Mesut Ozil left the pitch to a volley of a jeers from Arsenal fans as he was substituted during his team’s limp 3-0 loss against Manchester City at the Emirates.
The Gunners were well beaten by the time the German was hooked shortly before the hour mark after goals from Raheem Sterling and two from Kevin de Bruyne put them to the sword before half time.
Ozil, who hardly featured under previous manager Unai Emery, was making a rare start but failed to influence Arsenal’s fortunes, and was pulled off to be replaced by Emile Smith Rowe.
And the home fans were quick to show their recalcitrant star what they thought of his efforts, with the 31-year-old cutting a deeply frustrated figure as he trudged slowly from the pitch.
It was just Ozil’s seventh start of the season in the Premier League, with caretaker manager Freddie Ljungberg seemingly having shown greater faith in the playmaker than the doomed Emery.
But there was little on show to suggest that Arsenal are in the process of recovering from the Spaniard’s miserable reign, with City having beaten the hosts out of sight before half time.
De Bruyne opened the scoring for the champions inside three minutes, smashing a side-footed shot into the top corner to put Arsenal on the ropes.
And the Belgian was the provider for City’s second, squaring the ball from the left flank to provide Sterling with a simple tap-in to double the visitors’ lead.
The third goal came in the 40th minute when De Bruyne finished neatly into the bottom corner to plunge Arsenal deeper into crisis.
Ljungberg said of the substitution: "I took Mesut off because I wanted some more energy in the team. How he reacts is up to him and we will deal with it later. I'm here on a day-to-day basis but of course we want players in the right way."
The Gunners are still no closer to appointing a permanent replacement for Emery, two weeks after he was sacked.
Reportedly high on the board’s list of possible replacements is City’s number two Mikel Arteta, who last week asked for reassurances from the management at the club as to what kind of circumstances he would be expected to work under should he be given the job.
Ljungberg has overseen just a single win from four games in caretaker charge, a 3-1 victory at West Ham in the Premier League last Monday.
