Arsenal Team News: Wenger Confirms Double Injury Blow Ahead Of Newcastle Clash

Arsenal will hope to climb in to the top four with a win when they entertain Newcastle United at the Emirates on Saturday afternoon.

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 Gunners boss confirmed that Shkdoran Mustafi is back in full training after recovering from a thigh injury that’s hampered him since the 3-1 defeat to Manchester United.

However, Wenger has suggested he may not risk Mustafi against Newcastle as he feels it would still be a ‘gamble’ to start the German international this weekend.

There was also bad news regarding Aaron Ramsey as Wenger has confirmed the midfielder has been ruled out for three weeks due to a hamstring injury that he suffered during the closing stages of the draw with Southampton last weekend.

The boss was initially hoping the injury was only minor but it’s turned out to be more serious than first thought so Ramsey is set to miss up to six games during the busy festive period.

Wenger also gave an update on Theo Walcott and revealed that the attacker will miss tomorrow’s game due to a minor groin injury that kept him out of the draw at West Ham on Wednesday night.

Walcott is also likely to miss the League Cup clash with West Ham in midweek – which will be a blow as the cups have been his only hope of playing first team football this season.

Wenger told Arsenal.com:

on team news…
Mustafi is back in training today. I don’t know if I will include him tomorrow, it’s still a little gamble and apart from that we will have to see how everybody recovers. We’ll see today in training, but we have no basic problem. Of course Aaron Ramsey will not be available, I said that he will be out for a little longer and that will be maybe three weeks that he is not in contention.

on why Walcott wasn’t picked at West Ham…
He had a little groin problem. He would have been in the squad at West Ham. He will not be available tomorrow I think as well.

on if Walcott’s injury kept him out of Southampton and West Ham…
It’s not a bad one. I think he has a little chance to be available against West Ham [on Tuesday].

Arsenal head in to the weekend action sitting seventh in the Premier League table but with only one point separating us from fourth-placed Liverpool we could be back in the top four with a win if other results go our way.