Mesut Ozil has insisted that he has no plans to leave Arsenal despite being sidelined from the team this season under Unai Emery.
Emery has not warmed to Ozil since he took charge of Arsenal last year and the German has turned into a fringe player this season, despite his huge salary.
He has made just one Premier League appearance this season and has made it to Emery’s matchday squad for league games just three times.
Arsenal wanted to offload Ozil in the summer and have been claimed to be now plotting to do so in January, but the German wants to see out his hugely lucrative contract.
He insisted that when he signed the new deal he intended to stay at Arsenal for the foreseeable future and despite Arsene Wenger’s departure, his commitment towards the club remains the same.
Ozil told The Athletic: “When I signed the new deal, I thought about it very carefully and said it was one of the most important decisions of my footballing career.
“I didn’t want to stay for just one or two more years, I wanted to commit my future to Arsenal and the club wanted me to do the same.
“You can go through difficult times, like this, but that is no reason to run away and I’m not going to. I’m here until at least 2021.
“I said that Arsene Wenger was a big factor in me joining Arsenal — and he was — but ultimately I signed for the club. Even when Arsene announced he was leaving, “I wanted to stay because I love playing for Arsenal and that’s why I’ve been here for six years.”
Ozil insists that he sees the Emirates Stadium as his home and defiantly said he is going nowhere.
“When I moved from Real Madrid, it was a really tough time for Arsenal.
"But I always believed in what we could do and together we delivered.
“More recently things have been difficult and a lot has changed.
"But I’m proud to be an Arsenal player, a fan and I’m happy here. Whenever people see me in the street I always say, ‘This is my home’. I’m going nowhere.”
It remains to be seen whether the player’s proclamations change the dynamics and whether he makes a comeback into Emery’s squad in the coming days and weeks.
