Arsenal: Unai Emery won’t take Mesut Ozil crap

Unai Emery reiterated that Mesut Ozil missed Arsenal’s match against West Ham United because the German was ‘sick’, denying reports of a training ground bust-up. Whichever is actually the truth, one thing’s for sure: Emery will not take Ozil’s crap.

It’s here. The first match of the season that Mesut Ozil has missed because he is ‘ill’. The trend started last season. At first, it was nothing more than a coincidence. People get ill. Some more than others. And Ozil was getting ill a lot. But as the year progressed and the frequency of his absences increased, suspicions among the Arsenal fan base were roused.

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And now, just three games into the new campaign, Ozil is ill yet again. I don’t want to doubt his honesty and integrity, but it is getting difficult to believe.

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That said, Unai Emery was bullish in his press conference after the 3-1 win over West Ham United. When asked about the report that Ozil was actually absent because of a training ground bust-up in midweek, Emery retorted emphatically, outright denying the suggestion and reiterating the fact that Ozil was sick and that that is why he missed the match:

"“Why is this information [being reported]? It isn’t true. That information needs first to be true. Who is starting to telling you or us this information? You ask me, or the doctor, or the club. He was sick yesterday. He spoke with the doctor and with me and decided not to play today. But he did not leave training [due to that], but because he was going to his home because he was sick.”"

Tim Stillman floated an interesting theory about Emery’s comments. He said that the flimsical, unconvincing nature of the excuse is done purposefully by Emery to illustrate his unhappiness with Ozil’s behaviour and attitude. Stillman also states that he knows the journalist who initially reported the training argument and backed his pedigree and accuracy.

Now, it is a theory that requires a lot of reading into the situation, something that Stillman cedes himself, but there is a deeper element that can be extrapolated: Emery will not take any of Ozil’s crap. Not one bit.

He is the first manager to publicly call Ozil out, doing so before the Chelsea match, he hooked him after a little over an hour in that Chelsea match, and he has been more than happy to focus his time on other players in the squad like Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alex Iwobi, rather than being loyally patient with an ostensibly disinterested Ozil.

One thing is for certain: Ozil is going to have to earn Emery’s favour. Where Arsene Wenger was willing to give it freely, his successor is far more hesitant. That means that he must be convinced. Right now, Ozil is doing the exact opposite.