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Team news update: Defender fit but Arsenal without 4 players for Aston Villa clash

By on September 20, 2019

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Here is the latest team news ahead of Arsenal’s Premier League clash with Aston Villa at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon. 

Hector Bellerin has stepped-up his recovery from a knee ligament injury by turning out for the Arsenal U23s this evening. It’s his first appearance since suffering the injury back in January of last season and it’s great to see him back on the pitch.

However, obviously Bellerin won’t be available for Sunday’s clash with Aston Villa so Ainsley Maitland-Niles is expected to return at right-back in place of Calum Chambers following his run-out against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Kieran Tierney has made his first appearance in an Arsenal shirt since joining from Celtic in the summer after featuring for the U23s tonight. The full-back arrived nursing a groin injury so is yet to play for the first team but is close to being available for selection after stepping-up his recovery tonight.

The U23s had a decent looking defence against Wolves this evening as Dinos Mavropanos also played as he continues to recover from a long-term groin injury but obviously he won’t be in contention to face Villa at the weekend.

Alexandre Lacazette is the fourth player who’ll miss out against Villa as the French hitman is still recovering from an ankle injury and he’s not due to return until next month so the onus is on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to lead the line up front.

There were concerns over Sead Kolasinac when he limped off during the latter stages of the win over Frankfurt on Thursday night but Unai Emery told Arsenal.com after the game that it wasn’t serious and he felt the Bosnian would be fine to face Villa on Sunday.

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The Arsenal boss also confirmed that Rob Holding is close to making his first team comeback after travelling with the squad to Germany for our Europa League game last night. He didn’t end up making the squad but Holding is now fully fit after recovering from his knee ligament injury so I expect him to be involved soon.

The centre-back might not be risked against Aston Villa as Emery may have pencilled-in Tuesday night’s League Cup clash with Nottingham Forest as the ideal comeback game for Holding.

So the squad is in decent shape as we head into the weekend looking to get back to winning ways in the league following three disappointing results against Liverpool, Tottenham and Watford.