Arsenal don’t have enough quality in the squad to freeze Mesut Özil out, according to Andy Dunn on the Sunday Supplement.

Speaking after Özil missed Arsenal’s 3-1 victory over West Ham, The Mirror’s Andy Dunn argued that it’s Emery’s job to get the best out of the playmaker. Dunn insisted that as the team’s most talented player, Özil has to play a part for the Gunners.

“If you’ve got a player of that talent, sometimes your job within the club is to get the best out of that talent, so you can cover for Mesut Ozil,” Dunn said. “That’s what being a team is all about, it’s what other players in that team recognise. They are there not just to facilitate him, but to get the best out of him.

“I think Arsenal have not got anywhere near enough quality players to afford to have their highest-quality player frozen out.”

It’s a bit unfair to imply Arsenal don’t have much quality in the squad right now. They have a number of talented attackers, like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, as well as Lucas Torreira in midfield, among others. Nonetheless, Özil is perhaps the only top-quality player in his position at the club.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan can play centrally, but nowhere near as well as he plays on the right. The same goes for Alex Iwobi, who is better on the left. Aaron Ramsey is at his best making runs from deep. Only Özil is completely at home playing in an advanced central position.

Hopefully the rumours about Özil being dropped or frozen out are all nonsense anyway. Officially Emery is insisting that the only problem is illness, and the players are backing him up on that fact. It would be a real shame to lose the 29-year-old’s talent in the team for off-pitch reasons.