"You have to respect the players' contracts," Arteta said ahead of the West Brom game when asked whether Arsenal consider terminating Sokratis' and Ozil's deals, as quoted by Sky Sports.
"What you can do is just try to be open with them, tell them your intentions, the role that they have in the team and why that is. They are entitled to make the decision in their lives because they have a contract here.
"Some would like to move because they are not playing and some would like to stay. That's something we cannot decide by ourselves.
"There are players, even in the squad, they know they are not going to have any chance.
"That is tough mentally for them, to maintain that motivation and positivity around the place for a lot of months. That's a big task."
Both Sokratis and Ozil have not been included in the team's Premier League squad as the Gunners have too many players.
Sead Kolasinac has now left the squad and several other Gunners could follow him out. But Ozil has stated he would try to fight his way back to the first team and won't move in January.
"We will see what happens in the transfer window and we will assess at the end of that," Arteta said when asked whether Ozil could be registered for the EPL squad in January.
