Thierry Henry was impressed with Ozil’s work rate against Spurs, but stressed he must do that in every match.

Henry is wrong. Why? Read on…

Ozil put in a Man-of-the-Match performance during Arsenal’s 2-0 victory over Tottenham on Saturday afternoon.

The German has had better games with the ball, but without it he was full of energy and discipline.

Contrary to what people usually think of him, Ozil worked incredibly hard.

Henry was certainly impressed, but he tempered his praise by pointing out that Ozil needs to work as hard in every game, and not just against Tottenham.

“Ozil has been amazing,” he said, as reported by the Daily Star.

“Off the ball he has been helping the back three, and then five seconds later he is there putting Lloris under pressure.

“But that has to be every single game. Not just against Tottenham, but that has to be all the time.”

If Ozil did do that every game, much of the criticism would probably stop.

Yet, different types of games require different types of performances. Ozil won’t need to work as hard without the ball against a lesser team who parks the bus against us, for example.

The performance against Spurs was a timely one, as some fans had started to believe he no longer cared about playing for Arsenal. This was, in large part, driven by a strong media narrative. The truth of the matter is no player has created more chances in the league for ANY side than Mesut Ozil this season (34).