Wenger Offers His Thoughts On Ozil’s Penalty + Performance vs Bayern Munich

Arsenal slumped to a 2-0 defeat to Bayern Munich last night in the first leg of our Champions League last 16 tie.

After making an excellent start, Mesut Ozil was given the perfect opportunity to give us the lead after he was brought down in the area. However, the German missed his third consecutive spot kick as his childhood team mate, Manuel Neuer, stood firm to palm away his weak penalty down the middle.

Many critcised the 25-year-old’s penalty taking style, with his short staggered run-up not going down too well among fans and pundits alike. The penalty miss proved costly as we went on to lose the game 2-0 after having Wojciech Szczesny sent off just before half time.

After the game, boss Arsene Wenger spoke to the media and gave his thoughts on Ozil’s miss, and while the Frenchman hinted he’s not a fan of the short run-up, he also pointed out that missing a penalty can happen to anyone.

Wenger also feels the miss had a huge impact on the playmakers performance but hopes it won’t knock his confidence too much. He told Arsenal.com:

on Mesut Ozil’s penalty…

He missed a penalty… with his style of play… what can I say? They missed one as well. The regret I have is that we missed our penalty. We needed that tonight because you could see that Bayern was on the ropes at the start of the game. We had three good chances in the first 15 minutes, we started the game well. I feel too make them more insecure we needed to score that penalty. But he missed it.

on whether it affected Ozil…

Yes, he was affected by it. I think he wanted to do so well tonight that it affected him. You could see even five or 10 minutes later on the pitch he still was shaking his head. It had a huge impact on his performance. Our usual penalty takers were not on the pitch tonight, that’s why we had to decide. It was Ozil, Cazorla and Sagna. Cazorla missed as well, Ozil has missed, you think sometimes ‘OK, he missed from the penalty spot before, but he will not miss again’, but it can happen to anybody, you cannot reproach that.

on Ozil’s confidence…

Look, you are always concerned about the confidence of your players because that’s your petrol in a team. Your confidence is what gives them the desire to go and play. In our job you have to deal with that.

There’s little doubt that Ozil’s was a poor penalty and like many, I’m not a fan of the way he takes them, but at least he showed the courage to step up and take it in the absense of Mikel Arteta and Olivier Giroud. He was having a good game up until the miss and you could tell he was up for the game, so it’s such a shame he couldn’t tuck it away.

Who knows how things would have gone had we gone one up but sadly it’s another case of ‘what if’ for us in Europe. Ozil needs to show he’s a top player by reacting to this set-back where it matters most; on the pitch starting this weekend against Sunderland.

MORE: See our player ratings from the game.

What did you make of Ozil’s performance last night? Share your thoughts below.