Mesut Ozil: Unai Emery 'not thinking' about midfielder leaving the club

Ozil has not played since 26 December while his last full game was two weeks before that

Arsenal head coach Unai Emery says he is "not thinking" about Mesut Ozil leaving the club, but wants more consistency from the German midfielder.

Ozil, 30, the club's highest-paid player, has not started Arsenal's last four games, although for two of them he has been recovering from a knee injury.

He was not included in last week's squad for the 1-0 defeat by West Ham.

Emery said Ozil could face Chelsea on Saturday, adding: "I've spoken to him because I want consistency."

The manager continued: "He's had some injuries and these injuries mean that sometimes he is OK and sometimes he isn't OK. I want every player to give the same work every day to be OK for every match.

"With Mesut it's the same. He didn't play the last matches but to me he's just like any other player. This Saturday he can be with us if he's OK. Now? He's training consistently with his work over the past two weeks and I think he can be."

Ozil's last full game was the 3-1 win over Burnley on 12 December but he has been left out of the starting XI on nine occasions in the league this season and there have been reports he could leave in the January transfer window.

"I'm not thinking about that," added Emery. "I'm thinking about how he can help us this year with good performances."