by Nia Griffiths

Thierry Henry has been singing Mesut Ozil’s praises recently – and why wouldn’t he?

Speaking to Arsenal Player, the retired forward said, “Mesut is a very good player, we all know about his quality, we all know about what he has done in the game. He is a world champion, you have to respect that and his vision on the pitch is tremendous.”

Henry specifically referenced the German’s performance in the FA Cup final against Aston Villa in which the midfielder was involved in everything and truly excelled on the big stage.

“He is an amazing player. When he is on song like he was in the FA Cup final, he is difficult to stop.”

The Arsenal legend, who appeared at next season’s kit launch recently, has previously spoken rather harshly of our main striker, Olivier Giroud. However, his newer comments praise the Frenchman, who he believes works well with Ozil, saying, “When you have the likes of Giroud in the box, Alexis Sanchez running at people and Theo too, Mesut can see a pass and control the game in the same way that Santi does.”

Ozil is a different player to Henry so he may easier to for him to praise the playmaker than someone like Giroud, who plays in his position. Although you’d think the opposite, the whole time Henry is watching Giroud, he’s probably comparing his movements, runs, spacial awareness and finishing to himself. He’ll be considering whether he could do a better job and in most cases, he probably could, especially in his day. I can understand why this might get frustrating.

However, obviously this is all speculation on my part.

Finally, he added, “I keep on mentioning players, all that we are waiting on is the consistency in the league. I saw some of the players talking about that consistency, and I know they have the quality to do it.”