The 31-year-old has not played for the club since March
Thursday 8 October 2020 11:18, UK
Mesut Ozil will not be in Arsenal's Europa League squad when it is announced on Thursday.
The 31-year-old has not played for the Gunners since March and his future at the club has been in doubt for some time, with boss Mikel Arteta recently saying it has been "very difficult" for Ozil to break back into the side.
Ozil, the highest paid player in Arsenal's history, played in every Premier League game under Arteta until the season was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic - and has not featured since.
Asked recently why the World Cup-winner had fallen out of favour, Arteta replied: "The team is evolving, you can see the level they are achieving.
"This is where we are at the moment. We want to evolve more and play better and compete better.
"We need to keep maintaining that. I'm really happy with the performance here, how difficult they're making things for the coaching staff to select the squad."
On Tuesday, Ozil offered to pay the full wages of Jerry Quy - the man inside Arsenal's Gunnersaurus mascot costume - to save his job.
Quy has portrayed Gunnersaurus for the past 27 years, but was made redundant as part of the job-cutting scheme implemented by Arsenal in the summer.
Arsenal's Europa League campaign will begin when they face Group B rivals Rapid Vienna in Austria on October 22 before matches against Dundalk and Molde.
Arsenal fans are loving it. Their side is organised again. Committed. Young talent is flourishing and maybe this team is even enjoying a bit of luck.
Mikel Arteta's extraordinary impact at Arsenal continues but there is one glaring issue which still needs to be addressed...
Arsenal have completed a £45m deal to sign Thomas Partey from Atletico Madrid. Here, his former coaches tell Sky Sports how he became a key figure under Diego Simeone and why he's a special talent who is "not just a defensive midfielder"
After joining Mallorca on loan from Atletico Madrid in the summer of 2013, a 20-year-old Thomas Partey would always introduce himself with a smile and the same phrase.
"I'm Thomas Partey," he would say, "not fiesta!"
The play on words - fiesta means party in Spanish - immediately endeared him to his new colleagues. "Whenever our paths crossed in the years after that, he would always say that same thing and laugh," José Luis Oltra, Mallorca's manager at the time, chuckles down the phone. But it was Partey's footballing ability that made the most lasting impression.
