Emery: I don’t know if Ozil and Kolasinac will play against Burnley

Arsenal head coach Unai Emery has admitted that he is not sure if Mesut Ozil and Sead Kolasinac will feature in next week’s Premier League clash with Burnley.

The pair were victims of an attempted armed robbery outside Kolasinac’s house two weeks ago, with the left-back fighting off the attackers while Ozil was chased in his car.

After being given some time off, they played in Arsenal’s final pre-season fixture against Barcelona – a 2-1 defeat in the Joan Gamper Trophy.

However, Arsenal announced on Friday that “further security incidents” had taken place that were under investigation by the police, and two arrests have been made outside Ozil’s house.

A statement from the Metropolitan Police said: "Two men have been charged under Section 4a of the Public Order Act following an incident in Camden on Thursday, 8 August.

"Ferhat Ercan, 27, of Highgate, and Salaman Ekinci, 27, of Tottenham, were charged on August 9 following the incident and are due to appear at Highbury Corner magistrates’ court on 6 September."

As a result, neither player travelled to Newcastle for Arsenal’s 1-0 opening-day win at St. James’ Park in which Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang grabbed the three points for the Gunners after converting Ainsley Maitland-Niles’ cross in the second half.

And Gunners boss Emery has suggested that the two players may not play next week either, when Arsenal host Burnley at the Emirates Stadium.

“The club is managing that circumstance [the safety of Mesut Ozil and Sead Kolasinac],” Emery told Arsenal’s official website.

“We want to be with them as soon as possible and with normality in training and normality to be ready to play. I don't know now [if they will play next week].”

In their absence, Nacho Monreal will continue at left-back, with summer signing Kieran Tierney still recovering from a hernia operation after arriving from Celtic, while youngster Joe Willock and on-loan midfielder Dani Ceballos will endeavour to fill in for Ozil.

The good news for the Gunners is that the club will be able to rely on Aubameyang​ to carry the load up front, with the forward having posted the best shot-conversion rate in the Premier League since his debut in the league in February 2018.