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Arsenal star to miss Europa League clash v Cologne

By on September 11, 2017

Laurent-Koscielny arsenal

Laurent Koscielny will miss Arsenal’s Europa League group stage clash with Cologne on Thursday through suspension.

The French international is unavailable for our Group H opener at the Emirates as he will serve a one-game ban having been sent off during our  5-1 defeat to Bayern Munich in the last-16 of the Champions League last season.

Kos was shown a red card following a foul on Robert Lewandowski during our home game with Bayern back in March and the ban will be carried over to the Europa League this campaign.

Obviously it’s a blow to be without our best defender, however, Koscielny would probably have been rested anyway as Wenger is expected to rotate his squad for the visit of Cologne.

We have a huge Premier League game at Chelsea on Sunday to worry about and the boss is set to field a weakened side, not just against Cologne, but throughout the group stages of Europa League in order to concentrate on the Premier League.

Koscielny’s absence should open the door for Rob Holding to return to the back three after the youngster was dropped for Shkodran Mustafi during our win over Bournemouth at the weekend.

The likes of Per Mertesacker, David Ospina, Mohamed Elneny, Alex Iwobi, Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud could also feature on Thursday as Wenger rests some of his key men ahead of Chelsea.