Arsene Wenger Had This To Say About Mesut Ozil After MOTM Display vs Huddersfield

Arsene Wenger was full of praise for Mesut Ozil after the attacker put in a Man of the Match performance during Arsenal’s 5-0 win over Huddersfield last night.

We were holding on to a 1-0 lead thanks to Alexandre Lacazette’s early strike but Ozil turned on the style in the second half to help Arsenal ease to an impressive 5-0 victory at the Emirates.

The German playmaker set-up Olivier Giroud for our second after playing a superb one-two with Alexis Sanchez before grabbing his second assist of the game a minute later as he teed-up Sanchez to make it 3-0.

Ozil then got himself on the scoresheet as he slotted home our fourth goal after being sent clear by an Aaron Ramsey through-ball before Giroud wrapped-up the win with a late fifth goal.

It wasn’t just Ozil’s contribution to our goals that caught the eye as the 29-year-old also impressed with his work-rate and determination to win back possession when we didn’t have the ball.

Wenger says nobody has ever questioned Ozil’s footballing ability but he’s now showing everybody that he’s prepared to do the dirty work too as he put in a similar performance against Tottenham earlier this month.

The boss told Arsenal.com:

on why Mesut Ozil is in such good form…
The fact that he is fit, the fact I believe that you come often to games nobody has to convince you that Ozil is a great player, but he added something that people wanted to see from him as well, against Spurs and tonight, that he can fight and come back and win the ball back. Once people see that they are behind you, everybody knows in the stadium that he is a good football player and at the moment he shows that he can fight.

on why Ozil is fighting more…
Our job is to encourage people to fight of course, but I think that he always covered the distances in the game, but he is at an age where he is mature and he understands what is important, what is less important.

on whether Ozil is affected by criticism…
I don’t know, you should ask him that. I think everybody wants to be acknowledged for their quality and the judgements are sometimes harsh in a footballers job, but overall I believe the majority of people love him and always loved him.

on the criticism of Ozil needing to be brought into a game…
I don’t agree with that because when you look at the percentage of possession during a game, no matter what the game is, he always wants the ball, he never hides and is never a guy who hides behind an opponent and doesn’t really want the ball. He is always available. But of course, when you play football you have other outfield players and when you are dominated you touch the ball less, but when we win the ball he always wants the ball.

Ozil can be a frustrating player at times as he has all the ability in the world but you get a feeling he goes missing when Arsenal aren’t on song. However, there is no better player to watch when we’re playing well so we should just enjoy Ozil while he’s still at the club.