Granit Xhaka has dedicated Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Newcastle to Mesut Ozil and Sead Kolasinac after the pair were forced to miss the game over security concerns.
Over the weekend, two men were arrested and charged following a late night incident outside of Ozil’s home, while some reports say that Kolasinac’s wife has returned to Germany with grave reservations about coming back to England.
It’s obviously been a difficult time for both players, and Xhaka was keen to acknowledge that following the game at St James’ Park.
“We know the story about Sead and Mesut,” he said.
“It’s not easy for them or their family. So we tried to do our best and to get the win for them.”
Meanwhile, Unai Emery said he wasn’t yet certain if the duo would be available for Saturday’s home game against Burnley.
Asked if they would play, the Spaniard said, “I don’t know now. The club is managing that circumstance.
“We want to be with them as soon as possible and with normality in training and normality to be ready to play.”
The Arsenal boss was happy with the opening day win, and that rarest of things, a clean sheet away from home.
“I want to win,” he said. “I want to win, I want to score and I want to do a clean sheet.
“Today we won and we did that. The balance offensively and defensively is only taken with the victory.
“Today, I think, in our 90 minutes we could do that with taking the match very seriously, being very compact and controlling the game with the ball.”
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Do you think Ozil even watches the away games? I bet he flicks around between the Arsenal game, an old Columbo episode and a handball tornament.
You forgot Twitch… but well, Özil cheered on Twitter for his pals before and congratulated them after…
What a stupid discussion to be had here.
That shalt not poke fun at Ozil.
Arsenal fans 11th commandment and most heinous crime.
That’s it, I’m off this site for good. There are too many nasty bigots on here.
Yes, there are, but just look how many non-bigots there are.
At a guess I’d say the ‘good guys’ are far better represented (and willing to be counted) than in the population at large. That alone should encourage you to stay.
Do you genuinely not understand? Or are you some sort of “internal troll,” who thinks winding people up, even supporters of your own club, is the greatest pleasure you can have?
Kicking a man while he is down is never a good loom (and no, the fact that he has paid very well doesnt justify it either).
It’s got fuck all to do with ‘poking fun’ at Ozil. I’m as critical of Ozil as the next bloke but the guy is being threatened, his family doesn’t feel safe – same for Kolasinac – and can’t travel for fear of something happening to his family’s or home, which two people evidently tried anyway.
Have some class for fucks sake.
Easy Tom Jane.
Spurs fan in disguise….
Go away
Are those up votes from yourself, HH?
what a stupid comment,
originally from HH I should clarify
Wait, what?
Ouch.
Yeah.
Well, there’s another one I’ve now filed under “scroll directly past”.
That’s not poking fun, that’s being a fucking splinter.
People without an iota of humour in their being should not try to be funny. Terrible.
We need both players.
I liked mkhi’s performance from the middle in the second half. Kola will be needed as Mr.Nachos’s age is showing.
Watching the Chelsea game yesterday reinforced that all or most teams are getting better at pressing high up the pitch. We should perfect as well cause we stil can’t play ourselves out of the same press.
I’m not sure about Ozil. Setting aside his current problem, with which we all sympathise, he doesn’t travel well – if at all – and missed a great many games for often unclear/unexplained reasons last season. When he does play, home or away, it depends which Ozil turns up because he’s so inconsistent, and has been for several seasons. It appears that he could be still be sold to DC Utd in the US although, as always, his huge wage packet is a potential sticking point. Anyway, I don’t think he’s indispensable and Emery appears to agree as he certainly… Read more »
Well done for “setting aside his current problem” just so you can have another discussion about “Ozil’s huge wage packet”
Seriously guys. We’ve beaten the salary subject to death. There’s something sociopathic about relentlessly bringing it up even when it has no relevance to the story that’s been posted.
I also think the club may be looking to keep kolasinac. Dont get the hate to be honest. Limited defender in certain occasions, but good to have on the pitch. When he came back last season he was the best player for us for a few games. So he has that in his locker.
The hate against our two guys is just indicative with all that is wrong with our world at the moment. I am not Ozil’s greatest fan but the guy cannot help where he was born or who his parents are he is only trying to live his life the same as the rest of us.
This needs to be resolved quickly and effectively however otherwise the criminal underworld will start controlling who plays when and where and not only in Arsenal games!
Breaking News “German players pay thugs to fake attack, now wants to leave England citing family security. English club left with massive hole in wallet”
I’ve got a feeling this isn’t going to be popular…
Come on man …
Come on Blogs a cull is required no?
This kind of bullshit is indicative of the problem with so much online discourse these days. Your a gooner. Do better.
HH in disguise?
Come on, I’m funnier than that…
If we go by the post above, No, you’re not.
I’m totally against it, but I did laugh still. How your mind even went there..
Probably taking the recent Jussie Smollett story and Ozil-ing it.
I apologize!! I have nothing but respect and sympathy for the boys. This was a very poor (apparently) attempt at predicting what the media would make of this, and intended as a stab at tabloids and the like. In retrospect, I can see that this can come across as an accusation. Forgive me – it was never my intention to offend.
Fair enough. If only we lived in a world where your attempt at satire was too ludicrous to be mistaken as sincere : )
Thank you. English isn’t my first language, so I can try to claim that some nuances got lost along the way, but really, I should have been a lot clearer. I should need no reminding that this whole internet-thing makes it very easy to be completely misunderstood.
Fair play ?
Play better ffs
Kolasinic is needed on the left side of attack. Hope is it sorted out quickly. As for the Mr. 350K, MLS is calling, pick up!!!!
Look I absolutely get why a lot of fans don’t like Ozil, he’s a player I personally have huge reservations about and would sell/release immediately if it was within my gift. But this is far more important than football. Very surprised people are criticising him or the club for taking the right precautions to protect himself and his family. People need to get some perspective!
I never knew that getting attacked would make a player more unpopular… But it seems that is the case.
Ozil only runs PR to stay relevant at Arsenal. The trend is far too similar
Laudgunner, A bit of advice from a fellow supporter-
Sit on your hands for a while.
Then come back and talk about something else.
The guy is under an active, sustained threat of attack on him and his family. Try to show some decency.
Worrying times for them both.. I hope they’re back soon… Ozil for footballing reasons & Kolasinac – because he’s the eye candy of the team!
Sue, this is objectification of men….we are human beings with feelings you know….
Shameful behaviour
Oh come on… Kolasinac is hot… I’m not apologising for thinking that ?
My partner likes laca.
Kolasinac of all people? I’m not generally into men but if I were I’d be much more eyeing Lacazette, Aubameyang or Leno. And even as a straight man I find Calum Chambers’ beauty difficult not to appreciate, even if his is a more classic/boyish charm.
? muscles, facial hair, an absolute beast… need I say more?!
Your comment did make me laugh, a little… but what was even funnier – you were thumbed up for it!!
Chambers? That’s almost akin to cradle snatching….if you’re my age ?
There was a time when we were better than this.
Now some of us are just as vile as Stoke supporters in their heyday.
Some of the people making idiotic comments here make me so ashamed and disgusted to be called Arsenal fans. I am thinking what if this sort of things happen to their family and their boss force them to go to work and their colleague been making stupid comments on them. Anyway, just wanted to say, if u want to become a football fan, first and foremost, u must be a human. Show some sympathy, ffs.
Someone posted on here that there were rumours this was Kurdish gang related, and Ozil easy being targeted for his connection to Erdogan.
Does anyone know anything about this? Would be concerning if true, and this was linked to a wider network.
Get back to work.
He makes it sound like they’re dead.
I’m sure they are happy about the result … wherever they are.
Word here in the DC area is that DC United is meeting once again this week with Ozil’s reps and a decision on his transfer to DC United is to be made this week. I wonder how much bearing the recent incidents will have on his decision.
Don’t understand how people can will themselves into believing what they want to see. A bit of levity in thought needs to be restored. Ozil is still a superb asset for us. Frankly Mhkitaryan (again) was hit and miss. Did somethings good but then could not hit the target or overcooked his pass. Ozil has his own issues in full time effort but neither are perfect options. Cebellos could potentially be good but he is short term and when he came on (inconvenient truth that won’t be mentioned or statistics that won’t be published by 7am), he misplaced pass after… Read more »
Granit I thought had a good game. Some solid challenges and two great passes from the back to release I believe Auba for an opportunity and Cebellos if I am not wrong. Some iffy simple passes went astray, not sure why he can hit the difficult ones and he mis passes the easy ones but nothing serious and a couple of good headers clearing crosses into our box (He will be important with Mustafi gone) as well as sensible tackles. A bit rash for the yellow but he isn’t the only one to run foul so it will be a… Read more »
Hope to see Kolasinac back in the team. If he can defend like that out in the real world, he can bloody well do it on the pitch. Monreal was OK but Kolasinac has far more attacking prowess. His defensive side I felt was reasonable pre-season. If we can have BOTH Tierney and Kolasinac, we have some good options on the left. We lost Iwobi (which I still feel is a mistake) bc Nelson was good but clearly will have a learning curve and may not replicate form being a young player. He was a bit too narrow where Iwobi… Read more »
Xhaka looked jolly good yesterday. Hopefully, this is a foreshadowing of his form this season…
What I’m going to share is speculation based on the rumors, but coupled with this fact: https://www.coloradorapids.com/post/2019/08/07/colorado-rapids-acquire-200k-general-allocation-money-dc-united Maybe Mesut is going to DC United? What boring stuff is below this, explains how it could be, and that the moves on the MLS side of things have all taken place, with KSE involvement as you’ll see. In MLS, this is the kind of thing that has to happen, for some kinds of transactions…sheesh. MLS has some funky rules on how clubs are allowed to acquire certain types of players. The point of it all appears to be to create parity. With… Read more »