Arsenal’s £42 million playmaker Mesut Özil is out to prove the fans that he is no flop after talk about his performances in recent games, and especially the match against Liverpool that Arsenal lost 5-1.
This afternoon the young German has a chance to make up for it as Arsenal play Liverpool in the fifth round of the FA Cup at the Emirates.
Arsene Wenger had planned on resting Özil today ahead of the match with Bayern Munich on Wednesday, but now with Santi Cazorla ill and fitness doubt over Tomas Rosicky will almost certainly see him start both matches.
Wenger said: “I had planned to play Cazorla, but he has been sick. If Rosicky has a problem I don’t know. If those two are not there I have to play Mesut.”
February is a month that has in the past seen previous Arsenal side come undone, but neither Wenger or Özil plan on letting it happen this time, yet Wenger cannot figure out why Özil has been underperforming during the second half of the season, but is adamant that Özil will put the loss against Liverpool behind him saying: “At Liverpool Mesut was not at his level at all, as was the team. But I found him much sharper against Manchester United.
“I don’t know if he is feeling the strain. It is difficult to know. But he doesn’t look too stressed.”
“We have more now. We are much more mature than we were before,” he said. “People say we collapsed and crumbled in those other times, but we didn’t.
“We had some disappointments but if you collapse you finish 10th in this league.
“If you look at the number of points we have taken you will always see at the end of the season we never collapse.”
Considering this is the best season Arsenal has had in some time, fans are expecting some silverware and will not be happy with just another top-four finish after such a promising start to the season.
