Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand says silencing Mesut Ozil will be key to defeating Arsenal on Sunday. Ferdinand is wary of the threat the Germany international will pose to United on Sunday.
"Ozil has had a big impact," Ferdinand told the Manchester Evening News. "He has lifted the players around him.
"I think you can see he's gone in there at Arsenal and everyone has said: 'We need to lift our levels to get up with him because he's that good a player.'
"If you look at the statistics in the last four or five years and the number of assists he's had, that tells you all you need to know - he's a fantastic player.
"I played against him twice last season when he was at Real Madrid and he was so impressive. He gets between the lines.
"He's done it from wide and central positions for Real Madrid and he's doing it now from a central position for Arsenal.
"We've got a couple of players in our team who can pose those sort of problems for other teams so I know in training how difficult it can be to pick up those players but it's about the team being compact enough not to give those spaces."
