Arsenal defender Nacho Monreal has spoken out against the "unfair" criticism of Mesut Ozil, and denied that there was any ill feeling between the German midfielder and manager Unai Emery.
When Ozil was left out of the Arsenal team to face West Ham two weeks ago, rumours were fabricated that a training ground bust-up was the reason behind it.
It actually turned out that Ozil had been suffering with laryngitis, and he returned to play 84 minutes in the win at Cardiff last Sunday.
"People have been a bit unfair with him. He is a very famous player and obviously people love talking about him," Monreal said, quoted by Sky Sports News.
"Recently, it is always bad things. Like last time, he was sick and that’s why he didn’t play.
"People started to invent that he had a problem with the manager. It wasn’t like that. He got a cold, he was sick, that’s it. That’s why he didn’t play."
There have also been suggestions that Ozil's body language is poor, and that he is not vocal enough on the field, but Monreal suggested that it was simply not in his DNA.
"People must understand that every player is completely different," said the Spaniard. "He is like that [quiet] and 10 years ago he was the same.
"So you can’t expect on the pitch that he starts to fight, to talk with the referee because he never did it. He is not going to change in this case.
"The important thing is he plays at his highest level, gives a lot of assists, scores a lot of goals and basically helps the team. That’s what he knows."
Monreal was speaking ahead of Spain's match against England in the UEFA Nations League on Saturday.