Mertesacker: Forget his penalty miss, goals will come for £40m man

The Daily Mail reports that Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker insists that there is more to come from record signing Mesut Ozil, and backed his international teammate to improve on his recent lull in form. German defender Mertesacker said that Ozil was “always a threat” to the opposition goal in the side’s last game – a 2-0 victory overMarseille– and that his creative talents are important to the North London side.

‘Mesut has made good progress”, said Mertesacker. “He is in good form and you can see that.”

“He was always a threat [against Marseille] and he never gave up after the penalty that he missed”

“We are very delighted with him, especially in the transition from defence to offence, when he is always a threat.”

“He can play the balls, he is the one who always goes deep all of the time. He is in good form and I think we will see more.”

Ozil has attracted criticism in recent weeks, missing a penalty against Marseille and producing some flatter performances than those that accompanied his much heralded start at the club, but Mertesacker backed him to recover.

“Sometimes he looks like his head is going down, but we said at half-time that we do not care (about the missed penalty). We just go on and that is what he did.”

“Mesut moves well between the lines, so it is always difficult to defend against him.”

‘When the centre-back comes out with him, there is always space for others to go in, so he helps us create more chances.

“We are playing well as a team and we should continue that in the Champions League and the Premier League.”

“We are on a good run and we are in a good position. We want to keep that.”

Ozil created more chances against Marseille (5), than he had managed in the previous three league fixtures combined.