Arsenal manager Unai Emery has admitted that he was impressed with the showing of Mesut Ozil during the club’s 2-0 league triumph over Newcastle United on Monday night. The former Germany international was afforded with his fourth consecutive start for the Gunners against the Magpies and he put in a solid display, which earned him the man of the match accolade.

Following the game, Emery was pleased with the performance of Ozil and stated that the German has grown fonder of adjusting to the tactical demands from the club, he told Sky Sports: “We were improving little by little and our first goal helped us a lot. Mesut Ozil has quality, when he can find the best performance for the team, he is playing like we want with the system and how tactically we want. He is giving us his quality. We are making progress in the table but we know it is difficult, Tottenham, Chelsea, and Manchester United are going to win a lot of games.”
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Former Arsenal defender Mathew Upson has said that Gunners boss Unai Emery took a bold step to bench Mesut Ozil for the weekend Premier League triumph at Bournemouth. The north London side were expecting a tough trip to the South Coast on Sunday and in order to curb the attacking threat, Emery went with a 3-4-3 formation which worked with good effect.

However, with that setup, it meant that one of the attackers had to be dropped and the Spaniard revealed after the game that Ozil was excluded from the starting XI as he would not have been able to match to the physical demands on the day. In a report by The Star, Upson happened to praise Emery for the decision but also suggested that the manager has provided a big statement by doing so.
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