Two men were arrested on Thursday outside of Arsenal midfielder Mesut Özil’s North London home after getting into an altercation with the security staff stationed outside, according to The Telegraph. Both of the 27-year-old men were charged on Friday and are due to appear at Highbury Corner magistrates’ court next month.
This is the second time in recent weeks that Özil had been the target of, or at least adjacent to, violence in the city. Prior to this incident, knife-wielding carjackers had attacked Özil and Arsenal teammate Sead Kolašinac while the two were riding around in London. Neither player was hurt, even though video footage of what happened showed Kolašinac fighting back against the would-be assailants, eventually scaring them off.
As a result of these two events, Arsenal ended up announcing on Friday that the both Kolašinac and Özil would be pulled from the squad set to face Newcastle for safety reasons, releasing the following statement:
“Mesut Ozil and Sead Kolasinac will not be part of the squad for our opening match against Newcastle United following further security incidents which are being investigated by the police.
“The welfare of our players and their families is always a top priority and we have taken this decision following discussion with the players and their representatives.
“We are liaising with the police and are providing the players and their families with ongoing support.
“We look forward to welcoming the players back to the squad as soon as possible.
“We will not be making any further comment on the matter.”
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