The ball was threaded through to Mesut Ozil. Any other player might have gone for glory. He didn’t.

With a devastating drop of the shoulder, Ozil nullified any threat that Aston Villa defender Joleon Lescott carried, before squaring five yards to Aaron Ramsey for his 13th assist of the season.

Simple, unselfish, superb. It summed up Ozil’s contribution for Arsenal this season with the £42.5million buy from Real Madrid settling into his role as the greatest provider in world football.

Mesut Ozil deceived Joleon Lescott with a drop of the shoulder before providing this assist for Aaron Ramsey

Ozil fooled Lescott with a shimmy before managing his 13th assist of the Premier League season for Arsenal

Ozil celebrates with Ramsey after deciding to set his team-mate up rather than go for goal himself

Sportsmail’s graphic shows how Ozil and Ramsey were involved at the beginning and end of the move

Ozil is a rare breed ‒ an attacker who prefers to help others rather than himself. Some No 10s want all eyes on them and their tricks or dribbles. Ozil doesn’t, and his assist for Ramsey said it all.

Rarely can Ozil go a game without Thierry Henry’s record ‒ 20 assists for Arsenal in 2002/03 ‒ being mentioned. It has become a way to measure his input, as unfair as that is.

He’s got 13 assists so far ‒ as many as Dennis Bergkamp, Steven Gerrard or Juan Mata managed in an entire season ‒ and six more than his nearest competitor in Everton’s Gerard Deulofeu. 

Ozil has 22 games to find seven assists to equal Henry, or eight if he wants the honour to himself.

If he can continue his current assists-per-game average (0.9), then that’s a shoo-in. Cesc Fabregas fell into that trap but Ozil would break the record by February if he maintained his recent rate. 

He is providing for those around him more than ever before. In Germany, Ozil averaged 0.4 assists per game in his best season. In Spain, it was 0.5. In England, it’s 0.9.

The same goes for chances created too. His current average ‒ 4.3 per game ‒ is unrivalled.

Ozil is currently averaging his best-ever assists and chances created per game in his entire career

Arsene Wenger knows it too, and isn’t wasting Ozil’s talent by restricting him from a free role.

The 4-4-2 formation ‒ formerly the meat and two veg of English football ‒ is dying out, and 4-2-3-1 has become the norm in the Premier League.

This allows the playmaker to sit behind the striker in the No 10 role, where Ozil is at his most creative. Often collecting short passes from midfield, he then looks for the killer ball, such as his lobbed assist for Alexis Sanchez in Arsenal’s 5-2 win against Leicester City.

That triumph in September was the only defeat inflicted on Leicester this season and, while Ozil put on a creative masterclass that day, he also ran further (11.8km) than any of his team-mates.

Putting in a shift at the King Power Stadium wasn’t a fluke, however.

Only Nacho Monreal (164km) has covered a further distance than Ozil (155km) for Arsenal this season

Ozil’s job is to provide for his team-mates and he is doing that in abundance this season for Arsenal

Only Nacho Monreal (164km) has covered a further distance than Ozil (155km) for Arsenal this season. Lazy? Not a chance.

He is putting in the hard yards so others, such as Olivier Giroud, don’t have to. Ozil’s job is to make their jobs easier, and it’s paying off.

Look around Europe, and no other playmaker beats Ozil in providing for his team-mates.

The nearest ‒ Montepellier’s Ryad Boudebouz ‒ is still six chances created behind (59). He also trails by 10 assists. Then there’s Neymar for Barcelona, who has created 12 fewer chances (53). The list goes on with West Ham’s Dimitri Payet (47) and Paris Saint-Germain’s Angel Di Maria (46) next.

Arsenal’s not-so-secret weapon has led them to second and if Leicester aren’t going to win the Premier League ‒ as the general consensus seems to be ‒ then he can guide them to the title.

David Moyes last week said ‘the jury is still out’ on Ozil, and he was mocked on social media. If Ozil can work his magic against Manchester City at The Emirates Stadium on Monday, then perhaps even the Sky Sports pundit might begin to think differently about this unselfish superstar.

Because right now, £42.5m is beginning to look cheap. 

Ozil pictured celebrating with Ramsey as he continues to lead them on their Premier League title charge

Distance data courtesy of the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index, the Official Player Rating Index of the Barclays Premier League