What Do You Reckan, Mesut... Fancy Winning The League?

Arsenal have waited 13 long years for a Premier League title, but if anyone can end that barren run, it’s their telepathic twosome. But are Ozil & Sanchez really the new Bergkamp & Wright?

- Chris Flanagan

Mesut Özil and Alexis Sanchez were on the field together in Arsenal colours for the first time, and it wasn’t going well.

The game was just 45 minutes old on a summer’s evening at Goodison Park, but already the Gunners were staring defeat in the face. Steven Naismith had just swept the ball home to give Roberto Martinez’s Everton a 2-0 lead. Özil, on the back of a difficult first season at Arsenal, was described as being “almost completely anonymous”. Sanchez, newly arrived from Barcelona, was faring no better. He was hauled off at half-time.

His replacement, Olivier Giroud, played a key role in an almost miraculous recovery as Arsene Wenger’s men eventually rescued a 2-2 draw on Merseyside. For Özil and Sanchez, however, it didn’t look much like the beginning of a beautiful friendship on the pitch.

Özil had been stuck out on the left that day. Sanchez was picked as a striker, something The Observer called “an experiment that may not be repeated”. An injury to Giroud meant it was repeated once more, but soon Yaya Sanogo got the nod upfront, then deadline-day signing Danny Welbeck, then Giroud when he was fit again. In those early weeks, the two most expensive players in Arsenal’s history at the time – Özil at £42.5 million, Sanchez £31.7m – were manning the flanks.

That was nearly two and a half years ago. Since then, Sanchez and Özil have become one of the Premier League’s deadliest partnerships.

“We don’t need to say anything to each other – it just takes a glance,” is how Sanchez describes their almost telepathic understanding out on the pitch. Özil and Sanchez have been exchanging those knowing glances quite often this season.