Arsenal’s Player-of-the-Season Mesut Ozil was accused of laziness in his early days at the Emirates as he adapted to the pace of the Premier League, but last season he made full use of his time out with injury to go to the gym and build up his upper body strength, and he came out in this campaign full of confidence and strength.
Ozil easily won the fans vote as our best player and even our classy star keeper Petr Cech has been amazed by the skills on show from our German midfielder. “He’s been brilliant all season,” Cech said on Arsenal.com. “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.
“It’s very tricky for the goalkeeper because you know anything can happen. He sometimes sees things and you think, ‘There’s no way he can put the ball there because it’s too complicated’, but he always finds the way. Even with his finishing, he has the calmness in front of goal, picks his spot very well and he can put it wherever he wants.
Cech then goes on to refer to the perception that the fans had when he first arrived of being nothing but talent without the necessary hard work, but Petr, who obviously sees him in action every day, assures us that it is not just the talent that makes him the best. “When you look at these types of players everyone says, ‘They’re technically gifted, can pass and have nice vision’, but when it comes to running people question it.
“With Mesut you can see that he’s not [afraid of] running, pressing or the physical presence. He’s someone who works hard every day to be on top of his game and that’s why he’s at the top of his game, because he works for it.”
He is certainly more composed than when he first came to England, and we all saw how his dedication helped him to bulk up so he didn’t get knocked off the ball so easily. He has definitely earned every single vote in that Player-of-the-season award!