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Arsenal team news: Emery confirms 4 players will miss Liverpool trip but Ozil returns

By on October 29, 2019

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Arsenal boss Unai Emery has confirmed four players will miss Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup clash with Liverpool but Mesut Ozil is set to return to the squad.

We head to Anfield tomorrow night looking to bounce back from Sunday’s hugely frustrating 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace that saw Arsenal blow a 2-0 lead before having a perfectly legitimate winner ruled out by VAR.

The game was overshadowed by an ugly incident involving Granit Xhaka with the Arsenal captain reacting badly to being jeered when his name was read out to be substituted midway through the second half.

Instead of jogging off the pitch, Xhaka threw the armband towards Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and started to slowly walk off which prompted loud boos from the Emirates crowd. Xhaka threw his arms around, cupped his ear, told the fans to f*** off, tossed his shirt on the floor and stormed down the tunnel.

The disgraceful behaviour has led to calls for Xhaka to be stripped of the captaincy while some fans would be happy not to see him in an Arsenal shirt again. I’m not sure we’ve reached that point yet but Emery has confirmed the midfielder won’t be involved against Liverpool on Wednesday night.

The Arsenal boss is expected to make plenty of changes to his starting eleven for the League Cup clash and Emery has also revealed that David Luiz, Calum Chambers and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are among the players who won’t be in the squad.

Speaking at his press conference this afternoon, Emery is quoted as saying by the Liverpool Echo:

“Tomorrow, for example, he’s [Xhaka] not in the group, I wasn’t thinking him for that match. He will stay here to train. We are going to first recover him as a person because now he’s down. Then we will think on the team.”

“For example tomorrow David Luiz, Calum Chambers, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Granit Xhaka are not in the group. Some players aren’t in the group.”

However, one man who will be in the squad against Liverpool is Mesut Ozil as Emery has confirmed the playmaker will return to the fold after being frozen out in recent weeks.

Ozil hasn’t featured for Arsenal since the Carabao Cup third win win over Nottingham Forest at the end of September but the German star is in-line to make an appearances against Liverpool at Anfield.

Emery told Arsenal.com:

on whether Ozil is in the travelling squad and if he will play…
Yes, tomorrow. He’s in the group so he has a chance to play. We have had this morning a very good conversation, Mesut and Me, and I said to him I haven’t changed my idea about him. But I will say I think the last weeks he has progressively been training well and adding his spirit to help us. It was a very good conversation and tomorrow he’s in the group.

It will be great to see Ozil back involved as we’ve certainly missed his creativity in recent weeks so let’s hope he puts in a top class performance and gives Emery something to think about.