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Arsenal news: Unai Emery has this one ‘concern’ over Mesut Ozil
ARSENAL legend Martin Keown has highlighted the one concern Unai Emery will have with Mesut Ozil.
Ozil made his first appearance for Arsenal since November 11 in the Europa League clash against Qarabag on Thursday.
The former German international was dropped for the trip to Bournemouth last month and then spent a couple of weeks on the sidelines with a back injury.
It took Ozil just 16 minutes to notch an assist against Qarabag, setting up Alexandre Lacazette for Arsenal’s opener.
Keown was analysing the 30-year-old’s first-half performance at half time of the match.
Has he gone down there a little bit too easily? He needs to get to his feet quickly and demonstrate he wants to get back
And he singled out one moment in particular where Mesut Ozil appeared to go down too easily under a challenge and took a while to get up again.
“Emery has shown it doesn’t matter about the reputation [of the player],” Keown said on BT Sport.
“But here he bursts onto the ball and this is the sort of area they want him in.
“He’s incisive with his passing and it’s those moments.
“It’s a bit slow in his build up but look at this execution, we know he’s got that quality, he can switch the play very nicely.
“It’s all there for him, but for me it’s whether he really wants it. Does he want it enough?
“He’s wanting to play football at any opportunity, he has that ability to change a game.
“This will be the area maybe where Emery will be a little bit concerned.
“Has he gone down there a little bit too easily? He needs to get to his feet quickly and demonstrate he wants to get back.
“It took him almost five minutes to recover from that.
“Those are the areas where he just needs to improve.”
Arsenal held onto the 1-0 win and extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 22 games.