Unai Emery tells Mesut Ozil to “keep working” after excluding playmaker from Arsenal squad

Arsenal manager Unai Emery has revealed that he left Mesut Ozil out of Thursday’s squad because ‘others deserved it more’.

The 30-year-old German playmaker did not feature in the midweek game against Standard Liege, a match the Gunners won 4-0.

Ozil’s time at Arsenal: Five things to know…

• Ozil joined Arsenal in 2013 for £42.5m from Real Madrid.
• Since his arrival, the club have won the FA Cup three times but have not tasted success elsewhere.
• Ozil has only played 71 minutes in the Premier League this season.
• The German was not included in the team for the Europa League clash with Standard Liege on Thursday.
• Emery says Ozil needs to ‘keep working’ in order to play.

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Arsenal comfortably beat the Belgium outfit on Thursday night at the Emirates but Mesut Ozil, who has hardly featured for them this season, did not even make the bench for the game.

He’s been on the periphery so far this campaign despite being one of the Gunners biggest earners.

Unai Emery did admit he wanted to give some of the youngsters an opportunity on Thursday and has told Ozil to ‘keep working’ if he wants to be involved in first-team action.

“When I decided he shouldn’t be in the squad it’s because I think other players deserved it more,” he said.

“He needs to continue working. Tomorrow we have training with the players who didn’t play, and on Sunday we have another match, and we are going to decide the same.

“Our target is to win on Sunday against Bournemouth, and we want to carry on our same way in each match.”

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Arsenal have had a mixed start to the new season much to the frustration of the fans. Emery’s side do currently sit in the top-four but have lacked consistency.

Of their seven games so far they have only won three, drawing three and losing just one. They face Bournemouth this weekend, a game in which Ozil could feature if he impresses Emery in training.

The Gunners are currently nine points behind leaders Liverpool but just four behind second-place Manchester City.