Arsene Wenger has used his Christmas press conference to debunk the whole 'Mesut Ozil is lazy' theory that is often brought up by football fans.
After Arsenal were beaten 2-1 by Manchester City on Sunday, Gary Neville said that he was surprised by how "lethargic" the Gunners' performance was. But he did highlight the frustrated attempts by Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil to try and make their team-mates press high up the pitch and put pressure on Manchester City.
Ozil is undoubtedly one of the players who gets the most stick for the perceived lack of effort he puts into the more defensive side of his game.
Arsene Wenger was having none of it today at a press conference ahead of his team's match against West Brom on Monday. Wenger was asked if he gives Ozil any "leeway" during games to avoid tracking back or other more defensive duties.
No, I don't give him any leeway. When the team has no possession he has to do his job like everyone else and usually he does it well...of course, his main strength is when he has the ball. He suffers more when you have not the ball.
Against City he suffered more than others because we had not the ball enough. But unfortunately if you want the ball you have to win it back.
I think he is a guy who works much harder than other people think. His body language goes a bit against him sometimes and it's true, we are a team who wins the ball back high up very well with Ozil and Sanchez. He does that part of the job very well.
Where I agree we had a deficit at City was winning the ball back in the middle of the park.
During the press conference, Wenger also said he didn't understand the structure of the festive fixtures - with Arsenal playing three games in nine days before an eight day gap until the West Brom game - and gave his views on Oscar's move to Chelsea. Wenger said that the main reason Oscar was leaving Stamford Bridge, in his view, was that he was failing to get game time under Antonio Conte.
Slightly depressingly, Wenger was asked if there would be any stage during Christmas Day when he would switch off from football (Arsenal are training that day and then travelling to Birmingham in the evening) and responded, "No. Like every manager I suffer when we don't win a game...we play on the 26th and we know it's a game of big importance."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk47KVIF2pw
