Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Kieran Gibbs are doubtful as Arsenal visit the Hawthorns to take on West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.
It’s back to Premier League action on Saturday for Arsenal as they visit the Hawthorns to take on West Bromwich Albion. And they would like to continue from where they left off in their last competitive outing after Arsene Wenger’s men ran out 5-0 winners over Lincoln City in the FA Cup quarterfinal.
The match gives Arsenal a chance to close the gap on Top 4, with two of their rivals, Manchester City and Liverpool facing off against each other this weekend. Ahead of their meeting against Tony Pulis’ side, here’s the team news for the North London club.
The report on the team news front is quite positive as Arsene Wenger has just two injury concerns remaining to deal with apart from long-term absentee Santi Cazorla, who is set to miss the rest of the season with an Achilles injury.
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Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain picked up a hamstring injury in the routing of Lincoln last week and faces a late fitness test on Saturday to determine his availability for the match. Kieran Gibbs is also a major doubt after picking up an unspecified knock in training.
Danny Welbeck is expected to return to action, though, after recovering from the illness that forced him to miss the games against Bayern Munich and Lincoln. The England international is likely to return to the starting lineup, sitting on the left wing, with Theo Walcott deployed on the right.
Meanwhile, Mohamed Elneny is also set to be part of the matchday squad after missing three weeks of action due to an ankle injury. Alex Iwobi has also recovered from illness, but the youngster is expected to start from the bench on Saturday.
Speaking on the team news in pre-match press conference, Arsene Wenger said: “Gibbs is uncertain at the moment. Oxlade-Chamberlain has a test today, but overall it’s the squad that was available [for Lincoln]. Elneny has joined in again. Apart from Cazorla, we should have everybody available.”
Wenger also had words of praise for Elneny, who made a quick recovery from his ankle injury: “At the start it looked like it was a very bad ankle injury. He has recovered well because he’s a very strong boy and very keen to come back as quickly as possible. It worked well for him.”
