Unai Emery plays down Mesut Ozil rift: “he is a very important player for us”

Arsenal manager Unai Emery has assured playmaker Mesut Ozil of his importance to the team following his absence last weekend.

Emery, 46, registered his first win as manager of Arsenal last Saturday when his side fought back from a goal down to beat London rivals West Ham 3-1 at the Emirates.

Star man Ozil failed to make the squad due to illness, leading to speculation that the German international was involved in a training ground bust-up and that his relationship with Emery had fractured as a result.

However, Emery was quick to quash the rumours while speaking of Ozil’s importance to his plans, telling reporters: “Throughout my career I have respect for the media, for newspaper, radio, TV, but there are a lot of people in the media and at not every moment is the information real.

“It isn’t true the news. It’s easy for me to say it’s not true, our one is true, and I need to be quiet or say it.

“For me that is one thing; I don’t stop during my career for everything that the news says about me or the players. But in this situation with Mesut Ozil it is clear, he is OK, he has the commitment we want, he is a very important player for us and we want to help him to give us the best performance in each match and each moment.”

Arsenal suffered successive defeats to Manchester City and Chelsea in their opening two Premier League fixtures, but Emery will now be looking to secure back-to-back wins when his side take on Cardiff this weekend.

Ozil returned to training on Tuesday following his absence from the squad against West Ham and he could feature in Wales this weekend.

Having conceded in all three matches so far, Emery spoke of restoring “balance” to his starting XI, hoping his side can be more resilient in defence.

He added: “Our attacking moment is good. Against Chelsea and West Ham we had many chances, but we need to work on the balance.

“To be more competitive we want to be organised with and without the ball. I don’t want to lose our attacking spirit, but if we need to get more balance we are going to work, and on Sunday I want to show we are better in this situation.”

Arsenal travel to the Cardiff City Stadium to face Neil Warnock’s side on Sunday.

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