Arsenal Dealt Major Injury Blow Ahead Of Chelsea Clash

Arsenal have been dealt a major injury blow with Mesut Ozil expected to miss today’s clash with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge through injury.

Ozil sat out Arsenal’s Europa League group stage opener with Cologne on Thursday night as the Gunners came from behind to secure a 3-1 victory at the Emirates.

It was initially thought the 28-year-old had been rested for the game along with several other first team regulars but Arsene Wenger later revealed that the playmaker was carrying a knock.

The Arsenal boss said in his team news update on Friday morning that Ozil and Aaron Ramsey were facing late fitness tests but he was confident the pair would be available for the trip across London.

However, it looks like Ozil has lost his race to be fit as the German international trained away from the rest of the Arsenal first team on Friday afternoon as Wenger put his squad through their final paces at London Colney.

Goal journalist Chris Wheatley took to Twitter last night to claim Ozil is now expected to miss today’s trip to Chelsea.

Özil expected to miss tomorrow's game through injury #CFCvAFC

— Chris Wheatley (@ChrisWheatley_) September 16, 2017

The news will come as a huge blow to Arsenal as they look to finally secure a win at one of their rivals having not won on the road against another top-six team in their last 13 attempts while they’ve also lost seven of their last eight games with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

The Gunners have managed to get the better of the Blues in their most recent games at Wembley having won the FA Cup final in May and securing a penalty shoot-out win in the Community Shield last month but Wenger will be disappointed to be without Ozil this afternoon.

There was better news regarding Ramsey as the midfielder was able to take part in full training yesterday and is now expected to be recalled to the starting eleven along with the likes of Alexandre Lacazette, Laurent Koscielny, Granit Xhaka and Petr Cech.

If Ozil is ruled out, then we should see Alexis Sanchez start after scoring a stunner in midweek while Danny Welbeck will be favourite to join the Chilean international in the Arsenal attack.