Arsenal Pre-Chelsea Team News: Wenger Offers Update On Waclott, Monreal + More

Arsenal face a tough trip to Stamford Bridge on Sunday to face league leaders Chelsea. Here, Gooner Mac brings us the Arsenal team news ahead of the game.

Arsene Wenger has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference this morning ahead of this weekend’s clash with Chelsea and he’s given Arsenal.com a team news and injury update.

There is potentially some positive news on Nacho Monreal with the boss revealing that the Spaniard could be back in contention on Sunday. Monreal has been out for three weeks since injuring his back against Manchester City last month but it looks like he’s now back in full training and could return to the squad this weekend.

If passed fit, the Spanish international isn’t expected to start but he’d give us another option in defence from the bench which is important when you consider the limited numbers we have at the back.

Otherwise it’s going to be the same squad to choose from compared to the midweek win over Galatasaray. This means the likes of Aaron Ramsey, Mikel Arteta, Yaya Sanogo, Mathieu Debuchy, Olivier Giroud, Serge Gnabry and Theo Walcott are all still unavailable.

However, Wenger did confirm that Walcott and Gnabry will return to full training next week. The Chelsea game will come too soon but the duo should be back in contention for the Hull City game after the upcoming international break.

Here is what the boss told the clubs website:

on the team news for Chelsea…

Compared to midweek, the only player who might be back for us in the squad is Nacho Monreal. As for everybody else, there is no major change.

on Gnabry and Walcott’s return to training…

Yes, they come back next week to the full squad for training – but they are too short for Sunday of course.

Arsenal head to Stamford Bridge off the back of Wednesday’s impressive 4-1 win over Galatasaray and we’ll need a similar performance on Sunday if we want to prevent a repeat of last years 6-0 thumping by the current league leaders, as the Blues have been in ominous form so far this campaign.