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Wenger: Ozil's 'got a taste to score goals'

Toby Melville / Reuters

If Mesut Ozil isn't setting up goals, he's scoring them.

Though his status as Arsenal's de facto playmaker remains intact, Ozil has demonstrated he can skip a step and send balls into the net.

Related - Watch: Ozil completes 1st career hat trick with stinging volley

His hat trick against Ludogorets on Wednesday - the first of his career - gave Ozil five goals in his past five matches with Arsenal. He's reaping the benefits of Arsene Wenger's new system, in which the German plays as more of a second striker in support of Alexis Sanchez. The pair's movement is a handful for defenders to contain, with Ozil in particular finding space further up the pitch.

Wenger has encouraged this transformation.

"He looks like he's got a taste to score goals because he runs in behind more," Wenger said after the 6-0 win over Arsenal's Bulgarian visitor. "Before he only liked coming to the ball and providing, but we want him to be a provider and a scorer. It looks like he's slowing moving towards that better balance."

The uptick in form comes amid growing concern that Ozil could push for a transfer before his contract expires in 2018.

Having added a scoring element to his game, the 28-year-old has become even more of a hot commodity. Wenger is well aware that it will take a strong financial commitment - well above Ozil's reported £140,000-a-week wage - to satisfy the Gelsenkirchen wonder.

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