Arsene Wenger has paid homage to Mesut Ozil’s renaissance after watching the German put in a man of the match shift in Arsenal’s 4-1 win against Liverpool.
The World Cup winner was influential throughout the Gunners’ dominant victory, catching the eye with his range of passing, his willingness to track back and a deft first half free-kick that doubled his side’s lead five minutes before the break.
Facing the media about after the match, Wenger spoke in emphatic terms about his record-signing’s ability:
“What he does is always classy, intelligent and the timing of his passes is absolutely fantastic. He’s agile, flexible and always available in between the lines.
“When you play with him in the team, you would love to play with him. He’s sometimes criticised because of his physical challenges but I believe he’s on the way and is improving on that at the moment.
“He makes a big effort to work hard and be disciplined for the team.”
The boss also played up the clinical nature of his side’s finishing, although he played down suggestions that Arsenal – who have moved up to second in the table – had produced the perfect performance.
“Perfect? You always have imperfections in any game but I feel we started with a great intensity, which is what we wanted to put them under pressure. We created some early chances after and then when we relieved the pressure they had one or two chances.
“Liverpool are a good side going forwards and they always look dangerous. We had a killing instinct and took advantage of our strong moments in the first half. In fairness we played at a good pace and had some good combination game in the final third.
The second half was more down to, can we maintain the discipline, intensity and not allow them to come back early? We did that. We had many chances on the break that I’ve seen again but in the end it was 4-1 which is very convincing in a very important game.”
Despite temporarily closing the gap on leaders Chelsea to just four points, Wenger played down talk of a title challenge pointing to the points dropped earlier in the season.
“We missed important players at the start of the season where we dropped too many points. If you look since everybody’s been back and available, the number of points we have made shows we have the quality to fight at the top.
“When you start the championship with the players coming back from the World Cup not available and having big players out for three or four months, we played six games in the Premier League and won one. You have a mountain to climb after. We are a consistent side and consistency is linked with quality.”
Doesn’t run, doesn’t score.
Hmmm, not borne out by the stats.
Love him.
Wenger IN 🙂
Lets just hope we start next season like we hope to end this one. What pure quality. Every player on the pitch performed, fought and won the game. Of course, Ozil deserved this MotM because it was quite obvious. Some careless giveaways, but it was an inspiring performance from the team.
Vikkkkkkkkk!
no chance Ozil was MoTM, Coquelin, Giroud, Alexis, Bellerin were all better than him but he was good.
I’m hoping for 2nd place and the FA Cup, the league, though probable is only wishful thinking. What I like about this season though is we now seem to have rid of that mental block against big teams. We won against City and United away, Liverpool at home. And these are games where we either need the points or we need to progress so they are far from meaningless. Let’s hope we add Chelsea to that list by next Monday :). I share the same frustration with many of our fan base as it seems like another season where the… Read more »
He has shown since the turn of the year the calibre of player he truly is.. fantastic performance today.
Mesut was MOTM by a long way. How Michael Owen couldn’t fathom it is beyond me…..
So good to see us looking like a premiership winning team, I loved today, but I would really love to see the same against Josie and his mercenaries 😉
because michael owen is a dumb fuck
Owen is a highly paid pro who knows his stuff. When he says Sterling is better than Mesut, who are we to disagree
lol
lol….Lol…….Loll….
What else can you say to such utter crap?
I’ve had it in for Owen since the little bugger screwed us in the 2001 final.
His commentating was more fair yesterday , but he’s a boring git who talks crap .
No fucking way is sterling better than ozil .
Welbeck maybe , but I’m happy with welbz.
We do not need sterling and he is not all that .
Owen is a prick.
I thought it was hard to call who the MOTM was. Mine was Bellerin but I can understand why other people might point to Ozil or Coquelin, for example.
I didn’t think Sanchez was MOTM but Owen is clearly not able to see anything beyond ‘he run around a bit’, hence his decision.
The fact he thinks Sterling is better than Ozil says it all.
Bellerin gave away a penalty so I think we give the man of the match to Ozil. But who cares, they all played great! I hope KOS is ok.
When Pires signed, his first season was poor. He then bacame the oil in the engine. Ozil is now becoming the oil in the new purring engine. Coyg. Adam just scored wonder goal.
Forget his goal. Adam is a neanderthal who chokeslammed our Alexis!
Was actually hoping it might take points off the dogs. Alas.
God i love it when we have those moments.. those moments where you know every single slack journalist who rides ozils back about being lazy and ineffective suddenly sits back and says…. ahhh.. fuck…
Őzil is pure class and has just taken a while to settle in. He’s been top drawer for a while now but you’ll never read it in the press. The fuckin lot of em have had it in for him since he arrived. Pires, Freddie, Thierry, Dennis, Kolo etc all took time get going after being unfairly hammered in the press.
I loved him scoring but his pass to Ramsay which led to the Bellerin goal was beyond exquisite. As Asrseblog noted, he looked up and noted Ramsay’s position. He then floated out a lazy pass that dropped between multiple defenders, bounced perfectly and dropped to Ramsay’s feet. I have watched it over and over. It is remarkable because you can imagine other players making the pass – but it would be cruder. It would be direct to Ramsay and likely harder to control. I cannot imagine anyone else having the sort of vision and touch Ozil has to play such… Read more »
i coudnt believe my ears when i heard Jamie Redknapp on saturday actually say Ozil is so good, “he personally will pay money just to watch him play”???
shameless git!…..i distinctly remember him slamming the guy, a few weeks ago and going on about how arsenal made a ” grave mistake” not signing Fabregas
Think about how much ozil and Alexis have given us this season, and then think about how we’re likely to have another mega signing this summer! So fun having assassins like Alexis playing for you not against you, what a hired gun.
Sanchez won the MOTM didnt he? I remember watching the guy giving the trophy to Bellerin to give to Sanchez.
Ozil is class. Owen is just blind to underrated him
Owen is just jealous of ozil, because ozil had a better career at real madrid than him.
COQUELIN MORE LIKE BLOCQUELIN
HAHAHA I’M NOT SORRY FOLKS
Ozil was fantastic today, he makes difficult passes look so simple. Great performance all round from the team, Bellerin is fast becoming a revelation and it’s like a fight between him and Debuchy for right back now.
Ozil is class. Owen is glass.
Ozil is class. Owen is a cunt.
When I fell in love with Ozil, a game I attended in 2009 http://youtu.be/NVTayts24pM
Micheal owen? Who gives a fuck about micheal owen’s opinion, he will always be a bias cunt we know that because his envy of Arsenal will always be with him, great performance from from the team!! Bet you with a little bit of luck we can still win this league!!
I’ll keep saying this: when fit and on form, Mesut Ozil is THE BEST NO 10 IN THE WORLD.
Keep you’re silvas, matas, coutinhos and eriksens…ozil is a boss.
To think that moron owen(who by the way never scored 20 goals in the league throughout his career) says sterling is better makes me laugh. As if that is not bad enough, he gets compared to rookies like coutinho.
OZIL IS THE BEST NO 10 IN THE LEAGUE AND HE PLAYS FOR ARSENAL FC…NOT MANURE, SHITTY, LOSERPOOL, CHELSHIT…BUT FUCKING ARSENAL.
Now deal with that haters.
Never scored 20 in the league? That’s surprising
Yep..makes you wonder why he won that ballon d’orr and what the difference was between him and patrick kluivert.
Did you see the curl on that free kick? Proper old skool.
There were so may curves in those goals it had my girlfriend standing in the mirror to see how she measures up.
Their goalie really needs to work on his right side of the post,
He would have easily had two goals had Ramsey fed him the ball early in the game when Ramsey took the left footed shot instead. As great as Ozil was today he did look fairly tired in the 2nd half, often walking back on defense when we only had 6 back. Not sure if that’s fatigue from the international break as he had been playing a strong 90 in most prior games, but we are a different team with him out there. Was very interesting to see Ramsey stationed out wide giving Ozil freedom to play in the middle.
Top perfomance today and Ozil was by far the man of the match. Michael Owen is a boring wanker.
No player has every quality you want, they all lack a little something. Some of them also have that bit of something extra, that bit of magic or heart or strength… Mesut Ozil is not perfect but he almost always makes every player better and he does have this amazing, subtle bit of magic. In many ways much like his manager Mr. Arsne (Well Frickin Done) Wenger ! COYG! Let’s make ole Chelsea look over their shoulder and sweat a bit.
Michael Owen in his pre match cuntidry claimed that Raheem Sterling was a better player than Mesut Özil. I rate Sterling quite highly and it is clear that he is a talented player but Owen’s opinion is yet again the classic example of the piss poor standard of punditry from these so called “experts” that we have to tolerate. The reason Özil is criticised by so many pundits is because he doesn’t thunder into challenges or sprint around until he’s blowing out of his arse. His skills are much more subtle and effective than he is given credit for outside… Read more »
Well Michael Owen is an idiot.
Sorry for stating the Obvious.
Also Sterling is very talented and and could develop into one hell of a player but as things stand
he wouldnt start at Arsenal.
Ozil’s performances are improving, I’m as desperate for him to kick on as everybody else I just don’t understand why the views on him are so extreme? He’s either shit… Or being made out to be performing much better than he actually is. it’s like fans are so desperate to be proven right about our record signing, that their seeing things that aren’t there… good or bad. My view of him is, he’s doing much better since his return from injury, but can still do a lot more. His defensive contribution is improving, but needs to improve more which I… Read more »
“cuntidry”..:D
Ozil has proved everybody right ! Those who see his quality in every game are proven right. Those who said he underperformed before are proven right if you compare his performance today to the beginning of the season. There is the word ”renaissance” in the post above. Those who denigrate him all the time do not count. There is nothing he can do to change them.
My favorite goal of the pick. We haven’t had the authority scoring from set pieces for quite a while now. I hope this gets us back into the business. Ozil was class again today. Mugs in the media have no idea what they are looking at, his impact is quiet but efficient. Still managed some impressive moves today and demonstration of power he has. He is coming into great form in the run in as is Ramsey. With Alexis scoring again, we are in fine tune to finish very strong and we still have an FA cup we can look… Read more »
Christiano Ronaldo , Maureen, Joachim Low , Arsene Wenger, even Michel Platini asked for his shirt at the world cup final , they all say Mesut is class and a unique player, and Owen rate Sterling higher? WTF best joke of the year. Am jobless , can I be a pundit too?
Yes .. But you are most likely not enough of a cunt to be offered the job.
I think your English skills are already too strong to be a pundit. Try dumbing it down a bit; perhaps you could study Rio Ferdinand for some pointers.
He can thread a pass through a brickwall oh mighty Ozil
Ozil is classy football quality miles beyond owen is -flat- low level
forgive him!
3 goals, from 3 left-foot strikes, all in into the left corner of the goal.
All that practice with those left-footed Puma balls has really paid off!
Coq was man of the match. Couthino and Henderson were shut down.
Hell. The team won man of the match. Great team performance.
Only in English punditry can a dork say Sterling is better than Özil. I don’t even see where the comparison begins.
That pass from Ozil to Ramsey leading to Bellerin goal, left liverpool totally exposed. Absolutely brilliant. That pass rated higher for me that the free kick.
Bt sport have the worst commentators in the history of football. I mean… Ian Darke shit boxing commentator and omg Micheal Owen. He is truly as thick as shit. Hate the little cunt.
Crunch, intercept,sweep,tidy up………….Just the Coq doin his thing……….creating the space for Ozil, amongst others.
Coquelin had a superb game yesterday.
Funny but I can’t see any of that ‘Wenger Out’ stuff in the papers or (shamefully) from fans. Without him we wouldn’t have Ozil, Alexis etc etc etc – just please try to remember that when we lose a game, instead of taking to bullshit social media to demand Le Prof’s removal. Keep the faith and Wenger will deliver another FA Cup this season (his 6th) and the title next season. Never any doubt.
As for Michael Owen he is a truly horrible cunt.