Arsenal Dealt Huge Injury Blow: Key Man Set To Miss Chelsea Trip

Arsenal have been dealt a huge injury blow with Mesut Ozil expected to miss tonight’s Carabao Cup semi-final against Chelsea due to a knee injury, according to the Mirror.

The Gunners head to Stamford Bridge this evening for the first leg and Arsene Wenger is expected to select virtually his strongest side after crashing out of the FA Cup with a 4-2 defeat at Nottingham Forest at the weekend.

However, the Arsenal boss will have to make-do without one of his key man as the Mirror claim Ozil hasn’t trained this week due to a knee problem and is set to miss the trip to West London.

Ozil has been carrying a knee problem in recent weeks and appears to have aggravated the issue after playing the full ninety minutes during Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Chelsea in the league last week.

The German international was left out of the squad for the Forest game on Sunday and was expected to be recalled tonight but it looks like his knee problem has flared up again meaning Ozil will miss the huge showdown with Chelsea.

The news is the latest blow to Wenger as he’s already going to be without Aaron Ramsey, Laurent Koscielny, Sead Kolasinac, Nacho Monreal, Santi Cazorla and Olivier Giroud so the injuries are mounting for the Frenchman.

However, it looks like Shkodran Mustafi and Granit Xhaka have been passed fit as the duo took part in full training yesterday after undergoing late fitness tests at London Colney.

Alexis Sanchez is expected to feature this evening despite question marks over his future with the Chilean international heavily linked with a move to Manchester City this month.

David Ospina will start in goal and the Mirror claim that Arsenal’s latest new signing Konstantinos Mavropanos could also be named on the bench due to the number of injuries Wenger has to deal with.