Power n Glory wrote:Arteta has bought the Ozil situation on himself. I don't think it's the clubs instructions because Sokratis is in the same boat and it's almost the same situation with Saliba. He's chosen to freeze these players out for some reason and it's starting to look bad.
Not sure what he's trying achieve tactically anymore. He moved away from playing a 4-2-3-1 when our most impressive display was against Man Utd where we won 2-0. AMN had a stand out performance playing as an inverted wingback, Pepe had a man of the match performance and we just had more of threat down the right with Ozil, AMN and Pepe working in a similar way to how Saka, Tierny and Auba worked on the opposite flank.
I don't know why he's abandoned that set up even without Ozil if he wants to return to a 4-2-3-1. Just play Ceballos in that role to connect AMN and Pepe on the right.
I don't believe for one minute that it's down to him.
What manager in their right mind would completely exclude players from his selection? If you want to drop them for whatever reason fine. But it would be madness for a football manager to deliberately reduce the number of players he can choose from.
There is more to this than we know, and he is toeing the club line - same as Wenger did.
I think these players - especially Ozil and Sokratis - have significant pay as you play clauses in theior contracts, and Arteta has been given the choice of playing them and reducing his playing budget, or not playing them and getting the additional funds - like for Partey and Gabriel.