Arsene Wenger was full of praise for Mesut Ozil after the German’s performance against Crystal Palace helped the Gunners to a 2-1 win today.
The German was the creative hub of the team, creating 5 chances, including the assist for Olivier Giroud’s opener.
It’s the kind of display the manager, and fans, want to see more of from the German international, and Wenger was quick to laud his record signing.
“He had a very good performance,” he said. “He was important getting out from the back, getting out of tight areas. It is a pleasure to watch the quality of his passing and the intelligence of his passing.
“What I told you is what I want from him more is a few more goals this season. For the rest of the build-up in the game he was magnificent. He works harder than people thinks he does.
“He is not spectacular in his defending but he wants to do the job, he wants to help the team.
“What I liked in his game today was he made many runs without the ball behind the defenders, which is a bit new as he likes to come with the ball.
“Today he mixed up his game better.”
There was credit to for Santi Cazorla with Wenger suggesting he’ll be deployed centrally rather than out wide.
“Cazorla in important the start of the game when the ball comes from our defenders, because he can pass from deep midfield to high midfield better than everybody and get out of pressure.
“That’s why I positioned him more central. He is not any more a player on the flanks who can overlap and cross the ball.”
Özil’s little flick and turn when he was chopped down on the goal line was fantastic. Shame he was fouled there.
The Crystal Palace’s fan reaction in the stands was perfect.
tbh, he could have smiled a bit more
That Ozzist though.
Ozil’s assist today was worthy of a goal regardless of the striker. Really good game
It was a standard cross. Giroud’s finish was top class.
It was even a poor cross, behind Giroud. Late in the game Ozil sent in two really poor crosses in a row, directly to Palace players. The Danish commentators were wondering why someone with his technical ability could not be more accurate there. Interesting that what Wenger praised most was his runs without the ball, and once again brought up that he needs to contribute more goals.
That’s absolutely true. It was not a great cross. A great cross would meet the target’s head or feet, not their midriff. Ozil is an excellent player, but pretending that cross was world class is embarrassingly biased.
yeah, and praising Özil is also embarrassing to some Arsenal fans…
Actually it was a good cross. If the the cross was aimed for HFB head, Palace defender will get the ball clear. You can watch it again on the highlight. Although at first I also thought it was a bad cross.
Or, you can look at it this way:
Oil reads the game so well that he knew if he aimed for Giroud’s head that it would have been blocked. So trusting the superb athleticism of Giroud he aimed for a less conventional target, knowing that Olivier can turn it in anyway.
All down to interpretation. He provided a very good assist and in the end we won.
did you oil on purpose?
Look at it again, if it had been any further forward, the defender would have intercepted it. And Giroud scored from it, what more do you want, icing on it?
Since when did Ozil become so rapid?!
He has always been.
It’s his positioning in combination with his speed. He’s not slow, mind you, but neither is he a natural sprinter – but he takes up the right positions to make the most of what speed he does have. He has tremendous spatial awareness, it’s probably where that vision comes from too.
Yeah !! He is definitely not slow bro. In 2010 world cup vs eng nd arg…he was rapid in counterattacks,was a focal point of those attacks!!
Ozil has always had effortless pace.
He is stride for stride with Sanchez on ‘that’ break and actually nears the goal line before Sanchez does. A large part of his success at Real Madrid was that he could assist Renaldo with both speed of thought and speed of play.
I agree so much to this.
It was good to see him farther forward today. Wenger might be emphasizing this with him. He caused Palace problems all game running into space, especially down the left. The patience to wait for Ramsey to get up, then the right weight on the pass… deserved a goal.
Though Inhave to say, with the skill Cazorla has, he should have more shot on target instead ballooning almost every chance he gets.
He had that phase a couple years ago where he was scoring a lot of those shots. Then it just seemed to go a little off.
Oh well, if he plays as well as he does every game we can forgive the ballooned shots.
He’s really looking a lot like Bergkamp… so exciting.
Ozil’s only “problem” is that his game is not “English”. His languid style does not resonate with the typical English pundit who believes that running around, jumping into tackles and generally being a nuisance is synonimous with effectiveness.
At the point, I usually listen to matches with the sound off. Either the media are intentionally talking rubbish to try and generate a reaction, or they just only understand the game at a very basic level. Its like listening to someone try to translate a language that they only have a very rudimentary grasp of. The problem is that the average fan tends to believe a lot of the crap that they hear on the commentary.
Two of the goals Arsenal have conceded in the Premier League this season have come from outside the box, compared to three out of 36 in total last season.
I may be looking at this the wrong way, but i am more than happy for opponents to be hitting them that far out. Wards goal today was a beautiful strike and you have to say well done to him, but shots like Zarates should be easy saves. The lower teams normally hit 1/10 of their long shots on target, with only 1 in 50 being a perfect shot like Wards was today.
Obviously, we cannot give so much room to the likes of City, United & Chelski.
I’m I the only one who is finding the gold jersey more and more attractive? I was critical when it first appeared but now definitely getting one COYG
Same here, I’m a big fan of the gold kit! Bought one with Wilshere number 10 on the back (for the ludicrous price of £80!) so hoping he has big season
After seeing the “Cup kit”, my appreciation for the Gold kit has grown considerably…
I’ve decided not to care about how shit the cup kit is so long as we win the champions league in it 😉
My man of the moment, always a joy to watch him play for us. I love you Ozil
Ozils is getting stronger physically, he has that explosiveness about him now, looks like gym is working well for him. Keep it up Mezut ?
Ozil’s guns have clearly gotten larger. Any bigger and he’s Popeye the Sailor. In contrast, the uniform made Gibbs look he had a bit of a muffin top today. Are the uniforms Arsene’s devious way of further motivating the team to peak fitness?
That flick though. Just another Olé moment from Mesut:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-J_3Gvmj04&t=3m42s
We really oughta just start singing Ozil’s name in the style of the Olé Olé chant.
I like how the commentators started by saying that Özil is invisible again. If he plays like this consistently, we just need to improve our finishing to score as many goals per match as City.
If he puts up passing stats like that and creates 5 chances a match all the while being invisible, that’s beyond class. They simply cannot comprehend what he does. I love it.
On MotD Ruud Gullit and Shearer were going on about how Arsenal lose the ball all the time and showed a clip of Ozil dribbling into a couple of players as evidence.
Whereupon the other bearded bloke says, “You do know that he completed 97 of 98 passes and that that is the only time in the entire fucking game that he loses the ball, right?”
“Oh yeah, sorry, what fucking morons we are,” they both reply.
98 percent rather, or whatever it was. Drunk.
Personally I thought the MOTD point was quite fair. Ozil yesterday was probably the least guilty but we do sometimes have a tendency to overcomplicate things and lose the ball in dangerous spaces.
Hopefully a couple of wins will settle the nerves a little and the calmness will come.
Player ratings? Helps those of us who didn’t see the game..
Sorry, sorry, found it!
Ya Gunners Ya!
I do not agree with those questioning the quality of the cross. Based on the position of the CP defenders, that was the only way özil could have found Giroud.
Any further forward, and it meets a CP player first.
Full credit to Olly for making the best of the chance too. That was the most difficult chance created all day.
The other bit of it was if Alexis were taller, he was in line to put a head on it as well. So it was crossed well into a dangerous attacking spot that two runners were on to and the opposition couldn’t block.
That’s a good cross.
I was very pleased with the whole team performance against a side that will cause plenty of problems for their opposition this season. Had we taken all of our chances in the first 30 mins and last 15, it would have been a real hammering for Palace. Mesut was superb but Santi was even better and whether the players like it or not (all the midfielders want to play through the middle), right now that’s our best line-up and formation – moving Santi back to the middle and Ramsey wide right. Alexis also proved what a massive influence he has… Read more »
The thing Ozil does better than anyone I’ve seen is anticipate the play especially as the ball is coming to him. Connecting on 54 of 55 passes from where he plays is incredible. Some may say his cross was not a great one on Giroud’s goal, but he did put it in the only place Giroud had a chance to make a play on it with a one touch cross while on the run (kind of like of Quarterback doing a back shoulder throw). The part of his game that is really underrated is his running off of the ball… Read more »
Yeah, but what does he actually do, what does he do? He don’t do nuffing! (Said in voice of clueless overpaid neanderthal pundit.)
The first half was just genius from him. In a few more weeks, when everyone is fully fit, we will thrash some..