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Mesut Ozil sends bizarre Instagram post with Arsenal team-mate after latest Emery snub
MESUT OZIL has broken silence on being left out of the Arsenal squad vs West Ham.
Mesut Ozil shares bizarre post with his Instagram followers
The German was not even in the 18 for the visit to the London Stadium.
His relationship with manager Unai Emery is believed to be damaged with the Spaniard struggling to accommodate Ozil into his set up.
According to the Daily Mail, Arsenal’s highest-earning player was left out of the squad for tactical reasons and has no injury concerns.
Ozil posted a video on his Instagram story with his team mate Mohamed Elneny.
The clip is of the pair in a locker room and contains text that says “Alhamdulillah” which means ‘praise be to God’ in Arabic.
Ozil then says another phrase in the language, before Elneny lets out a smile and “that’s really good bro!”
Emery has been boosted by the return to fitness of Laurent Koscielny, who was named in the starting XI.
The centre-back missed last weekend’s FA Cup win over Blackpool after pulling up in the warm-up but was named alongside Shkodran Mustafi, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Sead Kolasinac and Ainsley Maitland-Niles in a five-man defence.
It is the same side that started the 4-1 win over Fulham on New Year’s Day, with Granit Xhaka and Matteo Guendouzi paired in midfield.
Alexandre Lacazette was named as the man to lead the line, while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alex Iwobi were on the flanks.
Arsenal have lost only one of the last six London derbies, with four wins and one draw.
However, Emery insisted he was taking nothing for granted when he spoke before kick-off.
"I think West Ham are improving and they also have good individual players with quality, like (Felipe) Anderson, like (Marko) Arnautovic, who are very good players,” he said.
"Usually [Manuel Pellegrini has] very offensive teams.
“They usually play matches with a balance tactically but above all with technical, offensive players."