MESUT OZIL has been thrown an unlikely Arsenal lifeline after playing his first game in six months for the club.
The German playmaker was a surprise starter in Saturday’s final pre-season friendly against Aston Villa.
And now he is in with a chance of being involved in this week’s opening Premier League game at Fulham as Mikel Arteta considers all his options.
Ozil, 31, did not feature in any of Arsenal’s 13 games of the season after football came out of lockdown and didn’t even make the subs’ bench for the final ten.
But Arteta is resigned to the out of favour German seeing out the final year of his Emirates contract.
And he is looking at ways to keep Ozil involved rather than having him picking up his £350,000-a-week wages without contributing to the squad.
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Arsenal enjoyed notable success against Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea in their final five games of last season by playing with three at the back.
But he wants to play 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 against the Premier League’s lesser lights, which is why Ozil was given a run-out during the 3-2 defeat at the Emirates over the weekend.
He was part of a notably strong starting line-up which also included Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alex Lacazette and Nicolas Pepe in attacking roles.
But Arteta is now looking to trim his squad after the summer signings of Willian, Gabriel Maghalaes, Pablo Mari and Cedric Soares.
Dani Ceballos has also extended his loan from Real Madrid while Willliam Saliba, Mohamed Elneny and Emile Smith Rowe have all returned from loan.
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That leaves Arteta with a bloated first team squad of 31 players and only Henrikh Mkhitaryan so far offloaded after his contract was cancelled.
Now the club are working overtime to get more players off the payroll.
And they are willing to consider offers for Elneny, Matteo Guendouzi, Lucas Torrerira, Hector Bellerin, Sead Kolasinac, Rob Holding, Sokratis, Shkodran Mustafi and Calum Chambers.
