Emery: Arsenal had enough to beat West Ham

London: Unai Emery has defended his decision to leave Arsenal star Mesut Ozil out of the matchday squad for the defeat to West Ham.

The German, who trained all week following recovery from a knee injury, was fully fit and available to feature at London Stadium but didn’t make the bench. Emery named a defensive line up but his side could not prevent West Ham from taking all three points and offered very little on the front foot.

Having left Ozil out Emery had limited options to come off the bench and sharpen the attack, but the former PSG manager said he had more than enough to win the game in the 18-man squad named.

“We have enough players to win today and impose our game plan and our tactics and quality against West Ham,” Emery said.

“But also respect to West Ham, they have good players, with their supporters here they feel strong and maybe for the match, some players like attacking players can help but we had enough with these players. “I decided that the players I have here were the best for this match. We have won with him [Ozil], we have lost with him, he is not one player that is for sale.

“We know we can’t lose him.

“I can say he is working this week normally,” he added. “I just said we have won and lost with him and today the players here were the players who deserved to be in this match and with them we can win, but we lost.

“I will continue to work with every player because they are all important but today the decision was to come with these players.”

Score: West Ham 1-0 Arsenal

-Evening Standard