Arsenal Team News: Wenger Confirms Key Man Will Miss Southampton + Walcott Doubt

Arsenal will be hoping to climb back in to the top four in the Premier League with a win over Southampton at St Mary’s on Sunday afternoon.

Ahead of the game this weekend, Arsene Wenger has been speaking to Arsenal.com and he’s provided a team news and injury update with the latest on the state of our squad.

Unfortunately, the manager has confirmed that Shkodran Mustafi has been ruled out of the trip to the south coast this weekend after failing to recover from a thigh injury.

The German international limped off with a thigh problem shortly after being at fault for Manchester United’s second goal last Saturday but Wenger was hopeful the defender would be back for the Southampton game.

However, it seems Mustafi has failed to make sufficient progress in his recovery as the boss says he’ll definitely miss the game on Sunday and is also a doubt for the West Ham game next Wednesday.

The good news is the squad is in excellent health as Mustafi is the only other serious injury concern along with Santi Cazorla – who has been ruled out until at least February following a setback in his recovery from an Achilles injury.

Wenger did reveal that Theo Walcott was taken off last night as a precaution after feeling his calf but the injury doesn’t appear to be anything serious to worry about.

The boss told the clubs website:

on team news…
The only one out at the moment is Mustafi. He is certainly not available for Sunday. There’s a little chance of him coming back for West Ham, but he will not be available for Sunday.

on being in the middle of December with only two players out…
I believe that rotation allowed us to protect the players a little bit, and the players who didn’t play in the Europa League haven’t had to travel either, so that helped.

on Theo Walcott’s recovery from illness…
He was alright [after the game]. He had a little tight calf and that’s why I took him off. He looked alright after the game.

It will be a blow to lose Mustafi as he was in excellent form before his error against United so it looks like Per Mertesacker will be recalled alongside Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal at Southampton.

Arsenal head in to the weekend action sitting one point outside of the top four following the defeat to United last Saturday but we can keep the pressure on Liverpool and Chelsea with a win over the Saints on Sunday.