Arsenal Pre-Man Utd Team News & Injury Update

Arsenal welcome newly-crowned Premier League champions Manchester United to the Emirates on Sunday. Here, Arsenal writer ‘GoonerMac’ gives us the latest team news.

The 2012/13 Premier League champions come to the Emirates this weekend as we look to boost our hopes of a top-four finish with a win over Manchester United on Sunday.

Ahead of the game, boss Arsene Wenger has given Arsenal.com a team news and injury update and it looks like we’re going to have a strong squad available with all the players (expect Olivier Giroud) who beat Fulham last week in contention.

Obviously striker Giroud misses the game after seeing his appeal for last weeks sending off rejected by the FA, so he’ll start his three-match ban this weekend.

Wenger also confirmed that goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski will once again miss out after failing to recover from a rib injury, meaning Wojciech Szczesny is expected to continue between the sticks. Here’s what the boss told the clubs official website:

on team news…

The players who played last week at Flham should all be available. We lose Giroud of course because he’s suspended but that’s it.

on Fabianski…

Fabianski is not available. It’s still week-to-week for him.

Midfielder Jack Wilshere came off the bench to play the final 20 minutes at Craven Cottage and he’s expected to be recalled to the starting line-up, possibly at the expense of Tomas Rosicky.

The big question mark will be who replaces Grioud. My personal choice would be for Lukas Podolski to be given a chance through the middle but I wouldn’t be surprised if Wenger went with Gervinho after the Ivorian starting off the season playing in the striking role.

Kieran Gibbs may also come back in at left-back but other than that it should be the same team that beat Fulham.

What would your preferred starting line-up for the game? Get involved in the comments section below.