Arsenal Team News: Wenger Confirms Double Injury Boost Ahead Of Stoke

Arsenal will look to close-in on the top four with a win when we take on Stoke City at the Bet365 Stadium on Saturday evening.

Ahead of the game, Arsene Wenger has been speaking to Arsenal.com and he’s offered a team news and injury update including the latest on Laurent Koscielny and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Koscielny was forced to sit out Wednesday night’s trip to Southampton after suffering a calf injury during our win over Manchester United last weekend.

Thankfully the injury isn’t serious and the French international was able to take part in training on Tuesday so Wenger says the centre-back now has a chance to return to the squad tomorrow.

Oxlade-Chamberlain on the other hand limped off midway through the first half of our 2-0 win at St Marys on Wednesday night after picking up another hamstring problem.

However, there is positive news on the midfielder as Wenger has confirmed the injury isn’t serious and was only fatigue so Oxlade-Chamberlain shouldn’t be on the sidelines for too long.

Wenger told the clubs website:

on whether Koscielny has a chance after picking up calf issue against Man Utd…
He’s got a small chance. He was not far. He practised on Tuesday but it was risky to play him at Southampton.

on the Ox’s injury…
It’s a minor hamstring problem. It was tight, but it was more fatigue.

Our defence looked solid against the Saints in midweek but I’m sure Wenger will be desperate to have Koscielny available against Stoke so no doubt he’ll be given every chance to prove his fitness.

Even with a minor hamstring problem I don’t think we’ll see Oxlade-Chamberlain risked this weekend so I fully expect Hector Bellerin to get a recall to the starting eleven.

We head to the Bet365 Stadium knowing a win would move us to within just one point of Liverpool and really put the pressure on the Merseysiders ahead of their trip to West Ham on Sunday.