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Arsenal team news: Star back to fitness but Emery’s without 4 men for Cardiff trip

By mac14 on August 31, 2018

Arsenal will be without four players when we travel to Wales this weekend to take on Cardiff City but Mesut Ozil is back on contention after recovering from illness.

Ozil missed the 3-1 win over West Ham last Saturday after picking up laryngitis on the eve of the game and Unai Emery was forced to deny reports that the German called in sick after a bust-up in training.

The German playmaker returned to full training with the rest of the first team on Tuesday and is available for selection this weekend but it will be interesting to see whether Emery starts him or puts him on the bench.

We didn’t suffer any fresh injury concerns against the Hammers but Sead Kolasinac remains on the sidelines as he continues to recover from a knee injury that he picked up in pre-season.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles is also still missing as the young midfielder recovers from a fractured fibula that he sustained during our season opener against Manchester City while Carl Jenkinson is out with an ankle problem.

Laurent Koscielny is the final absentee as the skipper continues his rehabilitation from a ruptured Achilles that he cruelly suffered during our Europa League second leg defeat to Atletico Madrid last season.

The good news is Koscielny seems to be recovering well and is already back in light training so the centre-back could be available at some point in November if he doesn’t suffer any setbacks.

An update on Arsenal.com today said:

Sead Kolasinac
Left knee injury. Aiming to return to training in October.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles
Small fracture to left fibula. Aiming to return to training in November.

Carl Jenkinson
Significant sprain to right ankle. Aiming to return to training in October/November.

Laurent Koscielny
Right Achilles tendon repair. Aiming to return to training in November.

Arsenal head to Cardiff looking to make it back-to-back wins as we crawl our way back up the table following our disappointing defeats to Man City and Chelsea during the opening games of the new season.

We have a great chance to climb on to six points with a win on Sunday before the international break and with some very winnable games coming up in September/October, we have an opportunity to put a solid run together.