Here are the Arsenal evening headlines for Wednesday, October 28.
Ozil jokes about Roma move on social media
Mesut Ozil has responded to jokes about a potential move to Roma following his exclusion from Arsenal’s Premier League squad.
The Germany international is only eligible for domestic cup competitions this season after falling out of favour under Mikel Arteta.
And he has taken to commenting on Arsenal games via Twitter, leading to a suggestion from Eurosport that he could become the next admin of Roma’s twitter account, famed for its humorous observations.
Roma retweeted Eurosport’s post and wrote “Welcome Mesut Ozil”, to which the Arsenal midfielder responded: “Grazie AS Roma, I think Totti and me could make a great duo”, with two laughing emojis.
Arteta gives Mustafi contract update
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has revealed that contract negotiations with Shkodran Mustafi will be “discussed internally” .
football.london understands that the defender rejected an offer of a new deal and intends to leave the club next summer.
But Arteta has praised Mustafi’s performances, suggesting that there is still a chance he could remain at the club.
“Musti's completely fit to play and obviously the internal contract situations are going to be discussed internally,” Arteta said.
“I've been really happy with Musti since I joined and the progress that he's made, the performances that he's made.
“It's true that he has a long term injury and he's worked really hard to get back in that position where he is today and I just want him to show again the trust that we have in him and get the performances that we got in the past from him as well.”
‘Excellent’ Arsenal loanee praised despite red card
Arsenal loanee Daniel Ballard was praised by Blackpool manager Neil Critchley despite being sent off in Tuesday night’s defeat against AFC Wimbledon.
The 21-year-old was given a straight red card for a second-half challenge that was deemed to be dangerous.
But Critchley insisted Ballard was unfortunate.
“The player has gone down. He’s got up and there doesn’t seem to be a lot wrong with him,” said the Blackpool boss.
“Maybe we’ve fallen into the trap there a little bit. I thought Danny Ballard was otherwise excellent and I feel really sorry for him.”
