adminLONDON. — Mathieu Flamini tore into Mesut Ozil in the middle of Arsenal’s Champions League defeat by Bayern Munich on Wednesday night, apparently accusing the German of a lack of effort.
The flashpoint came in the second half after a Bayern move broke down and the ball is collected from behind the goal by Lukas Fabianski.
Ozil points his finger accusingly in the direction of defender Laurent Koscielny but is given a stern rebuke by Flamini, leading to a little bit of pushing and shoving between the pair.
The exchange of words summed up Arsenal’s frustrations on a night when they were once again outclassed by the German champions, who took a firm grip on the last 16 tie with a 2-0 win at the Emirates Stadium.
And £42,5 million man Ozil was especially disappointing — bought to influence matches such as this, he was largely anonymous and drew a heap of criticism from fans on Twitter.
His heat map from the first leg match showed up Ozil’s lack of perspiration, but accusations of laziness were dispelled by the fact he ran 11.69km during the 90 minutes — the third highest on the pitch.
However, Flamini covered an impressive 13,53km — the highest of anyone —and was so vindicated in his stinging criticism of Ozil.
Ozil’s bad night was compounded when he saw a poor penalty saved by Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer in the opening stages of the game.
Arsenal would rue the miss, as goals from Toni Kroos and Thomas Muller gave Bayern a comfortable advantage to take back to Germany after Gunners goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny had been sent off four a foul on Arjen Robben. It isn’t the first time the playmaker has been accused of a lack of effort or respect during a big match.
Defender Per Mertesacker yelled at his compatriot after Arsenal’s 6-3 defeat at Manchester City in December when he didn’t go over to applaud the travelling Arsenal fans.
Mertesacker later suggested that friction between members of the team was healthy, telling German newspaper Bild that “it can’t just be all happiness, peace and pancakes.” — Mailonline.
Online Reporter