article: The Gunners were extremely poor and were outplayed for long periods at home, but they still picked up a point and actually created enough chances to win the match because of the brilliance of Mesut Ozil. I would not even say Ozil had a particularly good game but he got his side out of jail with his cross for Kieran Gibbs' equaliser. Ozil had already provided two balls from a free-kick and a corner that Olivier Giroud should have scored from - he hit the bar with his first header and sent the second one wide. Tottenham knew how dangerous he was because they stopped him from getting on the ball in open play until the final 15 minutes, but his magic touch was still able to rescue Arsenal from what would have been a very bad defeat. Ozil had already made 47 chances this season going into Sunday's game, the most in the Premier League alongside West Ham's Dimitri Payet. That works out at an average of almost five a game in each of his previous 10 appearances. In the first half at Emirates Stadium, however, the German did not even have a sniff of creating an opening in open play. That was because, from the off, Spurs had the perfect game plan. They identified Arsenal's best two players as Ozil and Alexis Sanchez and they stopped their supply at source, pressing high to stop the Gunners from building from the back. Any time Ozil, Sanchez or Santi Cazorla did get the ball, they had two or three men on them straight away and they took them completely out of the game. Ozil dropped deep to get the ball and could not do any damage from there. It was only in the last 25 minutes that Ozil began to get any time in possession in the Tottenham half, and he made it count. I think he is at his most deadly when he picks up the ball when an initial attack has been cleared. The defence pushes up and Ozil is just waiting for them to do that so he can deliver it into the space they leave behind. I have seen it happen time and time again and it was a similar story on Sunday when he picked up the ball and spotted Gibbs's run to the far post. It was his 10th assist of the campaign, four more than anyone else, and he set a Premier League record for making a goal in six successive games in the same season. Some people still seem to have the perception that Ozil is lazy, or a luxury player, so it is worth highlighting again how hard he actually works. He does more work for the Arsenal team than any other midfielder or forward bar Aaron Ramsey and covers a lot of ground right across the pitch. I think it is easy to get the wrong idea because of his style on the ball. Someone like Alexis Sanchez looks busier because he does a lot of one-twos and plays with more urgency.
summary: Arsenal got absolutely battered for most of Sunday's 1-1 draw in the north London derby against Tottenham - their fans must have been wondering what was happening, because it was embarrassing at times.