Mesut Ozil is back to his best again after Arsenal's Bayern Munich disappointment, says Arsene Wenger

1/37
James Benge6 April 2017

Arsene Wenger believes Mesut Ozil is finally over Arsenal’s elimination from the Champions League by Bayern Munich, a result that hit the German international particularly hard.

Ozil was back to his lustrous best in Wednesday’s 3-0 win over West Ham at the Emirates, scoring his first goal since early December to give Arsenal a second half lead and soon providing the assist for Theo Walcott that assured Wenger’s men of a first league win in a month and a half.

The German international had been out of the side prior to the international break, missing five starting lineups as he suffered a string of minor injuries, and had been a marginal presence in Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Manchester City.

His performance in the win over West Ham, where he pulled the visitors backline out of shape with his mastery of space and continued to exploit the pace of Alexis Sanchez, Walcott and Danny Welbeck with his eye for a pass, was far more like that of a player who is demanding to be put in the same financial bracket as the Premier League’s top earners before he signs a new contract.

“I feel that he is back physically with focus,” Wenger said. “I know him quite well, I felt he was hit quite hard by us going out in the Champions League - it took him some time to recover from that mentally.

“For a few weeks now in training he is really focused again. That comes out in the game.”

During his winter struggles both Ozil and his agent, Dr Erkut Sogut, had complained that he had been treated as a “scapegoat” for Arsenal’s recent woes.

It will require several more performances like that he put in against West Ham before Ozil can be the subject of extensive praise but Wenger believes his record signing is not the only one to suffer from hyperbole.

“We live in a world of extremes,” Wenger told Standard Sport. “We are always praised more than we deserve it when it goes well and punished more than we deserve it when it doesn’t go well.

“But that’s our world.”

Ozil was not the only player to impress in a commanding London derby win, with both of Wenger’s enforced changes from the Manchester City draw doing their case for future selection no harm at all.

Whilst third-choice goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez was rarely called upon Mohamed Elneny, in for the injured Francis Coquelin, was altogether busier as he and Granit Xhaka dictated Arsenal’s dominance of West Ham from deep.

With Xhaka and Coquelin having struggled to forge a comfortable partnership Elneny – who misplaced just two of his 71 passes – had a rare chance to prove himself from the off and did exactly that.

“He gives us fluency. Elneny is a continuity player, a generous player whose attitude is always to help the team.

“He is always available and quickly available. In a fraction of a second he understands where he has to go to get the ball.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in