Former Arsenal star Lukas Podolski has hit out at manager Mikel Arteta for his treatment of Mesut Ozil.

Ozil hasn't been registered for the Europa League and Premier League squads for the first-half of the season.

Podolski told BILD: "I want to know the background. But I honestly think that the treatment of Özil is not okay. To just kick out a player who's been part of the squad for six, seven years. It's not okay.

"You just don't do that. I don't know if anything happened in the background that affected him but I still don't think it's okay.

"They would have benefited from his class on the pitch."