Mertesacker has said that the attacking midfielder was the right purchase.
Many have attributed Arsenal’s improved season to date to the club record £42.4m purchase of Mesut Ozil in the summer and team-mate Per Mertesacker agrees.
Whether or not Ozil has affected performances directly with displays on the pitch, or indirectly by having a world-class star at the club, the German has certainly lifted expectations.
The Gunners currently top the Premier League with 55 points from 24 matches and are through to the fifth round of the FA Cup and the last-16 of the Champions League.
This is a great improvement on last term and yet the only significant addition to then has been Ozil, but Mertesacker thinks the 25-year-old was the perfect signing.
“To reach another level, you sometimes need the right addition to lift everybody, not just the players but the whole club and the whole public in between,” the centre-back told the Guardian.
“We didn’t need five or six players late in the window, which is what Arsenal got when I arrived [in August 2011]. It is not easy to get everyone settled.
“We were a good squad and we didn’t lose any players over the summer, which was the main part. But we needed that right addition and we can say that Özil was it.”
Mertesacker should know a little something about Ozil as well, having played with the attacking midfielder at Werder Bremen, with the German national team and now at the Emirates Stadium.
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