Team News: Wenger Confirms Injury Blow + Duo Fit For FA Cup Final

Arsenal will be desperate to retain the FA Cup when we take on Aston Villa in the final at Wembley on Saturday evening.

Ahead of the game, Arsene Wenger has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference this morning and has given Arsenal.com a team news and injury update.

Unfortunately, the boss confirmed that Danny Welbeck is still unavailable after failing to recover from a knee injury that’s plagued him in recent weeks.

The 24-year-old has missed our last five matches with the problem and although there were hopes last week that Welbeck may recover in time, the boss says he’s still short of fitness.

It’s a big blow to lose Welbeck as he would have been a useful player to have available this weekend and his winning goal against Manchester United was vital in our run to the final.

But he’ll have to watch-on from the sidelines at Wembley and the attacker will also miss England’s upcoming international games against the Republic of Ireland and Slovenia

However, there was better news on the fitness of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Matheiu Debuchy with Wenger confirming that both players are fit and available for selection this weekend.

Here is what Arsene told the clubs website:

on the latest…

Danny Welbeck is out still. He will not be fit for us or for England. That’s basically the only injury we have at the moment. Everyone else is available. Arteta is back in full training. We have no new injuries from the weekend.

on how much Arsenal will miss Welbeck…

He would have been short anyway so I was prepared for that. When I saw Roy Hodgson last we were both confident that Welbeck would be available but we called the FA yesterday to explain that his bone bruising at the knee was not healed and that he absolutely had to rest.

on Mathieu Debuchy and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain…

They are available. They are short of competition but available.

The Ox has only just returned from over two months out with hamstring and groin injuries while Debuchy has started just once since dislocating his shoulder in January, so both are lacking match sharpness and are therefore unlikely to start against Villa.

Otherwise, the squad is in good health and the boss has selection dilemma’s all over the pitch, so it’s going to be interesting to see what team he puts out for the game.