Mesut Özil is back in the fight for a place in the Arsenal starting line-up at Cardiff, but the challenge to adapt to the needs of his new manager remains.
Unai Emery strongly denied having failed at the club's highest paid player, but said that Ozil was expected to show flexibility and play in positions other than his favorite number 10 role.
"He normally trains with the group, in every session this week," Emery said about Özil, after the German missed last Saturday's victory at West Ham with a suspicion of laryngitis. "He's okay, after this it's about where he's better for us and also about the opponent's playing style.
"I like the possibility to let the player play different positions on the field, it depends on each match and is the same for other players, for which Mesut played with me on the right wing and also as number 10 and we will keep doing. "
Ozil played to the right of the midfield in Arsenal's opening game against Manchester City, before moving to the center against Chelsea, but was replaced in the bottom of the 3-2 defeat.
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"Our demands are very high, very good, but I want to ask every player every day to give us more," said Emery. "Not only Mesut, the team, the team, we have to push, we have to have ambition, we have to have the desire to improve every day, this is my message for the team, for the team and for every player."
Emery did not deny that he had tried to sign Ozil for Paris Saint-Germain last year, but he made claims that the two were at odds. "The news is not true," he said. "In my career, I do not stop for news when it's not true, and when the news is not true, it's not true."
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