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[Photos] Mesut Ozil trains as Arteta takes charge of first session as Arsenal boss

By mac14 on December 22, 2019

Mikel Arteta has begun work as the new head coach at Arsenal and took charge of his first training session at London Colney today.

The 37-year-old was formally unveiled as Arsenal’s new manager on Friday afternoon after being chosen as Unai Emery’s permanent replacement following his departure earlier this month.

Freddie Ljungberg has been overseeing first team duties over the past three weeks and took charge of his final match as interim manager during Saturday’s bore 0-0 draw with Everton as Arteta watched on from the stands at Goodison Park.

However, the Spaniard got straight down to work today and took charge of his first training session with those not featuring against Everton involved at London Colney while the rest of the first team enjoyed a recovery day.

Mesut Ozil was back on the training pitches after missing the trip to Merseyside with an apparent foot injury. Ljungberg admitted after the game that he wouldn’t have picked Ozil even if he was fit following his poor reaction to being substituted against Man City last weekend. It looks like Mesut was fit enough to train today so he could be in contention for the clash with Bournemouth on Boxing Day.

Nicolas Pepe didn’t get off the bench against Everton so he was involved in training today as was Matteo Guendouzi after he failed to feature at Goodison Park on Saturday afternoon.

Sokratis missed the game due to suspension so he was in training today along with the likes of Zech Medley, Kostas Mavropanos, Robbie Burton, Tolaji Bola and James Olayinka. Joe Willock and Alexandre Lacazette also trained having only played part of the match versus Everton off the bench.

It will certainly be interesting to see how much of an impact Arteta is able to make over the coming weeks but he doesn’t have a lot of time to work on new things on the training pitch as we’re heading in to a busy period over Christmas and New Year.

Here are some photos from his first session courtesy of Arsenal’s Getty account:

Embed from Getty Images