Mesut Ozil made a long-awaited return to Arsenal’s line-up on Wednesday night, but it resulted in his team getting knocked out of the EFL Cup against Liverpool.
Darren Bent has admitted to being blown away by Mesut Ozil’s performance during Arsenal’s penalty shootout defeat to Liverpool in the EFL Cup on Wednesday night.
Playmaker Ozil made a much-awaited return to Arsenal’s starting XI, as Bent thinks that before his substitution after the hour mark, the German was ‘the best player on the pitch by a mile’.
Since the start of the season, Unai Emery has practically frozen out Ozil at any given moment, but the fans were delighted to see him return at Anfield.
Speaking to Carabao Cup on Quest (30/10/19 at 11:50 pm), Bent had nothing but high praise for the returning Ozil.
“He showed what Arsenal have being missing with his touches and passes,” Bent told Quest. “The thing about Ozil is that he sees things that other people don’t see. Like the Maitland-Niles’ goal, not many would have seen that pass, but he does.
“Everyone has been waiting to see him play, he comes back and his attitude was spot on when he first started the game. He was the best player on the pitch by a mile for the first 60 minutes.
“He ran out of gas in the end because that game was end-to-end, it was like, you attack, we attack. It became like a Basketball game because there didn’t seem to be any team shape. As I said, he was brilliant for the first 60 minutes.”
Ozil’s standout moment came when his brilliant dink to Ainsley Maitland Niles as the ball was going to go out of play helped Arsenal, at the time, net their fourth of the match.
Of course, Liverpool came back, as both defences were well exposed, with Divock Origi netting the stoppage-time equaliser to take the game to penalties.
Ozil was already off the pitch by the time the spot-kicks came along, with substitute Dani Ceballos missing a crucial penalty for his team.
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