been more content with the window had we signed Higuain or Suarez and never been linked to Özil at all – since we would have addressed an obvious deficiency that is still outstanding and never even thought about Özil.

Flamini’s signing may still have seemed a touch underwhelming to most (although increasingly less so now), but with his ability to cover in defence, him, a striker and Viviano would have roughly covered all of the areas widely considered to need addressing.

But I genuinely don’t think we can be any less content with Özil and no striker than we would have been with a striker and no Özil. We are definitely, 100%, in a stronger position this way around, especially if we take a longer-term view.

If we had signed a quality striker there would likely be a lot less talk now of us needing to sign in January, but as things stand – with a striker still likely to arrive in the near future – we have signed one of the best players in the world and still clearly want to add a missing piece to the squad. The chance to sign a striker of the required quality will come around again, the chance to sign Özil won’t.

I don’t think we should be content with our squad as it is – I’m not – but don’t let that blind you to success of this window. Our expectation levels have skyrocketed without us realising, and though we have every right to demand more we need to realise that we would have felt more content with a lot less just a few weeks ago.

Will Benn
@WengerBoy1

*Chamakh grabbed 10 goals in that period, and Walcott and Podolski are far, far better finishers than he ever was.