Loving London helps Ozil put Real behind him

Mesut Ozil has dismissed stories in the Spanish press about his perceived lack of professionalism, while also appearing to criticise Real Madrid himself for not affording him full trust — in contrast to Arsenal, where he says he is loving life.

The playmaker’s move to the Emirates was followed by a series of leaked reports which alleged Ozil was only sleeping four hours a night and taking a number of energy-sapping flights to meet his former girlfriend and ex-Miss Venezuela, Aida Yespica. Ozil merely pointed to his game record at Real while countering with a pointed statement about the responsibility he now enjoys at Arsenal.

“Let me talk about Madrid first,” Ozil said at yesterday’s Germany press conference. “I had three fantastic years and would like to leave it at that. I am now happy to play for Arsenal and if you look at the stats of how many matches I made in the last few years, I think that reflects my professionalism.

“London is a city I feel great in. I have grown to love the place in a short space of time. The good thing at Arsenal is the team and coaching staff are fully behind me. They let me assume and share responsibility and that’s what I feel great about.”

Ozil also reserved special praise for new manager Arsene Wenger and the general quality of the Premier League.

“Wenger, let me just say he is a super coach. He has clear ideas about where he wants to take his team and if you want to be successful you have to have that kind of coach.

“I think the Premier League is the strongest league in the world because it is so balanced, so even and the competition is so fierce, lots of clubs playing at the same level. And it’s also a good thing for me to get to know British culture, the language and develop further as a person. And the thing is, most of us here at the national team play at the same level in terms of performance in different countries and that’s not a bad thing at all for the country.”

As regards that culture, Ozil joked about learning to drive on the left side of the road, and the song he had to belt out as part of his Arsenal induction — an experience he did not enjoy as much.

“Well, driving on the left-hand side, I thought it was much more difficult than it really is but Per Mertesacker gave me ‘driving lessons’! The singing bit, I didn’t really want to do that because my voice just isn’t up to it. I’m not an X-Factor contender by any stretch of the imagination.

“The song was a Turkish song, to be honest. Of course, people didn’t understand what I was singing.”

Almost as awkwardly, current Real Madrid midfielder Sami Khedira was sitting beside Ozil throughout all of this, and asked about the club’s decision to sell the attacker. Khedira at least answered with an element of diplomacy.

“Well obviously a lot of columns have been filled about the issue and it’s to the detriment of any team selling a Mesut Ozil but, having said that, I am of course an employee of Real Madrid and I, like many other players, will be responsible to be successful in future, so let’s turn the page, open up another chapter without Mesut Ozil.”