LONDON -- Arsenal boss Unai Emery has denied reports of a bust-up with star playmaker Mesut Ozil, insisting the German missed Saturday's 3-1 win over West Ham with an illness.
Ozil was surprisingly left out of the squad but still attended the game at the Emirates, a week after being taken off in the 68th minute in the 3-2 loss to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Reports claimed Emery had a heated argument with Ozil this week in training, but the new head coach insisted that wasn't the case.
"It isn't true," Emery told a news conference. "He was sick yesterday, he spoke with the doctor and with me and we decided not to play today."
Emery added that Ozil left the training ground on Friday because "he was going to his home, because he was sick."
"Today he was here," Emery added. "Today I said to him, come if he feels better. And he feels better today, and before the game he was with the team, with me. It's no problem with the player, it's not true this information. Ask the doctor, the doctor can explain better."
Saturday's win was Emery's first at Arsenal after the opening the Premier League season with consecutive defeats to Manchester City and Chelsea. The Gunners trailed again at the Emirates after Marko Arnautovic put West Ham ahead, but levelled through Nacho Monreal before the break and got a slice of luck when an own goal by lssa Diop put them ahead. Substitute Danny Welbeck polished off the win with a goal in injury time.
Despite the three points, Emery said there was still plenty of room for improvement and that his team couldn't find the right balance between attack and defence in the first half.
"It's clear we need to improve and we need to continue working to not concede as many chances as today," the Spaniard said.
"It's clear, maybe today in the first half we want to use the right-back and left-back in the attacking moment but we need the balance with the midfielders. In the first half we conceded a lot of chances. But today I think the first half and second half are very different. In the second half we find this balance better because we spoke about it in the dressing room."
West Ham are still without a point after three games under new manager Manuel Pellegrini, but the former Manchester City boss said he was confident his team are heading in the right direction.
"We are very unlucky to concede that own goal that put Arsenal on top. But I'm very happy because we are on the correct way and soon this team are going to win more games than we lose," Pellegrini said.
"Today I think the result had nothing to do with what happened in the 90 minutes. The own goal was unlucky. Arsenal didn't create too many chances during the game, we created double the chances as them."