Mesut Ozil: Arsenal boss Unai Emery says youngsters deserved to start ahead of midfielder

Last updated on .From the section Arsenalcomments203

Mesut Ozil walks off the pitch past Arsenal manager Unai Emery
Mesut Ozil has made just two appearances for Arsenal this season

Arsenal boss Unai Emery left midfielder Mesut Ozil out of his squad for Thursday's 4-0 Europa League win over Standard Liege because other players "deserved it more".

Gabriel Martinelli, 18, scored twice, while 20-year-old Joe Willock and Dani Ceballos, 23, also found the net.

Ozil, 30, has now been left out of the squad for the Gunners' past two games.

"We have to give the chances to the young players and they take them," said Emery.

Arsenal are fourth in the Premier League going into this weekend's fixtures and host Bournemouth on Sunday (14:00 BST).

On Ozil, Emery added: "When I decided he shouldn't be in the squad it's because I think other players deserved it more.

"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."

Emery picked a youthful starting XI to face Belgian side Standard Liege, making 10 changes to the team that drew 1-1 at Manchester United on Monday.

As well as impressive displays from Brazilian forward Martinelli and English midfielder Willock, Scotland left-back Kieran Tierney, 22, and 19-year-old England Under-21 forward Reiss Nelson also caught the eye.

"They are close to playing for us at the highest levels," added Emery. "They showed they can perform and they can score. They are playing well, it's good."

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203 comments

  • Comment posted by U16696349, at 10:37 4 Oct 2019

    Arsenal win 4-0, with two great goals from an 18 year old. Man Utd draw 0-0 in a game where nothing interesting happened.

    BBC: "How can we make the Arsenal win about Man Utd? I know. Let's call him the new Ronaldo and point out he had a trial, alongside the great Greenwood."

  • Comment posted by solenskinner, at 10:31 4 Oct 2019

    "Did Man Utd miss out on 'new Ronaldo' Martinelli?"

    Funny how the BBC manage to turn their reports to focus on Man U. rather than focus on Aresenal being wise enough to sign him.

    Please BBC, let's have a day when there is nothing on the sports page about Man U. There are other premier league clubs.
    Give it a rest, because the bias is so obvious

  • Comment posted by Cham9ions, at 10:05 4 Oct 2019

    Well done Kieran, great Europa debut 🍀

  • Comment posted by gooner7, at 10:53 4 Oct 2019

    What ever Ozil had done to emery I hope xhaka does it too.

  • Comment posted by loonatic, at 11:24 4 Oct 2019

    KT ! Arsenals gain is Celtics loss, hope you appreciate him and what he's gonna do for you !!

  • Comment posted by kickabout, at 11:24 4 Oct 2019

    Both Arsenal and Manchester United have an extremely well paid, talented and lazy player in their squad. The difference is one is being dropped and the other is being pandered to and looking for a massive pay rise. You gooners should be happy you have a manager that’s in charge.

  • Comment posted by OGG- OrigiGoalGangsta, at 10:14 4 Oct 2019

    What's that at the bottom?

    "Did Man Utd miss out on 'new Ronaldo' Martinelli?"

    Yet another lazy comparison to a top superstar & linking him to ManU? It's so easy to be a journalist

    Arsenal are doing well with the 'next Sterling' Saka & 'new Messi' Willcock coming through, but the danger is they'll all be snapped up by ManU in January. Good for them to phase the 'last Ozil' out. He's pants

  • Comment posted by Captain Hindsight, at 10:49 4 Oct 2019

    Ozil doesn't suit Arsenal's current requirements, and although Emery is not the right man to take Arsenal forward he's right on this issue. Ozil gives little defensively and we need a team of workers. Ozil only plays well in top teams that control the game for him and create his space, then he is great creatively. Arsenal need both creativity and work rate, so Ceballos is far better an option.

  • Comment posted by Drew, at 10:19 4 Oct 2019

    Great to see young guns like Martinelli, Saka, Nelson, Willock etc coming through & looking promising, but let's not over hype them with this "new Ronaldo" garbage, they have a long way to go in development terms. We've had many promising young players who've failed to reach potential - Zelalem, Afobe etc. It doesn't have to be young players instead of experienced like Ozil, there's room for both.

  • Comment posted by gooner1886, at 11:13 4 Oct 2019

    Couldn’t agree more with Emery here, why hinder the minutes of Willock, Smith-Rowe etc to play someone who has no interest in playing for this club. Fans seem to of forgotten his attitude in our biggest game in a decade (Europa League Final), happy to drive him wherever to get him out of this club, finished player on 100k more a week than De Bruyne, give me a break!

  • Comment posted by U16650949, at 16:55 4 Oct 2019

    £25 Mill for Tierney is a bargain, I told some United friends they should be going for him, and they came out with the same old tired nonsense ''he plays in a pub league'' ''not united class'' & '' He isn't anywhere near as good as Shaw''...….no wonder they are where they are.

  • Comment posted by Roguedfr, at 11:07 4 Oct 2019

    I kind of agree with Emery here, the youngsters have been impressive. And Cabellos brings much more energy to the team

    However I will also say that Mustafi has played 3 and conceded 0 goals, which possibly suggests that defense may not be our problem but the support in front of that defense. (For example Xhaka!)

  • Comment posted by bamba, at 10:48 4 Oct 2019

    There will be a couple of outcomes from this....Ozil thinks 'right that's it I'm off in Jan' or Emery gets a reaction out of him & he plays out of his skin for the rest of the season getting Arsenal into the top 4,

    History would suggest it will be the former!

  • Comment posted by ohound52, at 15:24 4 Oct 2019

    Seriously . We won 4 nil yet headlines is a player who didn't even make the bench. Cheers for this. You could have just given martinelli those column inches.

  • Comment posted by ohound52, at 15:16 4 Oct 2019

    Press Agenda to cause disquiet. We ain't spuds. Dressing room is good thank you. Manager picks team. Team don't pick manager. Cheers

  • Comment posted by Your Comment, at 11:00 4 Oct 2019

    Good, the quicker Ozil leaves, the better.

    Ramsey was far more useful.

  • Comment posted by Grylls, at 10:13 4 Oct 2019

    Bianca, your format of intentional error-strewn facts is getting a bit tired and lost its function a while back.

    There should be some mileage in your new LGBT comments though. 🏳️‍🌈

    Happy trolling.

  • Comment posted by Rob, at 12:25 4 Oct 2019

    Ozil would get into the Arsenal team if all the other players did their jobs correctly. He is a luxury player and Arsenal have too many of them in the team already. However, if Arsenal could defend properly and organise their shape better and players like Luis, Sokratis, Xhaka etc were more disciplined in their play then Ozil would thrive. Right now he is a liability because of the team

  • Comment posted by Born and Bread, at 11:00 4 Oct 2019

    "Dropped" is at serious risk of becoming the #1 reason why Ozil is not playing for Arsenal. It's even threatening to overtake "Flu".

    Ozil's Upcoming Schedule:

    Bournemouth (H): Rested.
    Sheffield Utd (a): Not a big enough occasion. Flu.
    Vitoria (H): Play
    Palace (H): Rested.
    Liverpool (a): Bit too far away. Flu.
    Wolves (a): Dropped
    Vitoria (a): Too far again. Flu.
    Leicester (a): Dropped

  • Comment posted by cricketsi, at 20:09 4 Oct 2019

    165 - the good thing about being an Arsenal fan is you can always rely on Spurs to be more of an embarrassment, for a little cheer, no matter what's going on at our club.

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