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Unai Emery ready to hand Mesut Ozil Arsenal captaincy on a regular basis

REUTERS
REUTERS

Unai Emery is prepared to hand Mesut Ozil the Arsenal armband on a more regular basis after the German captained his side in a 5-1 friendly win over Paris Saint-Germain.

Ozil, who has endured a torrid summer that saw him retire from international football after he bore what he felt was an unfair proportion of the criticism for Germany’s exit from the World Cup at the group stage, wore the armband for 64 minutes in Singapore’s National Stadium as he ended a tumultuous week on a high note.

The 29-year-old struck Arsenal’s first half opener, finding space in the box to tap home Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s cross, and could have won his side a penalty when he was bundled over by Lassana Diarra.

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New head coach Emery has spoken of his desire to have “five captains” after the retirement of club captain Per Mertesacker and with vice-captain Laurent Koscielny unlikely to feature until the final weeks of 2018. Ozil, it appears, will be one of the quintet.

“I think he can take the responsibility of a captain, but not forgetting Koscielny because he is captain as well,” Emery told reporters in Singapore.

“Petr Cech and Aaron played as captains in friendly matches. I’m thinking maybe of one more player.”

Ozil began the match in his preferred number 10 position in a 4-2-3-1, Matteo Guendouzi and Mohamed Elneny providing the midfield shield.

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Emery has experimented with numerous formations during pre-season, deploying a back three in a 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid, and is prepared to move Ozil out of his preferred position as he looks to balance a glut of attacking options.

“We want to give him the best position where he feels on the pitch,” he said.

“We started today with Mohamed and Matteo and then they tried to find through the lines players like Mesut and [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan.

“It depends, because Mesut can play on the right.”

Arsenal are due to return to Europe for the remainder of their pre-season commitments, which will see them facing Chelsea in Dublin on Wednesday and Lazio in Stockholm on Saturday.