There should be no doubt about Mesut Ozil’s work rate after his performance against Tottenham.

Constantly derided for being lazy and unwilling to work for the team, Ozil proved a lot people wrong with his performance in the North London derby.

Ozil played a disciplined role on the right hand side, always closing down Jan Vertonghen when the defender was in possession and dropping back into midfield when he was needed.

On the ball, Ozil wasn’t as influential as he usually was. He only managed 32 passes all game, and completed 81% of them. This is indicative of how much of the game Arsenal spent without the ball, and the work he put in to ensure his side kept their lead.

https://twitter.com/MesutOzil1088/status/931898035180834816

Still, Ozil created chances. It was his set-piece that found the head of Shkodran Mustafi for the opening goal, and he set-up Alexis Sanchez for a good chance in the second-half. It was during that time that Ozil frequently made intelligent decisions on the counter-attack, and looked after the ball whenever Arsenal got into the Tottenham half. He was only dispossessed once during the whole match.

Ozil will have more graceful performances, but this one will memorable for the sheer amount of effort he put into the game.