Arsenal Team News: Wenger Reveals Double Injury Blow, Star Returns + The Ox Update

Arsenal will look to keep alive our slim hopes of finishing in the top four with a win when we take on Sunderland at the Emirates on Tuesday evening.

Ahead of the game, Arsene Wenger has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference this morning and he’s offered a team news and injury update.

The boss has confirmed that Alexis Sanchez is a doubt for the game tomorrow after suffering a thigh injury during Saturday’s 4-1 victory at Stoke City.

Sanchez picked up the problem midway through the second half and while he still managed to score our third goal, he was soon substituted and now the Chilean international will undergo a late fitness test to see if he can face Sunderland.

Wenger also confirmed that Laurent Koscielny is a fitness doubt after aggravating a calf injury at the Bet365 Stadium. The Frenchman missed the win at Southampton because of the injury and he’ll now need to be assessed ahead of the Sunderland clash.

The boss did have some positive news as he revealed that Kieran Gibbs is back in contention after the left-back missed the Stoke game due to a minor calf injury.

The final update from Wenger concerned the fitness of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and the boss has confirmed the midfielder will miss our final Premier League games against Sunderland and Everton.

The Ox missed the win at Stoke after suffering a hamstring injury at St Marys last week but Wenger is confident the 23-year-old will recover in time to face Chelsea in the FA Cup final later this month.

Wenger is quoted as saying by talkSPORT:

“We have a little problem with Koscielny from Stoke. We’ll see how he has recovered today,”

“Everybody else should be available. I left Gibbs behind on Saturday but he is available again. Oxlade-Chamberlain is still out.

The earliest chance he has is to be available for the Cup final, I would say it’s 80:20 [percent that he does play against Chelsea].”

“Alexis Sanchez will have a test today. Yesterday it didn’t look too good, but with him you never know.

“He’s so keen. Maybe it was just a kick. It could be a possibility that he recovers for tomorrow.

“Koscielny has a little recurrence of his calf problem which kept him out against Southampton. Alexis has a kick on his thigh.”

We head in to the Sunderland game tomorrow knowing a win at the Emirates would move us back to within one point of Liverpool and keep alive our fading hopes of snatching a top four spot on the last day of the season.