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Forgotten Arsenal star set for first start in 7 months v Southampton

By mac14 on January 24, 2017

It’s been another frustrating season for Arsenal so far as injury problems and poor form from some key men have hampered our progress as we look to win our first title since 2004.

We enjoyed a solid start to the campaign but fans and pundits alike all predicted an implosion would come which would see our title dreams shattered and sure enough consecutive defeats to Everton and Man City saw us drop off the pace. With all the doom and gloom that followed, you’d have thought I’d have more chance of picking a winner at Royal Ascot 2017 than Arsenal winning the Premier League this season.

However, fast forward a month and things are looking a lot more positive as we currently sit second in the table after our last gasp win over Burnley at the weekend and suddenly we’re now Chelsea’s closest rivals for the title.

The squad is now looking a lot healthier with players returning from the treatment table and this weekend should see a huge moment with one of our forgotten men returning to the fold.

According to the Evening Standard, Danny Welbeck is set to make his first start in seven months with Arsene Wenger ready to select him during our FA Cup clash with Southampton this weekend.

Welbeck has missed practically the entire season so far as he continued to recover from a serious knee injury that he suffered during the closing stages of last season.

The attacker returned to full training in December and made his long-awaited comeback with a substitute appearance during our FA Cup win over Preston North End earlier this month.

Welbeck has since made late cameo appearances during our Premier League games with Swansea and Burnley and has played a total of just 21 minutes so far this season.

The Evening Standard claim that Wenger wanted to give him more minutes against Burnley but Granit Xhaka’s red card midway through the second half prevented him from doing so.

However, the newspaper says that the boss is now ready to hand Welbeck his first start of the season when we head to St Mary’s to take on Southampton in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Saturday evening.

Wenger is fully expected to rotate his squad despite facing a tough away trip to a decent top flight team, so Welbeck could be joined by the likes of Lucas Perez, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Francis Coquelin, Gabriel, Kieran Gibbs and David Opsina in the starting eleven.

It will be great to see Danny back and hopefully he can get some useful minutes under his belt but understandably he’s going to be rusty and I just hope it doesn’t end up costing us a place in the fifth round of the cup.