Per Mertesacker has jumped to the defence of Arsenal teammate Mesut Ozil.

Ozil has struggled for consistency since his arrival two years ago from Real Madrid.

But Mertesacker told transfermarkt.de: "In Germany there are often only small parts of our games aired on TV or the opinions of English journalists are simply accepted.

"Mesut is a key player for us. He was in the last season and he will be the same in the season ahead."