Everyone’s a Mesut Ozil fan, whether the individual may or may not be an Arsenal fan. Though I am not too pleased with his recent form for club and country, it must be said that he has done big things in his career as a player. He has been doing a decent job for Arsenal at times, though the rest of the time he has spent struggling and trying to focus at the task in hand. Even Unai Emery knows the kind of tantrums the German World Cup winner can throw at times and his reactions on being subbed in particular during some games has not really been the best.

Though there is a slight possibility that the play-maker would have been used at some point of time in the game against the Cherries if the Gunners were losing, for some reason the Spaniard decided to give him more rest than game-time. The things did work out for his side and they managed to secure a narrow win over Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium.

This could be a sign of things to come for the future, if the former PSG and Sevilla man feels that he does not need the ex German international to start for him. Let’s go through a few reasons as to why this might have happened exactly.

1. Bournemouth were beaten because of the pace and stamina of the Gunners’ stars, which their own players lacked. The midfielders were over-worked in the first half and exerted too much, which led them to their own downfall in the second half. The credit here goes to the Arsenal players who worked really hard and had Ozil been on the pitch, possibly that kind of work-rate might not have been shown by him.

2. Ozil has not been the best Arsenal player on the pitch in quite a few games in the current campaign as well and has been substituted. His reactions to being taken off in some of the games has not  been the best and Emery might be also trying to show him who is the boss. Though dropping such a top and highly reputed player at the expense of the team will never be a smart choice to make, the manager has done a decent job so far with his team and questioning his intentions at this point is not the best thing to do.

3. Another idea behind putting Ozil on the bench could be the fact that Emery wants to reduce some of the pressure on his shoulders. Along with that, he might want to develop him into a super-sub just like Aubameyang to give him some confidence. Apart from that, it could also be a possibility that Emery feels that Ozil is good in short spells of maximum quality and not the entire 90 minutes.

4. Maybe this was just a rest ahead of the hectic schedule of big games that is coming up in December, heading into the New Year. Matches with teams like Tottenham, Manchester United, Liverpool and eventually Chelsea in January are on the cards and the Londoners’ boss will know that Ozil could be a key player in these big games.