Can Benzema’s proposed Arsenal move bring out the best in Ozil?

Karim Benzema

Arsenal’s pursuit of striking reinforcements is set to be a well-documented saga this summer, as the need to provide adequate competition/back-up for Olivier Giroud rumbles on.

The Gunners looked desperately short up front at times this past season, especially once Theo Walcott suffered injury, with Giroud regularly looking fatigued as Arsenal’s title challenge slipped away as a result, with only Yaya Sanogo providing back-up to the Frenchman after Nicklas Bendtner’s disciplinary issues.

A whole host of forwards including Diego Costa and Mario Mandzukic have been linked with big-money switches to the Emirates in the summer, but it is the name of long-time Arsenal target Karim Benzema that really catches the eye, as Real Madrid look to flog him off in order to raise funds for their protracted record bid for Luis Suarez of Liverpool.

Benzema almost seems like the perfect choice for Arsene Wenger, with the French forward seeming like a born Arsenal player in the way he plays the game, but it is not just his fantastic goal-scoring finesse that would prove useful to the Gunners ahead of next season.

For the signing of Benzema would only provide them with a proven goal-scorer who would benefit them on his own, but it would also help bring out the best of last summer’s Real Madrid raid, Mesut Ozil.

Much has been made of Cristiano Ronaldo’s dip in form at the start of the season without Ozil to feed him, but Benzema enjoyed a fine working relationship on the pitch with the German playmaker as well and that was a key reason as to why Jose Mourinho would often pick the Frenchman over Gonzalo Higuain as the spearhead of his attack.

It’s notable that Ozil’s contribution to team affairs – while still impressive for a first season in a new country – has tailed off and the German schemer has not been quite so influential at Arsenal without the strike team he had at real in front of him.

Despite playing fewer minutes at Real last season, Ozil contributed more goals and assists to Los Blancos’ cause, while he created more chances for Mourinho’s side as well, carving out 91 chances last season, in comparison to the 76 he has created in the Premier League.

Ozil hit nine goals for Real last season and set up a further 13 as he proved a key cog in Mourinho’s system at Santiago Bernabeu, but this season has seen him manage just the five strikes and nine assists, without his Real supporting cast.

Benzema has also suffered for the loss of Ozil, suggesting part of the reason why Real are now willing to sacrifice him for other strikers, despite having matched his scoring rate for the Spanish giants, netting at a rate of 0.56 goals per 90 minutes of action.

It is Benzema’s creative work that has suffered for the lack of Ozil however, with the former Lyon man having contributed 0.56 assists as well per 90 minutes as he claimed 11 in total last season, while this season he has managed ‘only’ nine, coming at a rate of 0.29 per 90, given his increased game time following the sale of Higuain to Napoli.

While both players are fine players in their own right, you feel that Arsenal would possess a real fear factor once again, if these two were to reunite in order to spearhead Arsenal’s title challenge next season.

With Benzema more willing perhaps than Giroud to make the runs that Ozil needs to really utilise his playmaking abilities, this is a transfer that makes complete sense not only to give Arsenal the firepower they need up front, but to bring out the best in a man that cost them a club record fee of £42m last summer.

A similar fee might be required to land Benzema, but you feel that for the rewards it would undoubtedly bring to the club, it could be worth every penny and make Arsenal an unstoppable force.