Ozil's Anfield-silencing message to Emery as Guendouzi shows he's the future

Arsenal Awards: Day Five focuses on our assist of the year as we look at the best Gunners assists played in the 2019/20

Mesut Ozil and Ainsley Maitland-Niles embrace after the Germans silky assist at Anfield


Here we are for day five of our Arsenal 2019/20 Season Awards and today we take a look at the nominees for Arsenal's assist of the season.


Remember you can have your say on who should win the award with fan votes counting for 50% and the remainder being decided

Despite the struggles Arsenal had in the early stages of the season, two of the nominees actually come from when Unai Emery was in charge of the side. The other two are from extremely recently under Mikel Arteta but narrowing this down to just four assists was tough.


Below football.london profiles our four candidates for Arsenal's Under-23s player of the season.





Mesut Ozil vs Liverpool

Starting for the first time in over a month, this stands out as one of Ozil's best performances of the season. In his 65 minutes on the pitch, he displayed exactly what Arsenal were missing at that point in time - sharpness.


poll loading
Who made Arsenal 's best assist of the season?

Playing a key role in both first half goals, his best contribution that night came in front of the travelling Arsenal fans. With the ball squirming just past the post, he had the audacity and ability to scoop it back through his legs past the goalkeeper and into Ainsley Maitland-Niles' path for an easy finish.

It was a pass nobody expected Ozil to pull off and when he did, Anfield felt momentarily frozen. In the press box a double take was needed, Liverpool fans appeared in shock and the Arsenal fans in that corner of the stadium went crazy. The only scenes that exceeded this away from the Emirates were the celebrations for Gabriel Martinelli's goal at Stamford Bridge.

This capped off a spectacular return to the side and was the perfect way for the German to respond to Emery, forcing the Spaniard to keep him in the side from then on.
Matteo Guendouzi vs Tottenham Hotspur

Similar to Ozil, Guendouzi's assist came as the culmination of a truly influential performance but was still outstanding in isolation.

Throughout the game, he made surges forward from midfield, but this time had a bit more space than usual. Spotting Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's run in behind, his clipped ball between the defence and Hugo Lloris was perfectly weighted. All that was needed from Aubameyang was a deft touch and Arsenal had drawn level in the game.


Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang celebrates with Matteo Guendouzi



What elevated this to another level was the reaction. Even though it wasn't an assist as shocking as Ozil's, when he floated that ball into the box, a noticeable weight was lifted from Arsenal fans' shoulders, and that showed in the celebrations.

Seeing how Guendouzi took control in this game, the confidence he displayed was proof of how useful he could be in years to come.
Alexandre Lacazette vs Newcastle

A beautiful goal typical of the way Arsenal fans have become used to seeing the side play, this needed to be mentioned.

35 passes were played in the build up with all 11 players getting a touch of the ball and in fairness, the assist was as good as any of the passes that came before it. Flicking the ball up with the outside of his right boot, Alexandre Lacazette caught his marker flat-footed, quickly swivelled on the spot and swept the ball into Ozil on the edge of the six-yard box.

The German's finish was far from spectacular but the most important thing is that it ended up in the back of the net. Considering how energy-sapped Lacazette appeared in prior games, coming on for a quick cameo and contributing this assist and a goal really seemed to do him the world of good.
David Luiz vs Everton

Since his arrival in December, one of Arteta's key men in terms of building play has been David Luiz. The way he works with Granit Xhaka to advance and pick passes out mostly to either Bukayo Saka or Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been essential to Arsenal's attacks.

This was the case yet again at the Emirates in February, but Everton didn't seem too ready for the punch the simplicity of the approach could pack.

As he does so often, Luiz stepped out into midfield, surveying his options. Nobody engaged him as Aubameyang began his trademark run in off the left and the Brazilian carved the Toffees apart effortlessly with a left-footed ball slid between Djibril Sidibe and Yerry Mina. All that was needed from Aubameyang was a touch to set himself and another to whip the ball past Jordan Pickford into the far corner.

It may be a surprise contender but the fact this is a combination that is continuously worked on by Arteta and was able to be executed with such ease made it very satisfying to see unfold.