Arsenal scored a 3-2 victory against Vitoria, but it was the glaring absence of Mesut Ozil that dominated the news. The German playmaker was expected to play in the Europa League after being scarce in the Premier League, but Unai Emery is keeping Ozil to be an outcast.
Ozil is the Gunners' highest-paid player, and it remains a wonder why the Arsenal has been excluding him from the squad. According to Mirror, "Ozil has fallen down the pecking order at an alarming rate at Arsenal under Emery."
However, the Thursday match came to pass, and Ozil was again left out. In fact, the Arsenal boss again did not list the German on the bench at the Emirates, leaving everyone clueless on what is happening.
The only hint came from Ozil himself, who indicated in a social media post that he spent his free time training with Arsenal legend Robert Pires. Somehow, the post confirmed he knew in advance that Emery is not fielding him on the pitch, yet again.
Now the man who can shed light on the matter has refused to even entertain questions on Ozil skipping the just concluded match, the Evening Standard reported. When asked why the German was not in the game, Emery just dismissed the question.
"Tonight is not the day to speak about that," the Spanish boss declared.
"I prefer to speak about the match. We have all the players who played. He's not in the squad. That is the decision tonight. Now we are going to work towards Sunday," added Emery.
Meanwhile, observers can only surmise what could be the reason behind Emery's decision to cast out Ozil. Former Gunners forward Robin Van Persie is hoping that that problem between Emery and Ozil will get resolved soon, for Arsenal's sake.
"It's a shame, he's one of their best players ... He's really good but something is not quite right at the moment with him and the coach," Van Persie was reported as saying.
Another Arsenal legend, Roy Parlour, offered his thoughts and suggested it's a pit that a quality player like Ozil is not given a chance to help out on the club's campaign in the current season.
For things to change, Parlour said Ozil must win back the trust of the club boss and he can do so by working doubly hard on the training.
"What he's got to do as a player is work hard in training and try to prove to the manager he can still do a job for the team. We all know he's such a quality player, but it's getting him in the right position and obviously players around him helping out," Metro reported Parlour as saying.
Speculations are rife that with the current situation, Ozil would likely exit from the Gunners in the January transfer window, but the German has already indicated his plan to stay until his contract expires in 2021.
On this, Parlour can only hope that Ozil "can get another chance in that Arsenal team."
