Mesut Ozil sends message to Arsenal stars ahead of Everton trip

Mesut Ozil has warned his Arsenal team-mates that the Gunners cannot afford to drop any more points if they want to claw their way back into the Premier League title race this season.

The Gunners head into Saturday lunchtime’s trip to Everton on the back of a miserable run of form.

Arsenal were dumped out of the Champions League at the hands of Barcelona on Wednesday night, a loss which followed their surprise FA Cup elimination by Watford last weekend.

The north London side have now only won one of their last eight games in all competitions and only have the Premier League title left to play for this season.

Arsenal are currently 11 points behind leaders Leicester City heading into this weekend’s round of fixtures.

And Ozil has issued a warning to his team-mates that they must step their game up in the coming weeks.

Speaking to Arsenal’s website, Ozil said: “Last year we won those last eight [remaining] games but we don’t care about that now.

“We have to concentrate now and give everything on the pitch. We have to fight.

“I know the teams playing us will fight to take the points against us, so the games will be tough. We have to fight on the pitch and we have to think from game to game, not that we can win eight games in a row and take the points.

“Now it’s not possible to win just our games [and that to be enough] so other teams need to lose points as well. The first step is to believe in us.

“We have to work harder than before. We have tough games coming but we have to take the points. If we win the title, we will be very happy because we believe in us.

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“If you see the whole season, we’ve played very well. We’ve lost some points because we weren’t concentrated or we didn’t score. Now we have to fight for each game to take the points.”