Arsenal Boss To Hand 26-Year-Old Season Debut Against Southampton

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is ready to hand Danny Welbeck his first start of the season during our FA Cup fourth round clash with Southampton this weekend, according to the Evening Standard.

Welbeck has made just three late cameo appearances off the substitutes bench so far this season after recently getting himself back to fitness again following another frustrating campaign plagued by injury.

The 26-year-old suffered a serious knee injury during our game with Manchester City in May of last season and has endured a long road to recovery from his latest injury setback having previous spent much of 2015/16 on the treatment table with another knee problem.

Welbeck played just 3 minutes against Burnley on Sunday taking his season total to just 21 but the Evening Standard claim that Wenger was hoping to give the attacker more action at Turf Moor but Granit Xhaka’s sending off prevented him from doing so.

However, despite his lack of playing time, the newspaper says that Wenger is now ready to hand Welbeck his first start of the season during our FA Cup fourth round clash at St Mary’s on Saturday night.

The boss is expected to ring the changes against Southampton so it’s a great opportunity for Welbeck to get some much-needed minutes under his belt which will go a long way to helping him get back to full fitness.

I expect Danny will be a little rusty given how long he’s been out for so we’ll have to be patient with him but it will be great to see him back playing from the start if he does end up being selected against the Saints.

I fully expect Arsene to mix things up this weekend so we should see David Ospina returning in goal while Gabriel and Kieran Gibbs could come in to the defence. Francis Coquelin will no doubt replace the suspended Granit Xhaka in midfield while Lucas Perez and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain could join Welbeck in attack.