Arsenal Team News: Wenger Offers Update On Giroud, Ramsey & Monreal Ahead Of Palace

Arsenal will be desperate to close the gap on the top four when we travel to Selhurst Park to take on Crystal Palace on Thursday night.

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

The boss confirmed that we’ll be without three of our key men after providing the latest on the fitness of Nacho Monreal, Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud.

Monreal was forced off at half-time during our dramatic 3-3 draw with Liverpool last Friday after suffering an ankle injury during the opening forty-five minutes at the Emirates.

The Spanish defender will miss the trip to Selhurst Park as Wenger believes Monreal will be sidelined for around 10 days so he’ll be facing a race against time to be fit for the FA Cup clash with Nottingham Forest on January 7th.

Ramsey has missed the last three matches with a hamstring injury that he picked up during the latter stages of our 1-1 draw with Southampton and Wenger expects the midfielder to be back in early January.

It means Ramsey will miss the games with Palace and West Brom and it remains to be seen whether he’ll be ready to return for the visit of Chelsea to the Emirates on January 3rd.

Meanwhile, Giroud pulled up with a hamstring injury during our League Cup win over West Ham and the boss initially told reporters today the striker would be out for between 4-6 weeks.

However, Wenger quickly revised his time-frame to say that he hoped Giroud would be available again by mid-January meaning he could be back for the visit of Palace on the 20th.

Arsene Wenger is here previewing Crystal Palace game. Monreal our for 10 days, Giroud 4-6 weeks and Ramsey beginning of Jan.

— John Cross (@johncrossmirror) December 27, 2017

Classic Wenger – now saying Giroud back by Jan 15.

— John Cross (@johncrossmirror) December 27, 2017

In the absence of Monreal, I expect we’ll see Shkodran Mustafi recalled alongside Laurent Koscielny tomorrow night while Jack Wilshere should continue in midfield with Ramsey still on the sidelines.

We head to Selhurst Park sitting sixth in the Premier League table but can move to within just one point of fourth-placed Liverpool with a win tomorrow night.