The exiled Mesut Ozil is featured in the socially distant team photo from Arsenal 2020-21

Arsenal released their socially aloof team photo with the exiled Mesut Ozil on Wednesday, despite not having appeared for the Gunners in over eight months.

The photo was taken in a special triangular formation, with Mikel Arteta at the forefront behind the FA Cup and Community Shield trophies he won by his side over the summer.

Although the club’s highest-paid player in Ozil (32) was not in the Premier League and Europa League squads this season, he took the photo in the back right of the snapshot.

Arsenal released their 2020-21 team photo with Mesut Ozil (second, right)

Ozil was banned from the Premier League and Europa League squads by Mikel Arteta this season

Ozil, who has a wage of £ 350,000 a week, has not played a single minute for Arsenal since March 7 after falling out of favor with Arteta.

The world champion hit the headlines on Tuesday when he asked German coach Joachim Low to bring Jerome Boateng to the national team after his six-goal drubbing against Spain.

Instead of the usual three-row squad photo, Arsenal’s first team photo this season consisted of all the players who were socially distant on the club’s training grounds.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos, the Greek center-back who was also banned from Arteta’s plans, was also on the squad.

In the meantime, Arteta has admitted that after an indifferent start to the season, the Gunners are still “far away” from where the club should be.

The playmaker has fallen from grace under Mikel Arteta and his future at Arsenal is over

The 38-year-old has led the club to two trophies since replacing Unai Emery in the hot seat but his team fell back to the ground after a 3-0 home loss to Aston Villa before the international break.

With Arsenal in eleventh place in the Premier League and after insisting that their players are not the “team we should be”, Arteta has considered the need for improvement.

“I’m afraid we are far away,” Arteta said on the club’s official website this week. ‘It’s part of a process.

‘The results have to be immediately visible and the challenge for the club we represent is that we have to win every game in every competition as quickly as possible …

Arteta have admitted that Arsenal are still “far away” from where the club should be

‘There is a lot to do in the short and medium term. We saw a lot of changes not only on the pitch, but also structurally as a club. It’s been difficult, it’s been a challenging time in the last three or three years. A lot has happened in four months.

“We have to settle down and everyone has to recognize where we are now, but I see the future as very bright.

“I’m a very positive person and I learn a lot more when things don’t go well and we have a loss like the one we had the other day that really hurt after the performance at Old Trafford.

“We have to understand why it happened, be critical of myself first and try to understand the players better and give them more solutions in order to win more football matches.”