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Arsenal Team News: Wenger confirms 26-year-old will start + 3 youngsters involved

By mac14 on November 22, 2017

Arsene Wenger has provided the latest team news ahead of Arsenal’s Europa League group stage match with Cologne on Thursday night.

The boss has named a second-string starting eleven in all the previous European and domestic cup games so far this season and he’s expected to do so once again tomorrow night.

Wenger says he will field a team full of experience but I doubt that means we’ll see the first team players as the likes of David Ospina, Per Mertesacker, Calum Chambers, Francis Coquelin, Mohamed Elneny and Jack Wilshere all fall in to that category.

Olivier Giroud is also expected to start after returning to full training today having missed the 2-0 win over Tottenham at the weekend with a thigh injury that he picked up while on international duty.

Wenger has also taken some youngsters with him to Germany with Joe Willock, Eddie Nketiah and Reiss Nelson all set to be involved in some capacity while I expect Ainsley Maitland-Niles will also feature despite not being named specifically by the boss.

Danny Welbeck is back in the fold after being an unused substitute against Spurs at the weekend having recently recovered from a groin injury and Wenger has confirmed the 26-year-old attacker is set to start against Cologne.

Wenger told Arsenal.com:

on the team news…
Well, we have an experienced team. Overall I believe that you will see that every single player has a big experience in the Premier League.

on the younger players…
We have brought some young players as well who have played in former games and done extremely well, like Joe Willock, Eddie Nketiah and Reiss Nelson. Overall I believe we have a good mix between experience and young players.

on whether Danny Welbeck might start…
Yes.

We’ve already qualified for the knockout stages having taken 10 points from our four games so far but it would be good to secure top spot with a win tomorrow night.