Arsene Wenger has defended Mesut Ozil for the German’s performance against Manchester City and says the Gunners‘ midfield was to blame for the defeat.
Ozil, 28, was heavily criticised after he was seen walking as his team-mates closed down Pep Guardiola’s side during the second half at the Etihad.
The attacking midfielder’s been in good scoring form this term but his performances in defeats against Everton and Man City in the last two games have been well below-par.
However, Wenger’s launched a defence of the German by claiming it was Arsenal’s midfield pairing of Granit Xhaka and Francis Coquelin that let the Gunners down against their title rivals.
‘Look it is very difficult to comment on an individual I have a debrifef with the players themselves and to be absolutely fair I did not listen to all the critisism we got after the game,’ said Wenger.
‘We have to accept that people analyse and have thier opinion. That’s normal and we have to respond.
‘Ozil is an important
, big player and the big players always respond on the pitch.
‘I do not give him any leeway. He has to do his job like everyone else [and] normally he does it well.
‘His main strengths are when we have the ball and he suffered when we don’t have the ball. At City he suffered more because we didn’t have the ball at City. Unfortunately if you want the ball you have to win it back.
‘I think he is a guy that works much harder than people think and his body language goes against him. We are a team that wins the ball back high up with Sanchez and Ozil but we had a deficity at City from winning the ball back in the middle of the park.
‘When you don’t win it back immediately you suffer later to win it back.’
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