Former Arsenal forward Charlie Nicolas says that Mesut Ozil needs to deliver in the big matches more often than not.
The German international appeared to be a major hit in his first months that Arsenal after making a £ 40 million move from Real Madrid. Since then, he has suffered from a huge dip in form and several injuries. It has taken the shine away from his game and Ozil still continues to search for his best form. Manager Arsene Wenger expected the German international to get back to his best this season, but it is yet to happen so far.
Alexis Sanchez has been stealing the limelight ahead ofOzil. The Chilean winger has been going through a similar patch of form as experienced by Ozil immediately upon his arrival. While the German has scored four goals and created four more in 14 appearances this campaign, Sanchez is closing in on the 20 goal mark for the season. In addition to this, he also has created eight more goals for his teammates. Former Arsenal forward Nicolas, though, believes that both players have not performed well in the big matches. His criticism comes after Ozil scored in the recent North London derby only to see Arsenal suffer a 2-1 defeat.
“I’m fed up saying this about Arsenal players on big European nights, but it’s time to start delivering on the biggest stage.Ozil is a player who has had plenty of big nights in his career with Real Madrid and, of course, he’s a World Cup winner. But, so far, the only player who has come up trumps in the big games this season has been Santi Cazorla. As good as he has been, Sanchez has been pretty quiet in all the big games. And so has Ozil,” said the Sky Sports pundit.