Mesut Ozil says that Arsenal can proud of their second-leg performance against Monaco, even if the reserve is true of the first leg a few weeks ago.

The German was outstanding on Tuesday evening, and says that if the team can maintain that level of performance between now and the end of the campaign, it could turn into a successful season for the Gunners.

“We dominated the whole game there and gave everything. We couldn’t find that last goal but we can be proud of ourselves,” he said.

“We knew that Monaco would make it difficult for us by playing defensively. We dealt with that very well and created a number of opportunities, that we unfortunately didn’t convert.

“We’ve got lots of important games coming up, especially in the FA Cup, where we’re in the semi-finals again.

“In the Premier League everything is possible and we have to look forward now. We have important games in front of us that we want to be successful in.”

He also hit back at criticism of the half-time shirt swapping incident, saying, “Geoffrey Kondogbia asked me for my shirt and I wanted to do him a favour,” he said.

“Maybe I should have given him the shirt in the tunnel, but seriously guys, is there nothing more important to discuss for a knockout game than a shirt swap?”

It’s not the first time an Arsenal player has been involved in a half-time shirt swap drama. Andre Santos was set-up by the evil van Persie at Old Trafford a couple of seasons back, but thankfully the reaction to this one has been more measured as most people realise swapping shirts at half-time has no bearing on anything at all.

Although it does cause sun spots, rectal cancer, bleeding of the mons pubis and super AIDS.