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Team News: Wenger on Ramsey, Mertesacker, Bellerin & Wilshere

By mac14 on September 18, 2015

It’s been another busy day of team and injury news at Arsenal headquarters so I’ll bring you a round-up of all the latest ahead of our clash with Chelsea….

Arsene Wenger conducted his pre-match press conference on Friday morning and he confirmed that Hector Bellerin and Aaron Ramsey will return to the squad tomorrow.

The duo didn’t travel to Croatia for Wednesday night’s disappointing 2-1 loss at Dinamo Zagreb but thankfully they were just rested so will feature against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

I’d expect Bellerin to come straight back in at right-back ahead of Debuchy while Ramsey is likely to start at right-wing ahead of The Ox. You can see my predicted line-up here.

However, it looks like Per Mertesacker could miss out as the boss says he’s still looking a little short of fitness after missing the last month with a virus.

It will be a blow if Per does miss the Chelsea game but even if he was fit, I’d still have gone with Gabriel alongside Koscielny at the back as they’ve struck up a decent partnership in recent weeks.

Arsene also gave an update on Jack Wilshere and confirmed he’ll have his surgery next week to try and fix a hairline fracture in his fibula.

The 23-year-old is expected to be out for around three months but I don’t think anybody would be surprised if his absence was even longer. Let’s hope not though.

This was what Arsene told Arsenal.com:

on the team news…

We have no injuries and we left Ramsey and Bellerin behind [for the Zagreb game]. They integrate into the squad again. Mertesacker may still be a bit short, I have to decide that today (Friday).

on Mertesacker…

It was an illness.

on Jack Wilshere…

He will have surgery next week and it is a blow, a big problem. But on the short term only because it does not damage his future.