Emery on Ozil substitution: Arsenal manager Unai Emery has reacted to substituting Mesut Ozil against Crystal Palace.
Arsenal’s 11-game winning run finally came to an end as they were held to a 2-2 draw by Crystal Palace. Unai Emery’s side went 1-0 down at halftime as Milivojevic scored the first goal for the home side with a penalty.
It was the Serbian midfielder who canceled Arsenal’s lead in the second half, as a foul by Granit Xhaka on Wilfried Zaha resulted in another penalty for Crystal Palace.
Xhaka scored the first goal for Arsenal with a stunning free-kick. The Gunners received a free-kick on the edge of the box and Granit Xhaka curls the ball with his left foot with enormous power.
Crystal Palace goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey puts his hand on it but the shot was too powerful to push the ball outside the goal. Arsenal took the lead through Aubameyang but conceded the second goal.
Arsenal, however, remain 4th in the table. However, they could drop out of top-4 if Tottenham gets a result against Manchester City on Monday night.
Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil, meanwhile, reacted angrily at being substituted during the second half. Unai Emery took the former German international off for forward Danny Welbeck. Unai Emery has now reacted to Ozil’s anger at being taken off.
Emery on Ozil substitution:
Unai Emery, however, remained positive about Ozil’s behaviour. He stated that Ozil’s reaction showed ‘character.’
“It’s normal, not happy. Not happy because the result was not good at the end. But it’s normal,” Emery said.
Emery on why he brought on Welbeck for Ozil: “Because the last match away at Fulham we played like that with a good transition. With Danny and Laca I wanted to find a good transition between two good players.”
— Chris Wheatley (@ChrisWheatley_) October 28, 2018
“The players… I like the players showing us character when we are not playing well. When I chose him, it was 2-1 to us but usually every player wants to continue playing.”
Mesut Ozil wouldn’t be able to spell ‘consistency’ if there was a dictionary right next to him.
Said this just a few days ago, but he is one player who is now over appreciated and under criticised.
— ™ (@Tacticomotion_) October 28, 2018
Unai Emery also explained the reason behind substituting Mesut Ozil.
Ozil throws his gloves at the bench after being taken off. Doesn’t look happy to be substituted at all. Welbeck on.
— James Olley (@JamesOlley) October 28, 2018
“Because the last match, away, in the Premier League at Fulham, and we played like that with very good result and transition. We needed it,” Emery said.
Ozil thinking he’s too big to be subbed because he had his first decent match in months at home to Leicester…
Shouldn’t be ignoring the manager!
— Footy Accumulators (@FootyAccums) October 28, 2018
“We lost a little bit of possession with the ball. With Daniel [Welbeck], I wanted to find good transitions between two players between both. Also, at free-kicks, defensively they were pushing. He is good defensively and offensively.”
