Mikel Arteta admits it is going to be ‘very difficult’ to see player in Arsenal squad
Mikel Arteta has confirmed that it will be ‘very difficult’ to see Mesut Ozil back in the Arsenal team in the future.
The former Germany international was left out of the Carabao Cup squad that managed to defeat Leicester City on Wednesday night. It was the fourth matchday squad in which he has been left out of the side in a row and the Spaniard does not appear to be any closer to bringing him into the fold.
With wins against Chelsea and Liverpool in the FA Cup Final and FA Community Shield respectively, as well as a fast start in the 2020/21 Premier League campaign with victories over Fulham and West Ham United, it seems difficult to find a place for Ozil and that seems to be the problem for Arteta at the moment as well. In fact, bettors can find the best bookmakers and more at sportwetten24.com if they believe in the Gunners’ fast start as well.
“The team is evolving, you can see the level they are achieving,” he said, following the win against the Foxes.
“This is where we are at the moment. We want to evolve more and play better and compete better. We need to keep maintaining that. I’m really happy with the performance here, how difficult they’re making things for the coaching staff to select the squad. We are picking the players that we believe are the best for each game. You can see we keep training, it’s what we’re trying to do.
“You can see that the players we are changing, we are using, it’s very difficult every week – not [just] for Mesut – but for some other players as well to make the squad. Every week we try to pick the right players. Of course I understand and I respect your questions, but I have to try to do my job as fair as possible. I try to select the players that are, in my opinion, in better condition.”
Indeed, it has been a huge fall from grace for Ozil over the last 18 months or so and he has failed to make an appearance for the club since March 7.
However, looking at what Arteta is saying and reading between the lines, it would seem the German is unable to meet the demands that the manager has set. Thus, a return looks extremely unlikely and it would be a bigger surprise at this point if he were to even be included on the substitutes bench.
As the manager said, the Gunners appear to have been evolving in a positive way since he took over and with Ozil having last played a match for them six months ago, it does not appear likely that stretch of inactivity will be broken any time soon.
Of course, the veteran’s contract expires at the end of the season and there has been no secrecy in the desire to get him off their wage bill, however things do not look set to improve until that deal expires.
It is an incredible shame that things have soured the way they have given the excitement there was to when they brought him in from Real Madrid in 2013, but this is how the situation has unfortunately played itself out.
