‘Ozil cares much more than people think’

Mesut Ozil scored his 10th goal of the season on Wednesday night, and provided his 11th assist.

Arsène Wenger spoke after the West Ham game about Ozil “being hit hard by us going out of the Champions League”, and the manager clarified that comment in his pre-Crystal Palace press conference.

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“He is very ambitious and he wants to win the Champions League,” Wenger said. “He’s come out many times saying that. If you look at the two games and take the first 45 minutes of the two games, we were qualified but then went out in such an emphatic way.

“It was difficult to take for everybody and maybe even more for him because it’s a big part of his ambition.

"He cares. What I wanted to say in that is that people often reproach him by saying that he doesn’t care because of his style of play, but he cares much more than people think he does."