Arsenal boss Unai Emery has claimed that Mesut Ozil was unable to feature in the win over Fulham because of a back spasm that he suffered in the previous match. Ozil was expected to play a key role in Arsenal’s game against Fulham at Craven Cottage as he has been a regular under Emery so far this season. He has featured in six out of the seven league matches so far. The game against Fulham witnessed Emery naming Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alex Iwobi in the starting line-up in favour of Mesut Ozil. This turned out to be a major surprise even if Arsenal ended up winning the game with a huge 5-1 score.

However, “Emery has confirmed that the absence of the former German international was in town to an injury sustained in the previous match “. However, he expects Ozil to come back into the starting line-up just after the international break. Emery will have a lot of concerns about plenty of key players being unavailable for the upcoming round of fixtures, as the international break does “provide a significant possibility “ of key players picking up injuries while playing for the national teams. Arsenal have been on a brilliant run of form that has seen them pick up nine consecutive wins.

“Yesterday he [Ozil] came in with pain and he cannot train yesterday or play today.Each training also he can [do it]. For example [we had players playing today who played on Thursday] like Nacho Monreal, Holding, Iwobi and Danny Welbeck. I think with preparation they have the capacity to play a lot of matches. They are at a big level in the matches and every player wants to play. They’re preparing for that,” said Emery. Arsenal’s next match will be against Leicester City at home just after the international break.