Arsenal Team News: Wenger Gives Update On Sanchez & Welbeck Ahead Of Chelsea Game

FA Cup holders Arsenal and Premier League champions Chelsea kick off the new season as they face-off in the Community Shield on Sunday afternoon.

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

The Gunners boss confirmed that David Ospina has returned to pre-season training today after being given an extended break following his participation in the Copa America but the Colombian international is unlikely to feature at Wembley this weekend.

Wenger also reiterated that Alexis Sanchez will return to North London at the weekend to begin his pre-season preparations after helping Chile win the Copa America earlier this month, but obviously he won’t be fit enough to play any part against Chelsea.

The final player who will miss out on Sunday is Danny Welbeck as the forward is still not fully recovered from a knee injury that ruled him out of last seasons run-in.

The issue has plagued the former Man Utd attacker for over three months but he should hopefully return to training soon and be back in contention towards the end of August.

Otherwise, Arsenal should have a fully-fit squad to choose form this weekend and Wenger feels his squad is close to hitting top physical condition despite their ‘compact’ pre-season.

The Gunners boss told the clubs website:

on the team news…

Ospina has just come back to training today. Alexis is coming back next weekend. Everybody else should be available apart from Welbeck.

on whether the squad are ready after a shorter pre-season…

The preparation was compact, short, but physically we are not far away.

Arsenal go into the Community Shield off the back of four consecutive pre-season victories while Chelsea will finish-up their tour of North America when they take on Barcelona tomorrow.