- Confirmed line-ups: Newcastle vs Arsenal – Gabriel & Timber start for Gunners
- Arsenal predicted line-up against Newcastle United
- Arsenal ‘interested’ in Bayern Munich star Leroy Sane
- Arsenal told to spend big to sign Brentford star Mbeumo
- Arsenal eye move to sign Real Sociedad star Martin Zubimendi
- Arsenal eye raid on Newcastle United to sign Alexander Isak
- Arsenal eye swoop to sign Brighton star Carlos Baleba
- Confirmed line-ups: Preston vs Arsenal – Nwaneri and Martinelli start
- Arsenal predicted line-up against Preston North End
- Arsenal eye swoop to sign Sporting star Viktor Gyokeres
The 11 Arsenal players who are set to miss the Leicester game
The start of the 2017/18 Premier League season is just 48 hours away and Arsenal are already facing something of a selection crisis.
It’s a familiar feeling, as we’ve been constantly battling against a lengthy injury list for years now, but even by Arsenal’s standard’s the current situation is impressive.
Arsene Wenger is facing-up to being without a staggering ELEVEN first team squad players for Friday night’s opener against Leicester City at the Emirates. That’s an entire team of players who are in danger of being unavailable for selection.
The boss gave his press conference this morning and he revealed that Alexis Sanchez will miss around two weeks after picking up an abdominal injury in training over the weekend.
He also confirmed that Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey remain major doubts for the Leicester game as they are still not fully recovered from the injuries that kept them out of the Community Shield.
Per Mertesacker is also a doubt after suffering a nasty eye injury against Chelsea on Sunday while Shkodran Mustafi isn’t match fit yet having only returned to pre-season training 10 days ago.
When combined with an already lengthy injury list, it means Wenger could be without eleven players on Friday night.
Here is a full list of those who could miss the Foxes game:
- Alexis Sanchez – abdominal – OUT
- Mesut Ozil – ankle – MAJOR DOUBT
- Aaron Ramsey – calf – MAJOR DOUBT
- Gabriel – knee – OUT
- Mertesacker – eye – MAJOR DOUBT
- Wilshere – fractured leg – OUT
- Coquelin – ankle – OUT
- Cazorla – Achilles – OUT
- Campbell – knee – OUT
- Koscielny – suspended – OUT
- Mustafi – fitness – MAJOR DOUBT
So that’s seven players certain to miss the game and another four who are considered as major doubts, with Ozil and Ramsey highly unlikely to be risked from the start as they’ve not trained this week.
Mustafi is one player who could be rushed back while Mertesacker may be able to play with a bandage around his head to protect his cut, but the risk is his stitches could break and reopen the wound.
I’ve not even mentioned Calum Chambers yet as he’s not featured much in pre-season after arriving back late following his exploits at the U21 European Championships but he’s another player who may be unavailable on Friday.
READ: Arsenal target £36m midfielder
It all means we’re already down to the bare bones and the season hasn’t even started yet but thankfully we have a large squad so we should still be able to put out a competitive team against Leicester.
I think we’ll see a very similar side to the one that started at Wembley with Sead Kolasinac the most likely to come in to the starting eleven while Mustafi may replace Per at the back if he’s ruled out.
3 Comments