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New Arsenal signing set to be named in squad to face Chelsea

By on January 10, 2018

It looks like there will be a surprise name in the Arsenal squad tonight as the Mirror claim new signing Konstantinos Mavropanos will be named on the bench against Chelsea.

We head to Stamford Bridge for the first leg of our Carabao Cup semi-final this evening and Arsene Wenger is expected to name virtually a full strength side for the game.

However, the boss is having to deal with a lengthy injury list with up to seven first team regulars set to miss the trip to West London meaning our squad is being stretched to it’s limits.

Aaron Ramsey, Laurent Koscielny, Sead Kolasinac, Nacho Monreal, Santi Cazorla and Olivier Giroud are all out while Mesut Ozil is set to join them on the sidelines after missing training with a knee problem.

With so many injuries to contend with, Wenger has limited options in defence and the Mirror claim he’s ready to name Mavropanos on the bench against Chelsea tonight.

The 20-year-old centre-back completed a £2.2m move to the Emirates from PAS Giannina last week and was initially expected to head straight out on loan to a Bundesliga club.

However, Wenger says he’s been impressing in training and it looks like the Greek U21 international will now be a surprise inclusion in tonight’s squad due to our injury problems at the back.

Calum Chambers, Rob Holding and Shkodran Mustafi – who’s passed a late fitness test – are expected to make-up the back three so if Mavropanos is our back-up on the bench then it means Per Mertesacker could miss out.

That wouldn’t be surprising as the German legend looked way off the pace against Nottingham Forest on Sunday afternoon. Let’s just hope Mavropanos doesn’t have to be called upon as it would be a huge ask for him to make his debut away to Chelsea.