Ozil left out of Arsenal´s Europa League squad

Mesut Ozil’s fall from grace continued on Thursday when he was left out of Arsenal’s Europa League squad.

The 2014 World Cup winner was the biggest omission from the 24-man list submitted to UEFA ahead of the group stage, when the Gunners will face Rapid Vienna, Dundalk and Molde.

Ozil, 31, has not been included in any of Arsenal’s six squads across the Premier League and EFL Cup in 2020-21, and he has not appeared for the club since March, when leagues and competitions were shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic.

There was little suggestion that Ozil would move ahead of Monday’s transfer deadline, though, given his reported £350,000-a-week deal which expires next year.

On Tuesday, the German offered to pay the salary of Arsenal mascot Gunnersaurus after it was reported that the man inside the green suit was to be made redundant as part of their cost-cutting measures.

Neither Sokratis Papastathopoulos nor William Saliba have been included in the Gunners’ Europa League squad either.

Sokratis, like Ozil, has not been involved in the early stages of the campaign while Saliba, who only joined up with the Gunners ahead of this season after spending the 2019-20 campaign on loan with Saint-Etienne, was linked with a return to his old club on deadline day.

Saint-Etienne claimed a deal had been agreed to take Saliba back on loan only for the arrangement to fall through at the last moment.

There is also no place in Mikel Arteta’s Europa League squad for striker Gabriel Martinelli, though he is unlikely to return from a knee injury until 2021.

Thomas Partey, who joined from Atletico Madrid on Monday, is in the squad.

Arsenal Europa League squad: Bernd Leno, Runar Runarsson, Matt Macey, James Hillson, Dejan Iliev; Hector Bellerin, Gabriel, Rob Holding, Cedric Soares, Shkodran Mustafi, Calum Chambers, Pablo Mari, David Luiz, Sead Kolasinac, Kieran Tierney; Dani Ceballos, Willian, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Thomas Partey, Mohamed Elneny, Granit Xhaka; Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Nicolas Pepe.