We have seen nearly all Arsenal’s defenders being injured at some time or another this season, but it looks like we are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel and should have most of them back in the next few years.
For tonight’s game we were worried about going without a left-back again, but the Gunners are giving fitness tests to both Monreal and Kolasinac ahead of tomorrow’s game and who ever is the fittest will surely play.
Sokratis came back from the intenationals with a small problem to his right ankle, but although the Lisbon match could be a little early, Emery is fully expecting him to be fit for the Palace game on Sunday.
Even Petr Cech is now back to full fitness, so it will be interesting to see who Emery picks in goal both tomorrow and on sunday. In our JustArsenal poll yesterday a massive 91% of readers voted for Leno to be our number one keeper from now on, so let’s see what Emery thinks…
Ainsley Maitland-Niles has also now returned to full training after being injured very early in the season. Let us hope that he is fit enough to get a run-out in the Europa League to get him back to match fitness.
We all know that Laurent Koscielny has returned to training but we are very unlikely to see him on the teamsheet for at least a month as he builds up his strength again.
One defender I would have liked to see return to the team tomorrow night is Dinos Mavropanos, but his groin injury was worse than expected and he won’t be back for at least a few weeks more, but it looks like we should have enough defenders around to cover for him for now. He is sure to figure in the second half of the Europa League fixtures….
So good news all around, especially on the defensive side…
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