Interview

Bellerin - Ozil makes everything so much easier

Mesut Ozil

Mesut Ozil was in scintillating form during our 2-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.

The Germany playmaker claimed the 45th assist of his Arsenal career when setting up Shkodran Mustafi’s opener, and made more key passes than anyone on the pitch at Emirates Stadium.

Hector Bellerin spoke about Ozil’s influential performance, beating Tottenham and setting the bar high after the game:

on whether he’s ever seen Ozil play better in an Arsenal shirt…

Mesut is someone who gets a lot of criticism, but the players who are around him are very happy to have him and play with him. He makes things easy for you. People sometimes talk about his body language, but he gives everything for this shirt. The players who play around him know that he makes everything so much easier.

on beating Spurs…

It feels really good. We’ve been working really hard over the past week. Obviously we had people going to play internationals and playing for their lives ahead of the World Cup, so it’s been a hard few days. We’ve done really well and we’ve shown what we’ve worked on. I’m proud and very pleased for everyone.

on whether that’s the standard we have to hit every week…

Of course. That’s what we’re trying to do. Sometimes, for different reasons, we haven’t been able to do it, but this is how we set the bar and show what potential we have. That’s what we’ve got to work hard to do every single week, week in, week out.

on whether we approached this as the most important game of the season…

After a tough start, we were building up really well with good results. There’s always a lot of talk but I think it was one of those games where we showed what we could do. We shut some mouth as well. There are people who talk a lot and now, after watching that game at home, they’ll be thinking that these guys have a chance. 

on whether the talk of a power shift in the build-up hurt a bit…

Not at all. You have to talk on the pitch, not in the media. That’s how we do it.