EPL 2014: What’s happened to Arsenal's Mesut Ozil?

Saturday was not a good day for Arsenal. The title contenders went to Anfield hoping for a victory against Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool but after an explosive opening 20 minutes from the home side the Gunners found themselves 4-0 down and ended up losing 5-1.
It would be hard to find any positives for Arsene Wenger to take solace in with no Arsenal player having covered themselves in glory but perhaps the biggest disappointment was the big money summer signing Mesut Ozil.
Bought from Real Madrid for a club record fee in excess for £40m at the start of the season, Ozil was meant to be the player who would pull the strings and create goals but against Liverpool, the Germany international rated somewhere between poor and anonymous.
Ozil's take-ons v Liverpool
The fact that he was subbed off after an hour as part of a triple substitution from Arsene Wenger would support any claim that Ozil was not contributing to the match, as does his Squawka Performance Score of -27. Only two Arsenal players out of the 14 who played scored worse, goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny with -36 and Olivier Giroud with -39.
One stat does deceive though, and that is his 89% pass completion. When you delve deeper into that statistic, while he completed 89% of his passes on the day, he only attempted 36, which is less than one pass per minute and just one pass led to a shot on goal for Arsenal. For someone who was meant to get on the ball, link midfield and attack in order to carve open the opposition's defence, this was not good enough.
Ozil's passes v Liverpool at Anfield
Compare this to the reverse fixture when Arsenal won 2-0 earlier in the season at the Emirates his overall pass completion was more or less the same, 88%, but after an hour Ozil had attempted 57 passes and by full time had tried 81 and set up Aaron Ramsey’s goal. Same opposition but far, far more influential and the kind of performance you would expect from a player of his ilk.
Ozil's passes v Liverpool at the Emirates
His overall contribution to the game was pretty much nil. Of two corner kicks and four crosses he failed to find a team mate on any occasion. Of three attempted take ons he was only successful with one and Ozil did not have a single shot in the 60 minutes he was on the pitch.
And even though Ozil is not in the team for his defensive abilities, everyone in the team needs to contribute to the defensive effort, especially when the team is on the back foot like the Gunners were. Ozil did not contribute with no headers contested, no interceptions made and just one of two tackles won.
His performance was the very definition of both disappointing and anonymous. Luckily for Arsenal fans, this appears to be a one off. While he may not have reached the dizzying heights and world class performances expected of him he has been a good player this season.
In 20 games he has an 88% pass completion along with four goals and eight assists with 56 chances created, well over two per match. This season he has done what has been expected, although some will say he should have done more.
Arsenal fans will hope, though, with big games in the league, FA Cup and Champions League on the horizon this was just a temporary blip rather than the start of a dip in form.