Thriving Mesut Ozil ready to lead Arsenal against former mentor Jose Mourinho – who still harbours admiration

Ozil will face Mourinho on Saturday as Arsenal host Manchester United in the Premier League and his former manager still holds a hope of reuniting with the astute playmaker

Ozil and Mourinho enjoyed a close relationship at Real Madrid (Getty)

For all of the perceptions of Mesut Ozil as a somewhat languid player who is only really bothered when a match is going his way, there are many stories that go against this, and show he is often cut rather deep.

One came when he was being managed by the man he faces on Saturday in Jose Mourinho, in what should have been a moment of celebration. Real Madrid had just beaten Barcelona to win the 2011 Copa Del Rey, claiming the first trophy of the first season in the rancorous Mourinho-Pep Guardiola rivalry between 2010 and 2012, but the German didn’t feel too cheery. Many teammates actually thought he looked like he’d lost, and that was apparently because he didn’t really feel he’d really contributed to the game.

They were all the more confused because, although Ozil had been taken off early, that was because he’d ran so much in a containment job against the best attacking side in the world. His specific problem, however, was that he hadn’t produced any magic. He hadn’t dazzled. There was not a single moment of creation or inspiration he could feel proud of. He had helped to not lose the game, but hadn’t done anything to try and win it.

Arsene Wenger has seen similar. After the 2-1 defeat to Manchester City last season, the Arsenal boss saw his playmaker kick a wall in anger.

Wenger himself has often privately revealed his own frustration – and confusion – as to why the German “doesn’t dominate games given his talent”. It illustrates there is more to this highly polarised argument about the 29-year-old than the raw contribution numbers that do show he is one of the most productive players in the Premier League. Some of the more sophisticated analytical models used by clubs actually suggest that more basic figures are skewed because Ozil is especially of guilty of what Arsenal have most been guilty of – and what they’re both most accused of – and really turning it on when a game is over or they’re already ahead.

It probably hasn’t helped that this same side have themselves suffered such turbulent form and so oscillated between the very rough and very smooth, but then his position makes him even more significant and symbolic to that. As the focal playmaker in a side that has needed things to be going well for to apply themselves well, Ozil is so often on it when they’re all on form but ineffective when they are not. He has often personified this Arsenal.

Over the last few years, there has still undeniably been a sense that he only dabs at matches, as if he is looked to save his energy for opportune moments rather than really push to the maximum.

Ozil and Mourinho embrace after a League Cup game in October 2013 (Getty)

The wonder as Ozil comes into his notional prime for a playmaker at 29 is whether that is changing again, whether all of this is coming together for complete application.

The German’s supremely assertive performance in the win over Tottenham Hotspur felt so pointed, particularly given the growing talk in the build-up over whether Christian Eriksen was a superior player, as did his aggressive shunting of the Dane off the ball in one key moment. If that cathartic display was characterised by new aggression, his fine follow-up against Huddersfield in midweek was marked by the old magic.

It doesn’t feel an exaggeration to say that this is his best form since the brilliant numbers of his 2015-16, but it already feels there is more to his all-round game in this current spell. The willingness to press against Spurs was also so notable and recalled some of Ozil’s play for Real… and Mourinho.

The danger for the Portuguese on Saturday at the Emirates is that his former player is coming back into this form just as they face a United who can be susceptible to such pressing, but the danger for Arsenal is that he is also coming into this form just that it looks like he might be going. There is still no indication he will sign a new deal, and that has attracted the attention of Mourinho.

United do have a long-standing interest in the player, and Ozil’s relationship with the manager is still strong, as illustrated by how Mourinho wrote the foreword for his recent book. Another book – ‘The Special One’ by Diego Torres – also illustrated why that might be. Mourinho trusted Ozil’s technical and tactical understanding of the game more than any other player at Real.

The details are something else that cut against this languid perception of Ozil.

“Those present say that the instructions directed at Mesut Ozil took up much of the meeting,” Torres writes of one team talk, “Mourinho always reserving the most complex list of demands for the German midfielder. Not only was he assigned the mission of playing passes to the forwards and arriving in the box himself. He was also given the job of working defensively in three or four areas.”

“As usual, the most complex job was allocated to Ozil,” he writes of another. “The German had to cover the wing when the team did not have the ball. When possession was regained he had to move to a more central position and link up with [Luka] Modric.”

Ozil has found some of his best form recently (Getty)

Given the pressure and constraints of that, the wonder is whether the different context of his game at Arsenal suddenly saw a different Ozil when he went there in 2013. Wenger famously trusts his players – especially his attackers – to express themselves, and doesn’t really give them exact instructions.

For a player like Ozil, this must have been such a release from the tactical rigours he clearly had at Real. It would really be no surprise if it saw a change in his game – not necessarily a sudden relaxation, but more a realisation that he could concentrate on what he most enjoyed, what he felt were his best qualities.

For Wenger’s part, and as part of the ongoing adjustment by the manager amid so many questions about his future last season, he has changed up a bit himself. There have been changes to the style over the past few months, changes to how he has managed the team.

It has brought a change to what looks a newly charged Ozil. It just might be at a time when he also ends up at a new club.