Petr Cech says he has no doubts that Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil want to do their best for Arsenal this season after being impressed by their respective cameos in the win against Bournemouth.
Much has been written about both players’ refusal to sign new contracts at the Emirates, however, despite a summer of speculation that culminated in the Gunners accepting a bid from Manchester City for the Chile international on transfer deadline, Cech believes their professionalism will continue to shine through.
“I spoke with Alexis and he wants to win,” Cech said after Saturday’s 3-0 win.
“Some people say, ‘He does this, he does that’, but I think he’s a guy who plays with all of his passion and all of his heart.
“You could see that in his performance. He knew he came late back, the manager opted not to risk him, put him on the bench so he was ready to come on. He came on and you could see he put a shift in.
“Mesut was outstanding as well, like everybody else. Defensively, offensively, he put a huge amount of work into the game. That’s exactly what we expect and what we want.
“After what happened two weeks ago, we needed to win the game and get back to winning ways and I think we did it in style, in the right way from start to finish. We played some really good football, scored some nice goals and created more chances.”
Arsenal’s focus now turns to Thursday’s Europa League game with Cologne before a tricky trip to Chelsea on Sunday.
Özil’s cameo? He was one of our the best players on Saturday! Glad to see him in good form and doing his defensive duties as well!
90 minute cameo’s 😀 He was a bit moan-tastic I thought, if you watch him he’s throwing his arms everywhere, sometimes a bit needlessly but perhaps he’s trying to show he cares. Some lovely through balls from him but the finishing was just a bit off and couldn’t bag and assist.
I can see Ramsey was getting in his way quite a few times, not sure if anyone else noticed but he was intercepting balls going to Mesut.
Ramsey does that all the time, to a lot of players, he seems oblivious to what’s going on around him most of the time.
Ramsey loves doing that and I hate it. He should just stick to his CM role instead of crossing Ozil’s path. He(Ramsey) always wants the ball, he wants to be the number 10,and then when you finally give him the role he will disappoint.
When Ramsey is on form he’s a great player, and can certainly do a job for this team but I do wholeheartedly agree that he wanders too much and leaves the team exposed. In my mind there are 2 solutions; 1, Revert to back 4, 4-2-3-1, move him forward into either the number 10 role with Ozil playing from wider, or Ramsey wide… or allow them to switch about. 2, drop him from the Premier League 11, play him in the number 10 role in cups and Europa league. He tends to do a good job for Wales from there… Read more »
Ramsey is usually in the way and has been for some time now..
I must have gone to a different game to you.. I don’t have anything against Ozil but I thought he was pretty average tbh. Not wholesale judging the guy, just in this game I didn’t think he was special, thought Lacazette, Welbeck and Ramsey were more effective
Watch him through footballing glasses, rather than media ones. And you will see what he is all about. Does so much for the team ! #FootballSpeaks #OzilAClassApart
True, no criticisms of either of them. They know they are under the spotlight so can’t afford to play badly.
Hope they sign up and give themselves a chance to have legend at Arsenal status.
Sign up? Legends? No chance. They are gone in May, and Sanchez may even be sold in January
Great leadership by Cech. Should hear similar comments of support from the senior players over the season to fascilitate team building and help present a harmonious (sidestepped saying united) front.
Speaks volumes that the only player with leadership cojones is a chelsea import..
I’d love to keep hold of one of these two, if not both. Perhaps seeing Man City knocked out of CL and not win the PL will convince Alexis it’s not always greener.
£100k or so a week extra is a lot of green to be fair.
As a free transfer, he must be seeing a lot more green.
Professionals who love the game of football. Of course they will perform. I´ll take 90% commitment from them any given sunday. That´s the shit we put ourselves in not offering them a lucrative contract.
We should never have wound up in this situation, it’s a huge amount of money to lose in transfer fees and next summer is going to be as inflated as the market this summer. Replacing Özil and Sanchez is going to cost a fortune. I do wish we could get a signature with a respectable release clause, the romantic in me thinks it’s the right thing for all parties to do but I’m a supporter and don’t have a Mr 10% on my shoulder. Hopefully we get a full season out of the pair of them, maybe a European trophy,… Read more »
It’s not going to cost a fortune, because we won’t replace them, at least not with anyone near their quality. Next season is going to be much more challenging than this year I expect. Cheers
I wouldn,t back ozil on delivering the goods
I would as he does it consistently
Mesut is already undoubtedly one of the top in unlocking defences. Last season he added goals to his game. If he decides to put in a shift dwfensively he’s going to be a monster to the team. For now lets include a DM anchorman in coq/ elneny each time we play to give mesut even more of a platform to shine.
Team member in shock support of his other team members. Yes it’s official. He’s actually come out in support of his team mates. Apparenymy he has faith in them. You read it here first!
Don’t know why people keep getting on Ozil’s back. Granted he isn’t the chap to dig you out of a deep hole but he is such an excellent asset to have.
And when he plays with the sort of edge (thank you ex-legends for ‘motivating’ the bugger), …if he can maintain it, we have a superb player who was pivotal last Saturday and can propel us to higher heights.
Lazy Ozil : Most sprints in the team at 70 for the game against Bournemouth his 7th highest ever.
Ian Wright as ever…wrong.
It’s not Ozil’s fault that the team cannot convert the chances he creates. As for those who call him lazy, to somewhat quote Kareem Abdul Jabbar from airplane tell your dad to run up and down a soccer field for 90 minutes. lol.