Unai Emery: Mesut Ozil Has A Future And Is In The Squad To Play Burnley

By The Editor
on 21st December 2018

Unai Emery still believes Mesut Ozil can contribute…

Arsenal head coach Unai Emery stated that Mesut Ozil still has a future in north London and confirmed that he will feature against Burnley, despite being left out of the Carabao Cup clash against Spurs, the boss told reporters.

Ozil wasn’t included in the 18-man squad which lost to Mauricio Pochettino’s men and when asked why that decision was made, Emery claimed it was a “tactical decision”.

There was no elaboration as to why Emery felt Ozil wasn’t tactically viable for such a big game, but it further enhanced the speculation between the two.

Ozil is, by far, the highest-paid player at the club and while that doesn’t mean he should be granted a place in the team, leaving him out of the 18 altogether seems odd.

It didn’t work out for Emery given that we lost and he didn’t have much to bring on when we were in search of an equaliser.

“Yes. I want every player with a good mentality to help us. He can give us his quality and his characteristics,” Emery told Sky Sports’ Gary Cotterill when asked if he’d feature against Burnley.

“We need Mesut Ozil.”

The Spaniard was further pressed on Ozil’s future and when asked if he had one, Emery said: “yes, why not?”

It’s a situation we’re not used to at Arsenal given how Arsene Wenger would often avoid public confrontations with his players, something many felt was a flaw.

Ozil was continuously selected by Wenger and even if he was ever dropped, it was always disguised as an ‘illness’ or a small injury.

Some big decisions will have to be made above Emery by the likes of Raul Sanllehi and Sven Mislintat, but it feels the boss is making his feelings career about our star man.