Mesut Ozil claims that if Arsenal want to win the Premier League, they must first beat their rivals, Chelsea.

The Blues travel to the Emirates late on Saturday afternoon and the Gunners will be hoping to undo some of the damage done by last season’s two losses against our rivals.

During both games, Arsenal had red cards given, meaning that the outcome probably wasn’t an accurate reflection of what we were capable of. This season, hopefully it’s different.

“Well past games have been tough because we’ve received some red cards in matches that we’ve started well in, both away and at home,” Ozil said to the Arsenal programme.

“Those games have changed because of the reds. But this year we want to approach it differently – hopefully we won’t get a red card this time. It’s a big match because both sides are playing for the title. If you want to win the league, you have to win these games against big teams. We’re playing at home and want the three points.”

The Jose Mourinho factor has now vanished since he’s at Manchester United, so hopefully this has a positive impact on our performance. We have a huge mental block when it comes to the Portuguese manager and while we will have to deal with that when we face the Red Devils, at the moment, we need to concentrate on getting three points against Chelsea.

If we can keep all 11 men on the pitch, at least we have a fair chance.

You can read more about what Mesut Ozil had to say ahead of Chelsea on the Arsenal programme app, which you can buy from Play Store or iTunes.