Mikel Arteta says he will assess Mesut Ozil's situation at the end of the January transfer window as the Gunners look to sign a creative midfield player on loan this month.
The 32-year-old was left out of both the Premier League and Europa League squads this season with Arteta labelling 'footballing reasons' as the reasoning behind his decision to exclude Ozil.
Arsenal have wanted to offload Ozil for the past couple of seasons but the former Germany international is happy in London and has always insisted that he will see out his contract at Emirates Stadium.
Ozil, who is the highest paid player in the club's history, was the first Premier League player to reach 50 assists and some fans have advocated his re-inclusion in the squad to solve the team's creativity issues.
However, Arteta's stance has so far remained unchanged with the Spaniard admitting that he will review the situation when Arsenal have completed their business in the January transfer window.
"We will see what happens in the transfer window and we will assess that at the end," said Arteta.
The Gunners have several players with expiring contracts over the coming months with Sokratis, David Luiz and Shkodran Mustafi all expected to depart in January and the summer.
Arteta was asked specifically about Ozil and Sokratis in his pre-match press conference and insisted that he respects Ozil's decision to stay at the club.
football.london understands that Ozil turned down the opportunity to leave Arsenal in the summer with the club willing to cover 50 per cent of his salary if he left on loan, while Sokratis was close to joining Napoli on transfer deadline day but a move broke down after Kalidou Koulibaly's prospective transfer to Manchester City didn't work out.
'You have to respect the players contracts," he said.
"What you can do as I said before is to try and be open with them and tell them your intentions, the role they have in the team and why that is.
"At the end they are entitled to make the decision in their lives because they have a contract here. Some would like to move because they're not playing and some would like to stay. That's something that we cannot decide."
