Arsenal Team News Latest: Wenger Gives Update On Walcott, Ramsey, Ozil & More

Arsenal take on Aston Villa at Villa Park on Monday night hoping to cement their place at the top of the Premier League.

Ahead of the game, boss Arsene Wenger has given Arsenal.com a team news and injury update with the latest on the fitness of Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Aaron Ramsey, Kieran Gibbs, Olivier Giroud, Mesut Ozil, Nicklas Bendtner and Thomas Vermaelen.

The club were hit with a huge blow this week with the news that Walcott would miss the rest of the season with a knee injury and Wenger has said it’s ‘very sad news’ for both Arsenal and the player – who is now likely to miss the World Cup in Brazil.

The positive news this week was that Oxlade-Chamberlain is back in the squad after recovering from his own knee injury and ironically he could return on Monday to face the side he picked up the injury against on the opening day of the season.

Ramsey and Gibbs have both missed the last two games through injury but the boss has revealed they have an outside chance of being fit for the trip to the Midlands, while Giroud and Ozil are both likely to feature after recovering from knocks.

Giroud’s presence will be needed up front with options limited following an injury to Bendtner with the Dane set to be out for 3 weeks, while Wenger also confirmed that Captain Vermaelen is likely to miss the Villa game with a knee injury but still has an outside chance of being fit.

Here is what the boss told the clubs official website:

on Theo Walcott’s injury…

He has surgery and then it’s rehab. You know that it is six months and you hope it all goes well. The only thing I can say is it’s very sad news for us and above all for him.

on Oxlade-Chamberlain being back…

It is unbelievable because he played the first game of the season, against Aston Villa, and now he is back and available and it is against Aston Villa again. That makes it five months where has been completely out, so that means he is fresh and that should give us a boost.

on Ramsey and Gibbs…

Ramsey and Gibbs are very close. There is a small possibility that both of them could be available on Monday.

on Giroud and Ozil…

They had a good training session yesterday and today they had no problem. They could be back.

on Bendtner…

Bendtner, you count three weeks from now until he is back in training.

on Vermaelen…

Vermaelen had a little knee problem so he had to come off against Tottenham. He could be short for Monday but there’s still a chance. But everybody else should be alright.

Walcott’s absence has been somewhat counter-balanced by the return of Oxlade-Chamberlain and the youngster now has a huge opportunity in front of him to really cement himself in the first team during the second half of the season.

Now we’ve seen the team news, what starting eleven do you think Wenger should play? Share your thoughts below.