Why Mesut Ozil Will Be the Biggest Beneficiary of a Healthy Theo Walcott

There is probably no one whom Arsenal fans and the media love to hate as much as Mesut Ozil.

The German was always going to have a disproportionate amount of pressure on his shoulders from day one, as he was Arsenal's most expensive signing by some margin. He stepped into the creative void that Arsenal had never filled after Cesc Fabregas' departure and was expected to immediately produce.

Ozil played rather poorly in the first few months after his arrival in north London. The common (and logical) excuse at the time was that he was taking some time to get used to the unique style of the Premier League, which had imposed a steep learning curve even on legendary players.

But Ozil's performances did not improve to the level people expected them to, and he certainly did not hit the heights that compelled Arsenal to shell out £42.5 million for him in the first place.

Meanwhile, Aaron Ramsey was taking the Premier League by storm and winning games virtually by himself. Where people quickly got fed up with Ozil's perceived malaise, Ramsey earned all the plaudits for his ability to simply impose himself on games.

As the dichotomy became progressively more apparent, and after Ozil was forced to help compensate for Ramsey's absence, some of the German's defenders said there was simply not the right kind of attacking talent in the team for a creative player like him to flourish.

Ian Walton/Getty Images

This is a much more interesting argument than simply accusing Ozil of being lazy; it allows us to really examine what sort of player he actually is.

Whereas Ramsey is a box-to-box midfielder, who is all energy and will fight for every ball until the end of the match, Ozil is a more passive player who waits for the game to come to him and then works with what he sees.

Essentially, Ramsey creates chances from scratch, while Ozil takes the raw materials that others give him and creates something from them.

Ozil thus needs effective attacking players around him to be successful. It's no surprise that he flourished at Real Madrid—he had Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Angel Di Maria to pass to during his entire time at the Santiago Bernabeu.

What do all these players have in common? Speed. Loads of speed.

That, incidentally, is a quality that Ozil does not possess. He instead uses outstanding vision, an uncanny ability to read the game and a remarkably deft touch to pick pinpoint passes and set up goalscoring opportunities for others.

Paul Gilham/Getty Images

But this is all wasted when he has no one ahead of him who is able or willing to make incisive runs behind the defense. After Theo Walcott ruptured his ACL in January, there was no one on Arsenal who could do so.

Instead, Ozil found himself constantly passing sideways to Santi Cazorla, Jack Wilshere or whomever else Arsene Wenger tried on the wings.

He would often receive the ball and hold it for a few seconds, looking in every direction for a positive pass. But the other players to whom he could give possession were more or less like him in their physical abilities and playing style.

Theo Walcott is an entirely different player from any other in a red and white shirt. Although Arsenal are not entirely bereft of pace in his absence now that Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck have joined the ranks, there is no one on the payroll who is as good at simply getting behind the defense and finishing as Walcott.

That he and Ozil have seldom been fit at the same time and able to form a mutual understanding is a misfortune too often overlooked when assessing both Arsenal's performances and Ozil's.

By the time Ozil returns from injury in January, Walcott will be fully fit and free of whatever rust remains after nine months away from the pitch.

Ozil's one Achilles' heel is that he needs the right sort of players around him to be successful. But he will have just that sort of player in Theo Walcott.

Follow @charliemelman