Arsenal Team News & Injury Update: Arteta, Vermaelen, Gibbs & More…

Arsenal welcome Stoke City to the Emirates on Saturday afternoon looking to close the gap on the top-four.

Boss Arsene Wenger has been speaking at his weekly press conference on Friday and gave Arsenal’s official website a team news and injury update ahead of the game, with the latest on Kieran Gibbs, Mikel Arteta, Thomas Vermaelen and Francis Coquelin.

The bad news is that left-back Kieran Gibbs’ injury is worse than first feared and he is set to be on the sidelines for between four to six weeks.

There is better news on midfielder Arteta who is back in the squad and could be in contention to start after missing the last three weeks through injury. Coquelin is also close to making a comeback but he may have to wait until next week to return.

Captain Vermaelen is also a doubt for the Stoke clash with an ankle problem and he will be assessed after training today. Here is what the boss told Arsenal.com:

on Gibbs…

Gibbs is out. It will be longer than three weeks. We plan he’ll be out for four to six weeks. It’s a grade two thigh strain and could be a bit longer than expected at the start.

on players coming back..

Arteta is back in the squad. He has a final test this morning. Coquelin is not far from returning at all, but it would be a gamble to take him. If not able for tomorrow, he will be for the next game.

on other injuries…

We have a doubt over Vermaelen, with his ankle again. I will make a decision today after training.

The injury to Kieran Gibbs is certainly a huge blow but it gives new signing Nacho Monreal a chance to hit the ground running and get straight into first team action. If Vermaelen is passed fit Arsene may decide to start him at left-back to give Monreal some time to adapt before handing him his debut, but the one thing I don’t want to see is Santos starting, that’s for sure.

Now we’ve seen the team news, what would your starting eleven be for the game? Leave your suggestions in the comments section below.