Arsenal will be hoping to make 20 unbeaten games on the trot as they travel to Old Trafford to face Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United on Wednesday.
Unai Emery spoke this afternoon with media for his pre-match press conference ahead of Arsenal’s clash against Man United and delivered update on the fitness of his squad and also latest on Mesut Ozil.
Mesut Ozil was an unused substitute last weekend against Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium and was labeled ‘unavailable’ for the long trip to Ukraine to face Vorskla Poltava in the Europa League. The World Cup winner was then ‘not present’ in Arsenal’s match day squad against Tottenham Hotspur in the North London Derby on Sunday.
It was claimed that Mesut Ozil missed the NLD with back problems and Emery has provided a latest update on the midfielder, claiming his doubtfulness to face Manchester United in the mid week.
Emery revealed that Mesut was only taking part in light individual training, away from the rest of the squad and he does not know if Ozil would recover to face the Red Devils.
Emery told Arsenal.com:
“I said on Sunday that he’s had backache since last Tuesday. He couldn’t play in Kiev or on Sunday.
“At the moment, I don’t know if he can play in Manchester. Today he was working alone, I don’t know if he’s OK for Wednesday.”
Mesut Ozil does remain doubtful – but Arsenal have another midfielder who will certainly not take part in any proceedings against Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United. Granit Xhaka serves one match suspension after picking up his fifth booking of the season yesterday.
Nacho Monreal is yet on his path to recovery and is atleast another week from marking his return from Hamstring injury. Konstantinos Mavropanos is also working his way back from groin problems.
Laurent Koscielny has made his return from Achilles injury which kept him out from action for nearly seven months. Koscielny featured for forty-five minutes for the Under-23’s against Derby County, which turned out to be a night to forget for the Frenchman and his mates. Koscielny is probably atleast couple of weeks away from first team action.
And Unai Emery has a long term injury to worry about – with Danny Welbeck probably expected to miss out for the rest of the season which takes the tally to six. Unai Emery will be without six players – provided Mesut Ozil doesn’t return on Wednesday.
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