Arsenal news: Unai Emery sends clear warning to players with Mesut Ozil treatment at Chelsea

If some of Arsenal’s key players had slipped into a comfort zone at the end of Arsene Wenger’s reign, Unai Emery seems determined to shake them from their slumber.

Mesut Ozil often attracts criticism when the Gunners lose a big game and that focus has only been emphasised since the club smashed their wage structure in January to hand him a £350,000-a-week deal.

Having been asked to play out wide in their opening game against Manchester City, Ozil operated in his favoured No10 role in the 3-2 defeat at Chelsea only to fail to make a meaningful impact before being substituted with 22 minutes left.

The 29-year-old is not used to such treatment. The last time he was taken off in a game Arsenal were not leading was in January 2017 against Burnley, a match they actually went on to win with a stoppage-time penalty.

They were level at 2-2 with Chelsea in a pulsating game the home side had begun to exert control over when Ozil made way for Aaron Ramsey, another whose treatment may raise an eyebrow or two given his own contrasting contractual situation.

Ramsey has entered the final year of his deal as a battle of wills over his future continues, yet Emery had no fears of complicating this subtext, leaving the Welshman out of his starting line-up at Stamford Bridge.

A minor calf injury hampered his pre-season but Ramsey played the opening 54 minutes against City and may have expected a more sustained involvement on Saturday.

With Lucas Torreira, the club’s most expensive of their five summer signings, again restricted to a substitute appearance, Emery may well still be searching for clarity over his best team and waiting for the entire squad to get up to speed. But the message he is sending to each player is that they must earn their status all over again.

Explaining his substitutions against Chelsea, Emery said: “The first change is [Granit] Xhaka because he has a yellow card and it is a risk to continue with him on the pitch.

“And then the other change is [Alex] Iwobi... he is tired and we needed to make a change. The other is Mesut. He works well but we needed to keep more pressing on the pitch.

“I am happy with the players that were substituted. We finished with two midfielders, Matteo [Guendouzi] and Torreira, two young players.”