Arsène Wenger says Mesut Özil is available again after injury, although he might not be completely sharp at this stage.

Özil hasn’t started a match since the start of September, although he did play seven minutes in the game against West Brom towards the end of the month. This aggravated his previous injury and left him out of the BATE Borisov, Brighton and Germany matches.

Now Wenger says he’s ready to return to the action, telling his pre-match press conference: “He was not available for Germany, but he is now available yes. He had a whole week training, he is maybe not completely back physically to his best but he is available. There is no problem anymore,” reports Arsenal.com.

It’s good to hear that there doesn’t appear to be any more problems, because one of the main concerns at this stage was that the issue would continue to flare up whenever the midfielder played.got any time on the pitch.

Arsenal fans have been hurt before by seemingly short-term injuries, you only have to look at the situation of the still-absent Santi Cazorla for evidence of that. Whether Özil is quite ready to start the match against Watford is another matter, but it shouldn’t be a major issue if he isn’t.

Obviously the Gunners will miss his creativity, but right now Alex Iwobi is in form and Alexis Sanchez appears to have escaped international duty without any injury. So there are replacements available in the wide-forward positions if necessary.