Arsenal Team News: Wenger Reveals Huge Injury Boost + Sanchez/Welbeck Update

Arsenal will look to get their season back on track after last weekends disappointment when they take on Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon.

Ahead of the game, Arsene Wenger has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference today and has given reporters the latest team news and injury update.

The boss was pleased to announce that Jack Wilshere is now back in training after recovering quicker than expected from an ankle injury he picked up at the start of the month.

The midfielder was initially expected to miss up to eight weeks but he could now be back inside four meaning he should play again before the end of the month.

Wilshere has been plagued by injury problems his entire career and Wenger has admitted the club might have overplayed him at a young age but insists they are being more cautious with him these days.

The boss is quoted as saying by the Express:

“Jack is back in training although we thought at first it would six to eight weeks, now it could be three or four, so that is quite positive.

“I always bring him back when he says he’s ready and when fitness coaches say he has the right quantity of work behind him.

“Maybe when he was younger we overplayed him sometimes because he is such a good player but now we are quite cautious with him.”

It’s a big boost to hear that Wilshere is on course to return sooner than expected as we could certainly have done with some of his creativity against West Ham last weekend.

However, there isn’t such positive news regarding the fitness of Danny Welbeck with Arsene confirming that he’s still at least three weeks away from returning to action.

“He [Welbeck] is not close because he has not started full training. It will be at least three weeks from today.” Wenger is quoted as saying by the Express

Welbeck hasn’t played since injuring his knee way back in April and it’s becoming a real concern as to why it’s taking so long to heal. Hopefully Danny can get himself out on the training pitch soon and finally get over this niggling knee problem.

With Welbeck still out, it comes as a relief that Wenger has confirmed Alexis Sancehz has suffered no ill-effects from his substitute appearances against the Hammers and is fit for selection against Palace.

Sanchez made a surprise 20 minute cameo last week – despite only starting his pre-season preparations four days earlier – but he’s got another full weeks training under his belt and could push for a start on Sunday.

Arsene continued:

“He’s [Sanchez] fit and had a good work-out during the week,”

I personally still think it’s too early for Alexis to start as he looked extremely rusty last weekend but we’ll have to wait and see what Wenger decides to do. We need to get three points at Selhurst Park, that’s for sure, so the boss might be tempted to pick Sanchez from the start.