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Arsenal boss confirms Ozil will return against Burnley + positive Kolasinac update

By on December 21, 2018

mesut ozil arsenal 2018

Unai Emery has confirmed Mesut Ozil will return to the Arsenal squad against Burnley at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday lunchtime.

Ozil has lost his place in Unai Emery’s team in recent weeks with the German playmaker playing just 20 minutes of action during our last five Premier League games.

There were reports of a bust-up in training after Ozil was told he wouldn’t start against Bournemouth in late November and the attacker then sat out the subsequent matches against Spurs, Man Utd and Huddersfield due to an apparent ‘back injury’.

Ozil did start in our Europa League clash with Qarabag before being back on the bench during the defeat to Southampton last weekend and wasn’t even included in the 18-man squad for the Carabao Cup defeat to Tottenham on Wednesday night.

Emery told reporters it was a ‘tactical decision’ to leave Ozil out but the boss has now confirmed today that the 30-year-old will be back in the squad to face Burnley tomorrow lunchtime.

The Mirror initially claimed Emery had confirmed Ozil would start but it was later clarified he said the playmaker would be in the squad so we’ll have to wait and see whether he makes the starting eleven.

Emery also had some positive news on Sead Kolasinac as he said the full-back should be fit to take on Burnley but Henrikh Mkhitaryan has been ruled out with a knock that he picked up against Spurs.

The boss also suggested that Laurent Koscielny won’t be risked against Burnley as he’s played a lot of football since returning from injury while Shkodran Mustafi misses out with a hamstring injury once again so we have limited options in defence.

Emery is quoted as saying by the Mirror:

“Mkhitaryan is out, Koscielny is okay but has played two matches this week, tomorrow is a lot for him. We need to be calm with him. Kolasinac I think is okay. Mustafi is out also.”