Arsenal Pre-Spurs Team News: Wenger Gives Latest On Giroud, Ozil, Ramsey & More

Arsenal entertain north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates on Saturday evening in the third round of the FA Cup.

Ahead of the game, Arsene Wenger has been speaking at his pre-match press conference and gave Arsenal.com a team news and injury update with the latest on the fitness of Olivier Giroud, Nicklas Bendtner, Mesut Ozil, Kieran Gibbs, Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Bendtner injured his ankle while scoring the opener against Cardiff City on Wednesday and Wenger has confirmed the striker had a scan yesterday and they will assess the results today to see how long he will be sidelined for.

Giroud missed the New Year’s Day victory with an ankle knock and while the injury has now cleared up, the Frenchman is expected to miss the Spurs clash after fallen ill overnight.

Wenger also confirmed that Ramsey and Gibbs will continue to miss out through injury but Ozil could be back in contention and will have a fitness test on Friday afternoon after missing the Cardiff clash with a shoulder injury.

There is also good news on Oxlade-Chamberlain with the attacker set to return to full training next week following four months out with a serious knee injury. Here’s what Wenger told the clubs official website:

on Bendtner…

What I can tell you is that from the last game we lost Nicklas Bendtner. We don’t know how serious his injury is at the moment because he had a scan yesterday. His scan will be assessed today.

on Giroud…

For the rest, Giroud’s ankle was quite positive yesterday in the test but he was sick overnight so he has a 90 per cent chance of being out. He is in bed today.

on other injuries…

Ozil will have a test later, personally I think he will be short. Gibbs and Ramsey are definitely out.

on Oxlade-Chamberlain…

He is close to being back in full training, next week. It takes a little time to be competitive again.

With Bendtner and Giroud likely to be unavailable, it leaves Arsenal short of options in attack and Wenger will have to decide between Lukas Podolski and Theo Walcott for the central striking role. The Gunners boss also hinted that he will play his strongest side for the game and resist the temptation to rest some of his key men.

Stay tuned for the Tottenham team news as we get it.

What team would you like to see play tomorrow? Leave your suggestions below.