Unai Emery has further put rumours of a rift between him and Mesut Özil to bed, by rubbishing reports that the pair had a falling out over which position the 29-year-old would play in this season.

When the English media started scrambling for reasons why the Arsenal head coach might have fallen out with one of his star players, one of the reasons they came up with was that the pair disagreed over where Özil was going to play against West Ham United, last weekend.

Emery confirmed that he has indeed spoken to the German about his role on the pitch this season, but insisted player and coach are very much in agreement on the issue.

“I spoke with him about his best position on the pitch, and I know he can play on the right and as a No. 10 player, and he wants [me] to use him for two positions,” Emery said.

“Mesut in his career, he played as No. 10 and he played on the right. When he played in Spain [for Real Madrid], I remember a lot of matches with him playing on the right.

“His quality is for playing between the lines of the attacking and midfield players. I like the possibility to have the player play in different positions on the pitch. So we are going to continue to do that. After, it’s [about] where he is better for us and where he is better also thinking [about] the opposition’s style of play.”

It’s hard to see any reason why Özil wouldn’t be happy to play those two positions. After all, the number 10 role is meant to be his preferred position. He also spent much of Arsene Wenger’s final years at Arsenal on the right, so he’s used to either.

If Emery were asking Özil to play at left-wing, or as a box-to-box midfielder, then that would be different. It seems pretty clear he’s not going to do that though, so there’s no problem. Except the one made up in the minds of mainstream media journalists.