Gameweek 9 Fantasy Premier League: One To Watch.
One of the keys to succeeding in Fantasy Premier League is the ability to spot trends and patterns that the masses of managers might have missed, picking out the players on the verge of breaking out. While the likes of Lukaku, Son and Walcott have caught the attention of thousands of managers, and for good reason, several players have quietly put themselves in a position to take the fantasy football world by storm. To help your FPL team get ahead of the curve, @insiderFPL has picked out his top player that has the potential to become the next hot commodity in fantasy.Gameweek 9 One To Watch: Mesut Ozil
What has seemingly been a quiet start to the season for Mesut Ozil, may actually just be the first act in what might become one of his most brilliant performances yet.
To date, the German maestro has racked up a mere 36 points on the back of three goals and zero assists. On the surface level, those stats appear underwhelming at best, but dig a little deeper, and all the calling signs are there for Ozil to absolutely explode back onto the FPL scene.
The Arsenal number 10's game has not regressed, it has simply evolved.
Ozil has not been much of a goalscoring threat since landing in London, and it had perhaps been viewed as his biggest weakness. When looking at his tallies from the Premier League and Champions League, Ozil scored six goals in 34 appearances in the 2013/14 season; four in 26 in the 2014/15 season; and eight in 43 just last season.
He now has six goals in 10 matches. The reason for this transformation? A huge change in tactics.
At first, Alexis Sanchez was started up top for the Gunners out of necessity, but as the season progressed it became abundantly clear that this new system would work wonders for Arsenal. It allowed Walcott to become a threat off the wing, Sanchez to run about like a mad man in the opposition's box and, most importantly, it's forced Ozil into becoming more of a goal scorer.
Allow me to explain a bit. Since the 2013/14 season, Arsenal have used Olivier Giroud as a traditional forward. He held up the ball well, he was an adept close-range finisher and he was always likely to get his head on the end of a cross that was sent into the box. In short, he was a giant target that Ozil could just whip the ball at and end up with an assist.
Ozil's new, or at least different, partnership with Alexis Sanchez is a bit more intricate. Unlike the Frenchman, Sanchez has the ability to fan out to either wing, send in accurate crosses and get in behind defenders.
The Chilean forward's style of play is far more effective at pulling defenders out of sorts and it makes Arsenal's attack a bit more dynamic. When Sanchez drifts out to the wings it then allows Ozil to make surging runs into the box, and this is exactly how Ozil has scored all of his league goals so far.
Three excellent runs into the box, three accurate crosses from Alexis and three beautiful goals for the German.
It's not just Sanchez either. When Lucas Perez, a similar player to the Chilean in respect to his ability to play as both a striker and a winger, entered Arsenal's Champions League match against Ludogorets this Wednesday night he provided a both a cross and a chipped pass into the middle of the box that Ozil was able to put away. Earlier in the match the ex-Real Madrid man was able to provide an assist for Walcott and tuck away a beautiful chance created by Santi Cazorla.
All of this simply adds to the argument that Ozil has become a more complete number 10 for Arsenal. Admittedly there have been some growing pains, which has come in the form of a lack of assists, but that should not deter fantasy owners from adding the German to their side.
Everyone knows the star Gunner can weave a ball through the heaviest of traffic, and while his key passes per game average has dipped a little this season, that suggests that he is taking more chances for himself, rather than it suggesting a dip in ability.
With the trio of Sanchez (23.7% ownership), Walcott (14.9% ownership) and Ozil (7.8% ownership) firing on all cylinders, there should be plenty of goals and assists to go around.
Ozil currently has the lowest ownership of the bunch, which makes him a bit of a differential option, and as the season goes on I believe he'll emerge as the best Arsenal midfielder for fantasy.
12 goals and 12 assist, or better for that matter, isn't an unreasonable expectation for the midfielder, and with matches against Middlesbrough and Sunderland approaching, this could prove to be the best possible time to bring Mesut Ozil into your fantasy Premier League squads.
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