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29 Assists Each: Arsenal Or Chelsea’s Attacker In Chief – Who Has Had A Greater Impact On The EPL?

Two players who were at different points at the end of last season seem to have switched roles this time around. Mesut Ozil was constantly being sounded out for not performing in the league with the Gunners while Eden Hazard was destroying defences and even won the Premier League player of the year award in Chelsea’s title winning season.

Cue a few months into this season and the form that Hazard had shown last year seems a distant memory while Ozil seems to have found some sort of magic pill as he has been providing assists to his teammates like he is haunted by his performances for the Gunners since he signed for them.

One stat that did catch the eye recently is that Mesut Ozil has provided as many assists this season as he had in his first two years at Arsenal. Funny fact, Ozil also now has the same number of assists in his Arsenal career as Hazard, 29 so far but the German has gotten them in 59 games fewer than the Chelsea attacker, thanks to Opta stats.

The big question that might be vexing a few is which player has actually had a greater impact for his team since joining them?

A playmaker vs. An attacker

Comparing the pair might not be the easiest seeing that they don’t exactly play in the same positions or in the same roles. While Ozil has often played on the wing, also dabbled sometime in the midfield as well in his first two years, his calling has been in the free role behind the striker which he has taken up amazingly well this season.

Hazard on the other hand has always hugged the touchline and played as a winger. Not only that his job isn’t always to find the killer through ball but to score important goals or cause a lot of problems for the opposition defence.

Hazard has scored 49 goals in his three plus seasons at Chelsea, not bad for a winger but the fact that he hasn’t opened his account this season must be stinging the Belgian. He has often been touted by ex-manager Jose Mourinho as one of the best players in the world and was supposed to take on Messi and Ronaldo for the tag for the greatest but that has never taken place as he hasn’t been able to change games like the Argentine and Portuguese have been able to.

Certainly Ozil had been asleep in his first couple of seasons and only has managed 16 goals for Arsenal in his two plus seasons so far but he is a creator and not a finisher. You do not expect the German to make a lung-bursting run into the box but he does find the attacker that could score the goal.

Who has had a greater impact for their team thus far? Despite Ozil doing what he has been doing this season, he hasn’t been playing at this level since he joined the Gunners. Hazard on the other hand has always played in top gear and was one of the reasons why Chelsea won the league last season.

Hazard certainly has had a greater impact for Chelsea compared to Ozil for Arsenal. The Belgian has gone missing this season and his absence has been felt massively, hopefully he can find his way back under Hiddink and then kick-start better next year.

Ozil on the other hand could well be the player who wins Arsenal their first Premier League title in over a decade and if he does that, he surely will go down as one of the best players of this season.