Here is Friday’s news and gossip concerning Arsenal:
Mesut Ozil’s agent has hinted that the German would want to join Fenerbahce at the end of the season, but only if he decided to leave the Emirates, according to the Metro.
Ozil is a fan of the Turkish side, but Erkut Sogul insisted that he is not thinking about leaving at the moment.
“At the end of the day it is a huge club and I think Ozil would say yes to an offer if it came down to it but it is way too early to start talking about transfers,” he said.
After deciding to rest Petr Cech and play David Ospina for the Champions League clash with Dinamo Zagreb in midweek, Arsene Wenger is set to continue to rotate his goalkeepers, according to the Daily Express.
Cech has bounced back following a difficult Premier League debut against West Ham, but has not done quite enough to convince his manager that he deserves to be his undisputed number one.
Former Gunner Charlie Nicholas has criticised Santi Cazorla and Mikel Arteta for adopting a slow tempo during Arsenal’s Champions League defeat to Zagreb, the Metro report.
Nicholas pinpointed the minutes leading up to the first goal as the moment when the Spanish pair cost the rest of the side.
“I started to worry around that period of the game when Arteta and Santi Cazorla slowed it down and a leisurely, horrible slowness crept into their play,” he said.
“All of a sudden they were punished,” he added.
Wenger is refusing to use the midweek travels to Croatia as a reason why the team may struggle to overcome Chelsea at the weekend, according to the Daily Star.
Their opponents are likely to have benefited from the fact that their Champions League game was at home, but Wenger will not be blaming their late return home should they fail to win.
“I don’t use that [late return] as an excuse,” he said.
Finally, Wenger has refused to confirm whether he will shake hands with Jose Mourinho this weekend, the Daily Mirror report.
When asked if he planned on shaking hands with the Chelsea boss, Wenger replied: “I do not tell you more than I just told you.”
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