Arsene Wenger has revealed that Mesut Ozil has struggled ‘mentally’ to recover from Arsenal’s thumping 10-2 aggregate defeat by Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
Ozil played the full 90 minutes of Arsenal’s first leg 5-1 defeat by Bayern Munich and he then came on with the scoreline at 2-1 after 72 minutes.
Arsenal conceded three goals in the thirteen minutes that followed to suffer a second 5-1 defeat.
The German playmaker was already low on confidence after a dip in form over the winter months.
Wenger had held private talks with Ozil following the 3-1 defeat by Chelsea in early February and admitted then that his playmaker had to rebuild his confidence.
However, he returned to form on Wednesday night with the opening goal in Arsenal’s 3-0 defeat of West Ham and he also provided the assist for Theo Walcott’s goal. It was his first goal for Arsenal since the 3-1 victory over Stoke on December 13.
Now Wenger believes his playmaker is back in form. ‘I feel that he is back physically. He is focused. I know him quite well.
‘He was hit hard by us going out in the Champions League – it took some time for him to recovery mentally. He has really focused in training in last few weeks.
‘We live in world of extremes. We are always praised too much when it goes well and too much [criticism] when it doesn’t.’
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