Arsenal Boss Arsene Wenger Confident Mesut Ozil Will Stay After Stunning Volley Against Newcastle

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has revealed he is confident that Mesut Ozil will stay at the club after his delightful first-half volley earned all three points against Newcastle at the Emirates on Saturday.

There has been a lot of speculation surrounding where the German playmaker will be plying his trade next season, but he has seemingly come into his own in recent weeks amid criticism of his performances from pundits.

Speaking in his post-match press conference to the club website, Wenger said: "I'm confident [he will stay], yes, but what does that mean? I don't know.

"It's superb, he can deliver that. It's important for him that he takes the risk to do what he did. Usually he is a guy who, 99 per cent of the time, in this position, he controls the ball and gives it to somebody else, so I'm pleased he took the gamble to finish and I'm happy as well that he scored a very important goal."

Ozil wasn't the only man to catch the eye, as Ainsley Maitland-Niles again performed fantastically out of position at left back on just his second Premier League start.

Wenger described the 20-year-old as the 'future', saying: "He can play left back, right back, central midfield. Of the three positions, maybe the least natural for him is left back, but he adapts very quickly and is a good defender. 

"He has that sense of one against one, he is very strong, he is very quick, he has very quick recovery runs when he comes back. He has some aspects to learn: experience and he has to work on his heading. But overall, what he has done in the last three days is positive."

Arsenal struggled to kill off the game, giving the Magpies hope of nicking the goal while the scoreline remained 1-0. 

Wenger added: "I would say we had plenty of chances we didn’t take. You could see that we wanted sometimes to force it a little bit, the fact that we didn’t score recently, the chances we had, played a little bit on our mind. 

"But I would have loved it to have been a bit more comfortable on the scoreline but what was even more important was to get the three points and that’s what we did. Overall we had a serious game and you could see that we played three games in six days and the third game is a bit more difficult physically."