Mesut Ozil: I'm playing my best football since joining Arsenal

Mesut Ozil has told his critics to look at the stats, as he believes he is playing his best football since signing for Arsenal.

Ahead of this weekend's FA Cup semi-final against Reading at Wembley, the £40million German midfielder says that he feels as good as he ever has done on the pitch.

And he suggests that people need to look at his whole game, rather than just his completed passes statistics in order to have an opinion of his performances for the Gunners.

But Ozil insists that he is still enjoying himself in north London.

Speaking to Sport magazine, he said: "I feel I am now playing my best football since joining Arsenal."

Ozil, 26, believes that the numbers behind his game prove that he is one of the best at what he does.

“If you look at my statistics, I am one of the players who covers the most distance. Also, if you look at the stats in terms of assists and creating chances, they are all pretty good."

But Ozil believes that people miss what goes on off-the-ball - and believes that his critics need to look at what he does for the team before they make a full judgement on his abilities.

“I’m not really bothered what critics say. What’s important is what the manager and coaching staff think. I am a team player, I just care about always giving 100 per cent for the team.”

Ozil believes that the knee injury which ruled him out for a sustained period at the start of the season actually worked in his favour, as he was exhausted from the previous summer's World Cup.

Ozil was part of the 23-man squad which took Brazil by storm to win the World Cup last year, but Ozil believes he was allowed little rest because of the success.

But after his injury setbacks, he now believes that he has worked on the skills it takes to be a quality Premier League player.