Arsene Wenger revealed after last night’s 2-1 win over Man City that Mesut Ozil had been ill all week, suffering from a chest complaint.
It added another layer of awesome to the German’s performance, as his two assists created the goals for Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud. Quick to praise the footballing quality of his record signing, the Arsenal manager was also happy to highlight his character – to play like that after being in bed all week speaks volumes.
“He had a chest infection for the week and was in bed,” said Wenger. He had only one training session yesterday and for a guy who could not prepare well he has done very well physically.”
It was even noticeable that despite knowing he was under the weather Ozil looked unhappy to come off, and with two more assists bringing his total to the season to 15, he’s a crucial part of making this Arsenal side, blighted by injuries, tick.
“You need at the end of the day someone who gives the guy the ball who scores the goal,” said the Frenchman. “In our team most of the time Ozil is this player. When you look at this and the guys that see, make you win and he is that.
“He is much more mature and is much more keen to take on responsibility. I personally think he is built on his physical attributes and commitment. You see his desire to win, he plays to win the games and maybe this kind of talent is exceptional. He realises he can help us in every single game.”
Nicking a living. Jury’s out. Blah blah blah.
Vote for him as German player of the year. http://fanclub.dfb.de/fan-club/deine-stimme-zaehlt/nationalspieler-des-jahres/
Sounds like he is a lot tougher than he looks, plus most tackles for Arsenal yesterday.
He was voted German best players for consecutive years prior to him joining us. This would be his return to the throne.
He has over 50% of the vote this time, guess the Arsenal influence is helping.
my German friend told me that some of this has to do with how much the rest of the country hates Bayern Munich. They simply won’t vote for Munich players so it’s a bit easier for someone playing in another league to win it.
Having said that, Ozil is certainly worthy of the award so far this year. Perhaps Muller would be next?
He’s currently in first place with over 50% of the vote. Second place has under 20%
Podolski has 2.1 %. His PR-management has done a really good job.
Done, I think Ozil is just different from any other player that has ever touch a football!!, just a joy to watch let alone be in our team.
Sorry
Yeah right!
Sicking a living.
To think deluded spuds tried to stop us from getting him by holding up bale’s transfer
What delusion!! Thank you Madrid for giving us the best number 10 in the world just to get bale.
Hopefully they can pass up isco or casmeiro.
Ozil would get into ANY team in the epl and 98 percent in europe. Silva at his best has never been as good as ozil.
I believe you meant to say 100% of teams in Europe. You would have to be brain dead to not want Ozil in your squad.
I didn’t think it was possible to love Mesut any more than I already do. What a guy! Everytime i watch him, i’m reminded of the HTC slogan “Quietly Brilliant”. Is there a classier, more aesthetically pleasing player in world football? Hell no…..
Wished I could thumbs up on this one a hundred times plus
You forgot “more selfless”. His running and ducking under Theo’s shot was arguably more impressive than his assist to that shot, might have played a big part in slowing Hart’s reaction just enough.
There is a lot to like about this team.
There’s a lot to like about this squad.
By the way, Thiery Henry should ditch the whole Sky gig. Every time he says something like ‘Mourinho is the best manager in the world’ a little part of me dies.
Just pushing for him to go to manure and totally ruin them.
There are still people out there that question this guy’s ability and commitment, and that, simply, is utterly ludicrous.
I think David Moyes is actually the only one left. When he said the jury was still out on Ozil the other day even the other Sky people looked embarrassed and sorry for him. A “yeah, that’s why you’re unemployed” sort of look.
Is Özil our future captain?
I don’t think he has that sort of leadership quality. He’s a fantastic guy, you can see that easily, but he always seems quiet and somewhat introverted. Definitely not a shouter.
Too nice. He was asked in the interview whether he was in the form of his life and he just talked about whatever he did was for the team. Which is OK but I’d prefer a Vieira or a Mertesacker, who everyone looks up to.
Huge guys yeah, Vieira and Per.
The rest looking up to them, do they have a choice when we are littered with tiny Santi, Alexis,Jack…
what a litter tho
To be fair though, everyone has look up to mertesacker regardless of whether he’s any good at being a captain.
Ugh did Henry really say Maureen is the best manager in the world? How much are sky paying him to embarrass himself with such trot? Maureen only manages teams where he can buy success!!! Mr Henry a good name is more valuable than the money sky sports is paying you – so no more tripe from your mouth thank you!!!
Top top talent….have always been a fan since i first saw him play for the german national youth side, and was ecstatic when we signed him…..took him a bit of time to adjust to the physiality of the Bpl, but he is there now, and can only get better……i am especially happy he is silencing his ‘critics’ with his artistry on the pitch, week in week out. find it mildly amusing that the same media that has been so critical of him are now trumping each other to ‘invent’ English words to describe his briliance….. the king of ‘ozists’ his… Read more »
To be fair ‘mesut-merising’ is a nice bit of word play. It’s close to being the linguistic equivalent of that tasty bit of one touch play that almost led to a Ramsey goal between Ozil and Campbell (who is also proving doubters wrong).
I like how Özil doesn’t even bother with the political correct talk, e.g. “City will be hard, we might have a chance. We aren’t thinking of the title yet.” No this guy is like “we will take 3 points from City and we are title contenders.” The other player who is like this is Cech. Such winning mentality from both.
‘Jury’s out’
Must be a jury full of Michael Owens and Phil Nevilles.
Watched the game last night on tbe airport with a bloke who said Jack Wilshere should be turned into a Center Back because he’s quicker than Mertesacker and he (Wilshere) and Koscielny can then launch attacks from the back because both are good on the ball, quick and “tackles hard”.
I know this has nothing to do with the article, but I just mentioned it because I read through the comments here and I realise how epic it is to have such a great, well informed and funny community and it’s all for free.
Jack Wilshere replacing BFG… Christ almighty.
Anything’s possible… with Football Manager 2016
Maybe Wilshere would be a better keeper?!?! Less chance of getting injured, haha. I do miss Jack, especially the little terrier runs he does through the middle. We are going to have a ton of LANS this season when these guys all start coming back.
I meant “at the airport”
*Hides*
Usually you are tried by a jury of your peers. How can the jury be out on Ozil when he has no peers?
15 assists in 17 games and just 5 off the EPL record … How many after 38??? Thi
s could be phenomenal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Actually, it’s not 17 games. He didn’t make an appearance against Newcastle and hence it makes it 15 in 16 games. If you look at it more closely, you can even say it as 15 in 15 since I think its safe to say that the Chelsea match was a travesty.
But, oh well. He didn’t assist against Chelsea and Norwich this season and he more than made up for not assisting against the Canaries by scoring a well taken goal.
And we haven’t had Alexis in the lineup and he’s still cranking out helpers, it’s just wouldn’t to be fair if we had everyone health.
Read one rag this morning and it gave 75 minute statue Toure man of the match. Says all you need to know about the press.
Toure had a fantastic last 15 mins of the match but he was bloody invisible for the rest of it.
Ozil was MOTM. Cech was solid as well.
Incredible to think he only needs 5 more assists to equal henrys record and he has 21 games to do it. Amazing to think back to last season where people were looking at fabregas’ assist stats (which are nowhere nears ozils this season) and saying we should have bought him and sold/benched ozil. Look at cesc and chelsea now and look at ozil and arsenal now. Wenger must feel vindicated.
He’ll feel vindicated when he lifts the trophy come May.
What made Henry’s assist record so impressive is that he scored so many goals himself on top of his assists.
It’s an unfair comparison, in that sense. But, a record is a record, and there’s little doubt in my mind that Özil’s going to set a new record that could stand for a very, very long time (unless of course he surpasses it next year himself!).
Mesut…???????
Have to admit I feel very vindicated myself in always seeing his class. Even when he wasn’t getting the assists each week pulling all the strings like he is now, he was quietly shaping games. You could see he just needed a bit more quality around him an that’s what I think he’s got now. The team has grown up a few years back when he’d have played those two passes they wouldn’t have led to goals. The whole team has matured an it’s showing his brilliance.
Mesut player with chest infection and gave 2 Assist…its possible for him to hâve a little chest infection all this season ?
No way. I prefer him to be healthy and give 4 assists and a goal per match
Arseblog adores alliterations.
Wenger has managed the malaise of Arsdenal well. 5 or 6 seasons ago, we were staring down the barrell with financial constraints and a generation that did not fulfill its potential (No offense Denilson but yes, those bunch of young guns) Wenger made the painful transition adding first Arteta then experience in Metersecker etc for every position amidst 2 key departures every season until two seasons past. Still he managed to keep us in 4th as a MINIMUM finish and in the CL knock out round. Two seasons ago, he finally had the financial muscle to start to add quality.… Read more »
Thank you Santori for your insightful posts that always manage to avoid knee jerk negativity, instead reflect your long term loyalty and passion for the club. There should be more posters like you. As you said it’s time for critical self reflection among the doomers and gloomers.
A month ago it was all doom and gloom about the limits of this team, the lack of depth, quality, and he need to spend spend spend.
The media were all over us pronouncing our lack of gumption and our failure in market.
How things change.:D
If I hear another ‘pundit’ say he doesn’t ‘take the game by the scruff of the neck’. What the hell does that even mean? You don’t need to run around like a nutter to control a game. I have admire his qualities from day one