Mesut Ozil teaches Christian Eriksen a gentle lesson in how to be a perfect 10

Ozil was the future once, but he has the concrete achievements to his name that Eriksen is still working towards and showed why against Tottenham

Mesut Ozil put on a masterclass as Arsenal beat their bitter rivals (Getty)

Not much is known of the inner workings of Mesut Ozil, what he cares about or what motivates him. But you wonder, watching him play like this, whether he had noticed all the praise heaped on Christian Eriksen in the last few weeks.

Eriksen’s form for Tottenham and Denmark has seen him acclaimed as the great creative midfielder of his generation, ready to step up into the world’s highest class of players. None of that praise is misplaced either; Eriksen has been playing with consistent twice-a-week brilliance for at least a year now. And when you score a hat-trick away from home in a World Cup qualification play-off, you mark yourself out as a man who can rise to the biggest challenges in the game.

But here today at the murky Emirates, Ozil gave Eriksen a gentle lesson in what it means to be a number 10 of the highest class. Ozil was the future once – now he is 29 years old – but he has the concrete achievements to his name that Eriksen is still working towards: a World Cup winner’s medal, three seasons at Real Madrid, winning a cup and a league title there, and three FA Cups during his time here at Arsenal. Eriksen may have overtaken him as a player, but here Ozil strutted, revelling in his superior nous.

This was Ozil’s best performance in years and the best Arsenal have played in just as long. When he is this good he takes their game to another level of intelligence, nuance and precision, in a way that nobody else can. He is often written off as a luxury player but on this form he is the opposite: he is the only way Arsenal have of playing the high-level football needed to beat opposition this good.

Tottenham were by far the best defence in the country last season, seven goals tighter than Chelsea. This season they have been second best, just behind Manchester United. And yet here Ozil picked so many gaps in their backline that it felt like watching a Spurs team from another era, like the Harry Redknapp or Andre Villas-Boas sides that used to come here and let in five.

Ozil set the tone throughout, not just with the ball but without it. You know Ozil is on it when he starts hassling opponents and after just seven minutes he nearly set up an opener, robbing Jan Vertonghen only to be unfortunately penalised by Mike Dean. But he was part of a front three, with Alexis Sanchez and Alexandre Lacazette, who disrupted Spurs’ rhythm and never let them get a foothold in the game. Spurs desperately missed the authority and control of Toby Alderweireld in their back three and the others simply could not cope.


 Ozil was outstanding from first to last 
 (AFP)

In midfield Mauricio Pochettino picked Mousa Dembele over Ozil but he was not fully fit and no match for Ozil. He is meant to be Spurs’ engine but Arsenal smothered him here. When he tried to break forward with the ball on the left, Ozil was straight into him and ran him off the field. Which is not how battles between these two usually play out.

And then most importantly of all was the technical quality on the ball. Just when it felt as if Arsenal might waste their early momentum, Ozil helped them into the lead. Alexis Sanchez won a free-kick on the left and Ozil hit a perfect dipper, over the Spurs’ defence and onto the head of Shkodran Mustafi, who put it into the top corner. It was a delivery Eriksen would have been proud of.

The defining image of this particular battle came minutes later when Eriksen took the ball on the turn just inside Arsenal’s half, the area he usually controls and does his damage from. Ozil ran back, shrugged him off the ball and skipped away with it. This was his patch again this afternoon.


 The German was the game's outstanding player 
 (AFP)

Of course when Ozil plays this well you do wonder why he does not do it every week. If he did – or even every other week – he would still be acclaimed as one of the best players in the world, in a way that does not happen anymore.

It may well be true that Ozil, in the final months of his Arsenal contract, is trying to impress potential suitors that he is a still a top player and deserving of a lucrative free-transfer deal, whether at Manchester United or elsewhere. Which, after all, is what Wenger optimistically predicted would happen at the start of the season.

But whatever the motivation for Ozil’s masterclass today, and whatever it leads to, is besides the point for now. Some performances are just there to be enjoyed.