Mata's no match in the battle of playmakers

It was the battle of the record signing playmakers and there was only one winner. Mesut Ozil, Arsenal’s £42m man, outshone Juan Mata. Manchester United’s £37m midfielder was ineffectual, failing to get the ball in dangerous positions and create chances for his team-mates. Ozil, whose performance was under the microscope after a series of poor games, fared better. The German was involved a lot more in the final third and created far more chances for his team-mates. The heat maps below show the ground each covered and the touch maps show where they each had possession of the ball.

Mata was played on the wings (off position), Ozil wasn't - big difference in terms of contribution as well as inaccurate data.

^ Lol, just accept that Ozil played better.

Never said that I'll deny the fact that Ozil played better, just bringing it out there that Mata wasn't played in his rightful position, which could have potentially made some impact on the statistics shown.

To be fair, Mata was playing with a completely different team, to say the least. Arsenal enjoyed the majority of the possession.

the only thing I hate on Ozil: clean chance for Ozil to score the goal, aaand, aaaand it's a pass. It's look like don't even wanna score. It pisses me off a bit.

Ozil has been exhausted , while Mata is full energy hence he warmed the bench more often in Chelsea than he played this season . Mata's original position in Valencia before he came to Chelsea was playing from the wing with little freedom. Judging by the match I thought , United gave him full freedom to move around the pitch but he still failed to footprint his mark on the game . Argument that he was playing with different team is not an excuse . Mata when first came to Chelsea made immediate impact and same with Ozil . That is what world class playmakers do . If Ozil gets some proper rest and start being used more wisely by Wenger , because I think he is missusing , he will be more lethal .

Ozil not taking shots is also down to instructions from Wenger . I remember during AVB time , Ramires would never shoot from distance , but then AVB made him take shots more often and ooh god Ramires just sucked at taking far shots ...

If Wenger wants his playmaker to score goals then he has to instruct and make him work on it . Ozil scored enough in Madrid , but there his job mostly was to feed Ronaldo , Benzema and Di Maria and he was doing a damn good job . He is doing Samething in Arsenal but strikers failed to be decisive in final third.

Wenger has recently said in public that he would prefer Ozil to shoot more often but because of the tight schedule, the team has not been able to openly train on playing with him in this manner. I think Wenger's just trying to lift Ozil's spirits. I think a key factor is that most of the time, the midfielders are providing chances to other midfielders, and Giroud has been a highly ineffective finisher, so they use him as a pivot-point up front. There's an abundance of team-play in Arsenal with a certain lack of individualism.

Last game against United, I thought our best player was Rosicky. While I thought Chamberlain was a smart sub because he does bring a bit of that individualism, I would've much rather subbed off Wilshere instead of Rosicky, because he was losing ball after ball. Rosicky was my man of the match, Ozil comes in a good second in my eyes.

@ikoiko

Buying Ozil was one the best buys of this decade , but Wenger would have made Arsenal master of EPL if he bought a player that Ozil can play with . The player that could have brought title without question is Luis Suarez , but he cheaped out and gambled on Giroud . I would have rather galmble on Suarez knowing full well EPL title will pay off both of their prices !