Published 19:38 IST, December 24th 2019
Mikel Arteta: No judgement on positive or negative events of the past
Arsenal's new head coach Mikel Arteta has said that he will not be judging any player from their past activity and will give equal opportunities to all players
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Arsenal's new head coach, Mikel Arteta has said that he will not be judging any player from their past activity and will give equal opportunities to all players. In his first pre-match press conference on Monday, he was asked about playing Ozil since interim head coach, Freddie Ljungberg had dropped the former German international following Ozil's reaction after being substituted against Manchester City on December 15.
Arteta said, "My job started straight after the game, so I had to pick the players up first of all mentally and then put them in the work frame that I want. With me, they have a clean slate. I told them that. You're not going to be judged on things you've done in the past, whether they are negative or positive. This is evolving every day and I'm expecting you to perform and be in the right mindset every single day for me. If you do that, you'll have a chance to play. If you don't, you won't."
Everyone will be allowed to play
In the 59' of the match against City, Ozil was subbed off. After slowly walking off the pitch, Ozil removed his gloves and kicked them to display his unhappiness and frustration. After the match against Everton on Saturday, Ljungberg said, "For me, I got asked after the game about Mesut. He walked off the pitch [in the Man City game] and then kicked his gloves. The fans were not happy. I got asked about it and said, 'At Arsenal, that's not how we behave and not what we do'. I stand by that. Mesut was injured but I would not have picked him for the squad because I want to take a stance that it's not what I accept from an Arsenal football player. That's my decision. I won't make the decisions again but that's what I think."
The club has been having several disciplinary issues even before the start of this season. Laurent Koscienly had a fallout with the club and left in the summer. Granit Xhaka had a fallout with the fans after he was jeered at, but used an expletive to address the fans. Recently, Pierre-Emrick Aubameyang's brother also posted a comment directed towards Arteta's appointment.
16:22 IST, December 24th 2019