Arsenal Team News: Wenger Confirms Injury Blow + 28-Year-Old To Face Bayern Munich

Arsenal will be looking to bring home a positive result when they take on Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 clash on Wednesday night.

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

The boss confirmed a fresh injury blow with the news that Lucas Perez has been left back in north London after picking up a minor hamstring injury.

Perez has not been present at training over the past two days and it appears he must have suffered the injury during his late cameo appearance against Hull City at the weekend.

This latest injury will be frustrating for Perez as he’s seen his debut season at the Emirates hampered by a couple of niggling ankle injuries, but thankfully his hamstring problem doesn’t sound too serious.

Wenger had no further update on the condition of Aaron Ramsey as he continues to nurse a calf injury while Santi Cazorla is no closer to returning from a serious Achilles injury.

However, Granit Xhaka will be back in the squad after serving a four-match domestic ban and while Arsene didn’t confirm it, the Swiss international is expected to come straight back in to the midfield tomorrow night.

The boss also refused to confirm reports that he’s considering dropping Mesut Ozil for the game but he did disclose one piece of important team news after revealing that David Ospina will start between the sticks with Petr Cech dropping to the bench.

Ospina started in all six of our group stage games and the 28-year-old performed well to help us top the group, so it looks as though he’s done enough to keep the gloves for arguably the most important game of our season.

The boss told reporters:

We're at our press conference…

So, who will start in goal for us in #FCBvAFC?

The boss confirms it will be this man pic.twitter.com/ggU1fAPdjD

— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) February 14, 2017

Lucas Perez has not travelled due to slight hamstring problem. #afc

— James Olley (@JamesOlley) February 14, 2017

Wenger on Ozil: It's not the best moment to give out the XI. I will pick the team tomorrow. Ozil is highly focused. #afc

— Charles Watts (@charles_watts) February 14, 2017