When Brighton beat Arsenal to push Arsène Wenger and his miserable band of men even further into their palace of sadness last weekend, Mesut Özil was nowhere to be seen. It was easy to reach for the old argument that when Arsenal needed this outrageously talented playmaker the most, he was notable by his absence. It has been a vacillating debate ever since Özil arrived in England in 2013, between those who have fallen for his gilded skills and others irked at his ostensibly casual manner.
As with most things, the truth lies somewhere between the two. But it is undoubtedly frustrating in the extreme when Özil disappears from a match, the influence he can have sadly absent. But there was none of that frustration on Thursday night. Arsenal needed a man to open up a Milan defence that had not conceded a goal in the previous 599 minutes of football.
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