Once again it was the Arsenal and Germany international who was at the heart of Arsenal’s latest Premier League win, with Mesut Ozil providing his 15th EPL assist of the season for Olivier Giroud to add to Theo Walcott’s opener against Man City. And it was Ozil and Walcott that faced the Sky Sports cameras after the game.
One of the most noticeable things about our creative genius, apart from the fact that his English was a lot better than I expected, was his modesty, something which the England striker spoke about after Ozil played down his own part in this vital win.
The German said, “We have played a lot of games in the last few weeks but we are happy to beat Manchester City. We will take the three points and all of us are happy about it.
“I’m happy to help the team. You see on the pitch that my team-mates help me to play my game. I just help them in return so today was another important game for us. I tried to give my best and we won the game, so we take the three points and that’s the most important thing.”
And Walcott added, “It’s amazing. He’s very modest. The thing about Mesut is that he sees things that most players don’t even see on the pitch. He knows what he’s going to do before he does it, you just have to make that run. We’ve got special players on the pitch who provide special moments in the match, and that makes our jobs so much easier.
“It’s a team game but you need these players in your team if you want to continue to play as well as we are at the moment. The amount he gives to this team, the threat going forward and also defensively, he puts a shift in and people don’t see that side of the game which has changed in the whole squad. Everyone’s working hard and I completely cramped at the end when I was chasing Yaya, but it just shows the amount of hard work that everyone’s put in this week.
“It’s difficult when you don’t play for eight days, to be able to get yourself up for it. The guys are going to be totally knackered tonight and they probably won’t get any sleep either.”
It was right of Theo to remind everyone just how much hard work Ozil has been giving to the Arsenal cause all season and his efforts last night became even more remarkable after Arsene Wenger revealed that his number 11 had been suffering with illness all week.
Despite the public modesty of Ozil, however, I can see a firm belief in his own ability and I think that may be why he has added such determination and desire to his game, because he knows that he and the team have the quality to win the league and that they deserve to as well.
Ozil said, “If you see the games against the big clubs, we won against them so we know our quality, if we play our game we can win the league. We will give our best all the season so we will earn the title in the end.”
Notice he doesn’t say that we might get the title, but we will, and if he keeps playing as he has been doing, who is going to stop us?