The two new Arsenal players signed by Arsene Wenger at the end of the summer transfer window may have only trained with their new teammates for the first time today, as reported by the official Arsenal website, but there is a chance that both Lucas Perez and Shkodran Mustafi could be thrown into action straight away when Arsenal host Southampton in the Premier League match on Saturday.
The German international was always likely to come into the team as early as possible due to the injury problems of Per Mertesacker and Gabriel leaving the boss with only the young Rob Holding to partner Koscielny in the centre of defence.
The question of whether the Spanish striker would come in was a more difficult one to answer though, especially after Olivier Giroud proved his fitness by starting both of the France games during this international break. Even though Lucas is unlikely to start in the centre forward position against the Saints, he might be in line for one of the other forward positions, depending on what Wenger wants to do with Alexis Sanchez.
The Chilean completed both games for his country and the second of those took place in the early hours of this morning, so he will not be back in London until much later today or tomorrow. If the boss thinks it is a risk for him to play again so soon and with so little time to rest and recover then there will be a gap to fill on the left side of our attack.
I would expect Theo Walcott and Giroud to start but it will be interesting to see who fills that third spot. If it is not Alexis Sanchez then the most obvious options are the new striker, Alex Iwobi and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who already has some games and a great goal under his belt this season.
Iwobi is training again after his minor injury and he looked good in pre-season and both he and the Ox have Premier League experience but do you think Wenger might hand a debut start to the new Gunner?
Bob.