Monday 2 February 2015 08:25, UK
Arsene Wenger says Mesut Ozil is almost ready to spearhead Arsenal’s top-four push after his man-of the-match display against Aston Villa.
The German set up the first goal for Olivier Giroud and scored the second as Arsenal eased to a comfortable 5-0 win at the Emirates on Sunday afternoon, a result which sees them climb to fifth in the Premier League.
Ozil has missed three months of the season with a knee injury and after watching him complete 90 minutes for the first time since October, Wenger was happy with how sharp he and his team-mates looked.
“You cannot fault anybody’s performance, and Mesut did well,” said the Arsenal manager.
“He got back to competition and it takes you a while to get back to that sharpness and that competitive edge, but he is getting there.
“We had a rigorous attitude defensively. Despite being 3-0 up or 4-0 up you didn’t see anybody reluctant to come back and help out. That is important.
“You could see that mentally for Aston Villa the second goal was a big blow to them and from then on it became easier. They are in a difficult position and certainly they saw at 2-0 it would be difficult for them to come back.
“Overall we needed to be a bit patient because Aston Villa tried to stop us going forward by blocking us very early. You could see with time going on we had the chance to go forward and play through their lines. That made the difference.
“We were more direct because they blocked us very high, but when we passed through we always looked dangerous.”
Ozil famously joined Arsenal from Real Madrid on transfer deadline day in September 2013 and Wenger also spent big on Danny Welbeck on the final day of last summer’s transfer window.
However, the Arsenal boss confirmed he does not expect to make any additions to his squad ahead of the 11pm deadline on Monday.
“I will be a bit shocked if I surprise you,” Wenger added.
“Unless something surprising turns up, we have nothing at the moment.”
