Mesut Ozil has spoken out about the criticism (Getty)

Mesut Ozil told some of Arsenal’s legends to ‘stop talking and start supporting’ this weekend in response to criticism from certain corners.

The German is clearly upset at what he perceives as an unfair focus on his performances.

‘Personally I’ve had to accept a lot of criticism during my time in London. “Too expensive, too greedy, bad body language, and lacking fight” – this is what people have said about me,’ he wrote on Facebook.

‘Some of these comments are made by those who do not know me, some are made by former players – both successful and unsuccessful during their time here at the club.

‘Although criticism is something that all football players have to deal with, I nevertheless expected legends to behave like legends – my advice to these former Gunners: stop talking and start supporting!’

Ozil has been a regular in the Arsenal side that has struggled so far this season and failed to mount a title challenge for the last few years (Getty)

So who is Ozil talking about? While some former Gunners have been supportive of the World Cup winner – notably Ian Wright – some have been only too ready to put the boot in.

Here, we take a look at some of the Arsenal legends that may have upset Ozil and what they said.

Thierry Henry

Former striker and all-time top scorer Thierry Henry (Getty)

‘At the moment they [Ozil and Sanchez] are holding the club hostage. They are amazing but if they are on that amount of money, I want a hat-trick every week – and also when there’s no game!’December 2016

‘Players need to perform, also. I will single out Mesut Ozil. Against a top four team, that was his eighth game today – zero goals and two assists. ‘That is not enough. Overall, since he has been at Arsenal, he has 14 assists. You look at Cesc Fabregas, he has 16 assists in one season. Players at one point need to perform.’April 2015

‘This year, he is struggling because he doesn’t do enough on a daily basis. When he plays in an Arsenal shirt, sometimes it is not up to the standard of Arsenal. When he has a good game, he is unstoppable. He is a World Cup champion, he won at Real Madrid and he won two cups with Arsenal. But you need to play like that all the time. It can’t be from time to time.’April 2017

‘We all know he has the quality of one of the best ever in that position but sometimes the consistency doesn’t match the quality of the man.’May 2017

Lee Dixon

Lee Dixon (left) (Getty)

‘If he [Mesut Ozil] had half of what Dele Alli has got, that nasty streak, he would be ten times a better player than he is because he hasn’t got what Dele Alli has.’March 2017

Charlie Nicholas

Charlie Nicholas is a pundit on Sky (Getty)

‘The problem for Arsenal is that Mesut Ozil is a superstar footballer, so is Alexis Sanchez, but in the big games they hardly turn up. Man United and PSG did enough to suffocate the space of Ozil, and they didn’t get any fluency.’ January 2017

Martin Keown

Martin Keown with Arsene Wenger (Getty)

‘Mesut Ozil is the most frustrating player I’ve seen wear an Arsenal shirt. He is an icing-on-the-cake player — someone who is happy to create the chances to win matches but will not scrap and fight for the team. Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp gave everything when they played. They were creative geniuses but were not afraid to put their foot in.’August 2017

‘Ozil is an expensive luxury — but if he is not going to work hard out of possession then he must do so when he has the ball. Why isn’t he running at players with menace and asking questions of them? It’s not enough just to be out there — he needs to be controlling games.’August 2017

‘If they have to say cheerio to those two players [Ozil and Sanchez], then that is the right decision. They have been overindulged at times this season, and they let Arsenal down in the period when they lost twice to Bayern Munich, conceding 10 goals. That is the level of the problem.’June 2017

Alan Smith

Alan Smith (Getty)

‘I think you should be picked on form rather than reputation and if you are picked on form Ozil doesn’t get in. He has been a luxury in some of the big games, I say luxury he’s been anonymous, and you are playing with 10 men half the time. You need 11 players that, when you haven’t got the ball, are going to put in a shift and, unfortunately, Ozil doesn’t always do that.’February 2017

Paul Merson

Paul Merson is a regular on Sky (Getty)

‘Ozil? I don’t think most of them [the top six] would pay the kind of money he wants for someone who doesn’t turn up in certain games.’February 2017

‘He [Ozil] was cowering as the ball came in and he literally ran away from it. That’s not good enough. That doesn’t win you league titles. He doesn’t even need to win it. Just a little nudge could have been enough to put Ashley Williams off but he gave up. Arsenal can’t afford to do that.’December 2016

Emmanuel Petit

Emmanuel Petit won the double with Arsenal (Getty)

‘It’s been a while since he played a good game, and even longer since he put a string of good performances together. He’s still able to put in one good performance, but good performances over three, four, five weeks… I don’t think we’ll see Ozil at that level again. What disappoints me most is his attitude, his defeatist attitude on the pitch, his nonchalance that transmits to his teammates’August 2017

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