Wenger: There's even more to come from Ozil

The Arsenal boss is convinced the Germany
international, a €47 million summer signing from
Real Madrid, will continue to improve as he adapts
to his environment and team-mates
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes club-record
signing Mesut Ozil still has room for improvement as he
adapts to life at the Emirates Stadium.
The Germany international had a hand in all three of
the Gunners' goals against Stoke City on Sunday,
directly assisting both Per Mertesacker and Bacary
Sagna with pin-point set-piece deliveries.
Despite the 24-year-old's match-winning display, which
was greeted by a standing ovation when he was subbed
off late on, Wenger is convinced Ozil can have an even
greater impact in matches in the future.
“When you look at his numbers, the assists are not a
coincidence it is just a reality of his game,” said Wenger
after the match.
“I believe that once he is completely integrated we will
see even more of him, but he has shown today that he
is a great player.
“You could see today he has good pace as well and at
the moment he focuses on his passes but he can create
individually as well.”
The French boss was pleased with the manner of his
side's performance, as they dug in against a physical
Stoke side and scored from three set-pieces – normally
considered a forte of the visiting team.
“The first half was fluent, [we played] well going
forward, and in the second half we looked jaded
physically and lost our technical quality,” the
Frenchman continued.
“But we have shown another aspect that we can dig
deep and fight when we are a bit under pressure.
“When you play against Stoke you don't expect to score
three goals from set-pieces and that is the biggest
surprise for me today. But it shows as well how
important the delivery is.”
Theo Walcott was forced to withdraw from the starting
line-up after suffering an injury in the pre-match
warm-up, and Wenger admitted the club were
struggling to identify the problem or establish a return
date.
“He had an abdominal muscle problem, I don't really
know what it is. Nobody can tell me,” added Wenger.
“Is it a question of days? I hope. He had a test before
the game, but I decided to play him. He'd had a little
problem already before the Marseille game and it
became a little bit worse.
“I hope it's nothing. It's a bit mysterious because we
don't really know what it is.”