Arsenal Team News: Wenger Hints At Cazorla Boost + Striker A Doubt To Face West Ham

Arsenal will be looking to keep pace with the Premier League leaders when we take on West Ham at the London Stadium on Saturday evening.

Ahead of the game, Arsene Wenger has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference this morning and he’s offered reporters a team news and injury update.

Understandably, the boss was quizzed for his thoughts on Santi Cazorla following the devastating news the midfielder will undergo surgery next week to try and cure an on-going Achilles injury.

Cazorla has not featured since aggravating a troublesome Achilles problem during our Champions League win over Ludogorets at the Emirates back on the 19th of October.

A course of anti-inflammatory injections hasn’t resolved the issue and the club have decided surgery is the only option with the statement on Arsenal.com on Thursday stating that Cazorla is expected to be out for three months.

However, Wenger has offered a glimmer of hope that the Spaniard could be back sooner as he confirmed this morning that Santi has in fact been ruled out for at least two months – although he concedes that given the type of injury, the midfielder could easily be out for three.

Wenger told Arsenal.com:

“For me it’s very bad news. You always know the date of the surgery but never the date where the player will play again.

“I always try to put absolutely everything in place to avoid surgery because it creates anxiety and rehab. When you can avoid it, you have to avoid it. In this case, unfortunately we have come to that conclusion. I’m told he will be out for two months at least but two months can sometimes be three as well.

The boss also revealed that Olivier Giroud is a major doubt for the trip to the London Stadium this weekend as he continues to nurse a groin injury that he sustained during the 3-1 win over Bournemouth last Sunday.

The French international missed the midweek League Cup defeat to Southampton and may be forced to sit out the West Ham game tomorrow, however, Wenger is confident Giroud will be available for the trip to Basel in midweek.

Mohamed Elneny is also a doubt to face the Hammers on Saturday evening as he’ll need to undergo a late fitness test today after he was forced off on Wednesday night with a sickness bug.

Wenger told Arsenal.com:

on the team news…
We have Mo Elneny who came out of our last game with sickness – I will test him today [Friday].

on Olivier Giroud…
I thought that Giroud might be available for Saturday, but he might not be available for tomorrow. Certainly for Tuesday [in Basel], he will be available.

As we reported earlier, the only other team news is that Mathieu Debuchy has been ruled out for six weeks with a ‘severe’ hamstring injury while Danny Welbeck is expected to be available again in around four weeks.