Arsenal Midfielder To Miss West Brom But Could Make Swift Return To Action

Arsenal midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will miss the Boxing Day clash with West Bromwich Albion but should make a swift return to action, according to the Daily Mail.

Oxlade-Chamberlain picked up a hamstring injury just 12 minutes after coming on as a second half substitute for Alex Iwobi during Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat at Manchester City last Sunday.

Arsene Wenger confirmed after the game that he wasn’t sure how serious the injury was and the Daily Mail claim Oxlade-Chamberlain was sent for a scan on Tuesday to determine the full extent of the problem.

It looks like we’ve finally had some positive news as the newspaper says that the results show the 23-year-old hasn’t suffered any lasting damage and the 23-year-old is expected to make a quick return to action.

The Mail do say that the midfielder is certain to miss the Boxing Day clash with West Brom at the Emirates but the club are hoping Oxlade-Chamberlain will be back in contention for the visit of Crystal Palace on New Year’s Day.

Even if The Ox takes a little longer to recover than expected and is also ruled out of the Palace game, he should be available for the trip to Bournemouth on January 3rd so at least he’ll play some part of our festive fixtures.

The news will come as a welcome boost to Wenger as Oxlade-Chamberlain has been in decent form this season and has slowly started to establish himself as a first team regular after scoring 6 goals and providing 6 assists so far this term.

Iwobi could be handed another start against West Brom in his absence on Monday or the boss may decide to give Lucas Perez a chance to impress after barely playing the Spaniard following his hat-trick against Basel.