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Arsenal star set to make injury return against Brighton + Ceballos update

By mac14 on December 3, 2019

Freddie Ljungberg takes charge of his first home game as interim manager when Arsenal entertain Brighton & Hove Albion at the Emirates on Thursday night.

The Swede will be desperate to get Arsenal back to winning ways after we extended our winless run to eight matches with a disappointing 2-2 draw at Norwich in Freddie’s first game at the weekend.

And the boss looks set to be handed a major injury boost as the Evening Standard are reporting that Hector Bellerin is ‘ready’ to make his comeback from a hamstring problem.

The Spaniard has missed our last two matches against Eintracht Frankfurt and Norwich with the minor issue and the official club team news update says he’s being assessed ahead of the Brighton game.

However, the Evening Standard believes Bellerin is set to make his return on Thursday night which will be a huge boost as he’s a big upgrade on Calum Chambers at right-back.

If Hector does return, then it means Dani Ceballos is Arsenal’s only significant injury absentee so Ljungberg has a very healthy squad to choose from right now.

Ceballos has been out for over a month with a hamstring injury that he sustained against Vitoria in the Europa League and the club says he’s on course to resume full training in mid-December.

Rob Holding hasn’t been involved in any of our last three games due to a minor hamstring problem. He wasn’t included in today’s official team news update on Arsenal.com so we have to assume Holding is now available for selection.

If that’s the case, then I hope Freddie recalls him against Brighton on Thursday as Holding is probably our most reliable centre-back. Not that it’s much competition as Sokratis, Mustafi and Luiz are all useless and Chambers isn’t much better.

Let’s hope for a much improved performance at the back against Brighton as we’ve been shocking in defence this season. Another poor result on Thursday and we can forget about finishing in the top four this season as we’re already seven points adrift of fourth place.