Football manager and German legend, Lothar Matthaus, served up some cold, hard truths regarding Mesut Ozil’s performances in big games in his column for the Sun.

Ozil has come under fire recently after failing to hit the form he reached earlier in the season as well as not turning up for ‘big games’. While I don’t feel it’s a coincidence that his run of bad form has come off the back of his bout of flu earlier in the year, there’s no denying there’s been a dip.

Matthaus described his recent displays as a ‘shame’.

“He is a guy who can make the difference – but in big games I just don’t see him as much as I’d like to see him,” he said.

“That is a problem for Arsenal, and a shame. He has all the quality to win games at the highest level but it doesn’t happen enough

“His performance at Chelsea the other week summed him up. I don’t know why but when he plays against the big teams he doesn’t play at the same level as he does against smaller teams.”

As soon as Ozil’s form dips, it feels as if everything at Arsenal is falling apart. Hopefully, it’s just a matter of regaining strength after his flu and not something deeper. The German appears to suffer with confidence issues, demonstrated by his lack of willingness to shoot, and while many thought he was over this after scoring five Premier League goals before mid-October, he’s now not scored since November.