As the international break came to a close yesterday and the players made their way back to London today, it’s good news to report that the Gunners have no new injury concerns going into the big weekend fixture against Manchester United.
Despite initial concerns to Arsenal star Alexis Sanchez regarding a muscular injury picked up whilst on international duty with Chile, it seems that we had nothing to worry about at all. Arsenal bosses had been frantically speaking with the Chile national side about an early return to London for Alexis, however they were adamant the Gunners had no need to worry about Alexis’ fitness. Alexis proved us all wrong when he managed to play right up until the final minutes of the latest Chile match, in which he also scored two goals. It seems there’s no stopping this guy and he should be fit to face Manchester United.
One player who’s in doubt for the weekend as a result of a concern picked up right at the beginning of the international break, is right back Hector Bellerin. Bellerin suffered a unusual injury to his ear, which saw him return to London early from the Spain Under21 training camp. Even though Bellerin’s physical fitness seems fine, the race to take part at the weekend may be all but over, with there a concern for the player. There are also unconfirmed reports of an ankle ligaments injury to Bellerin, if which is true, could rule him out until the latter weeks of the year.
Besides from that, the likes of Ozil, Koscielny and Giroud all return to Arsenal fully fit and are likely to play against United. Mustafi is also anticipated to play a part, whilst Walcott made his return from a few weeks of injury concerns to play for England during the international period.
Spaniard’s Lucas Perez and Santi Cazorla remain out through injury, although Lucas could be sooner to rejoining full first team training than we think. Iwobi, Elneny, Ramsey, Ospina, Xhaka and Monreal also return from international duty with no concerns, but only a handful of those are expected to play a part against Manchester United.
The Gunners do have a few injuries going into the next Premier League fixture, but United also have their own injury problems and so it should be a very interesting match for Wenger vs Mourinho.
By AH