Petr Cech: Mesut Ozil has raised the bar for every Arsenal player next season

Petr Cech believes Mesut Ozil’s remarkable season has raised the bar for the remainder of the Arsenal side in 2016-17.

Ozil was the overwhelming choice for the club’s player of the season award after a season in which he provided 19 assists, scored six goals and created a Premier League record 146 chances and was also nominated for the PFA Players’ Player of the Year award.

Few of Ozil’s team-mates lived up to the remarkable heights reached by the German during last season, with Petr Cech, Nacho Monreal and Hector Bellerin perhaps the only other players in Arsene Wenger’s squad who can claim to have consistently reached or exceeded expectations.

The struggles of the remainder of Arsenal’s squad did not stop them from claiming their best league finish since 2005, second ahead of Tottenham, but Wenger’s side were effectively out of the title race by March and finished 10 points behind Leicester.

Cech, though, is convinced that his “extraordinary” team-mate Ozil bears no responsibility for that.

“He’s been brilliant all season,” Cech told the club website. “Not only is he providing all of these assists, but in a game he is very important and very useful and he has improved in terms of goals scored.

“You could see that his overall game has been brilliant all year, so he definitely deserves to get the Player of the Season award. He’s raised the bar for next season so good luck to him for being able to keep it that high.

“He has great vision and, whatever he sees, he sees it much better than anyone else. He can execute the pass as well or use that space, with his movement or his pass. His quality with the ball, his passing and vision is extraordinary.”

Ozil is set for contract talks with Arsenal after the end of Euro 2016 with the Emirates hierarchy confident he will extend his current deal, which has two years left on it.