Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has revealed that he found out about the Mesut Ozil deal just a few hours before his side played Tottenham Hotspur in the North London derby.
An Olivier Giroud first-half strike gave The Gunners a 1-0 victory over their fiercest-rivals and their positive result was then backed up with a positive transfer deadline day.
Both Emiliano Viviano and Mesut Ozil were captured by Wenger before the deadline and he has now admitted that he knew Ozil was in the pipeline just before the derby got underway on Sunday.
“To say it was all under control is a big exaggerated because not a lot was under control,” the boss said. “But I told you two or three days before… I looked a bit lonely when I said I was optimistic but in the end it happened.
“I thought we had a chance to do it, a small one, but we worked very hard on it until the end. It was very complicated in the end because the timing was short, but on Sunday when I came to the Tottenham game, just at 2 o’clock I thought we will manage to do it. Before the game I knew we were 90 per cent there.”
The German international could be in line to make his debut against Sunderland on Saturday after the club have picked up several injuries.
Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt
