Arsenal Team News Update: 4 Players Miss Cardiff Trip But Key Man Returns

Arsenal will look to build on their win over West Ham when we take on Cardiff at the Cardiff City Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Unai Emery secured his first Premier League victory with a 3-1 comeback win over the Hammers last weekend and Arsenal picked-up no fresh injury concerns following the game at the Emirates.

However, the Spanish coach will continue to be without four long-term injury victims with Sead Kolasinac, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Carl Jenkinson and Laurent Koscielny all still on the sidelines.

Kolasinac is expected to return to training at some point in October as he continues to recover from a knee injury that he picked up against Chelsea during pre-season.

Maitland-Niles suffered a fractured leg following a clash with Kyle Walker during our season opener against Manchester City earlier this month and the midfielder isn’t expected back until November.

Jenkinson is also facing several more weeks on the sidelines with a serious ankle sprain ending any hope of the out-0f-favour full-back leaving before today’s transfer deadline.

Koscielny has returned to light training after making good progress in his recovery from a serious Achilles injury that he sustained during our Europa League semi-final defeat to Atletico Madrid last season.

The Frenchman still has a long road ahead of him to regain full fitness but if all goes according to plan we should see Koscielny back in training in November, which will be a big boost.

A team news update on Arsenal.com read:

Sead Kolasinac
Left knee injury. Aiming to return to training in October.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles
Small fracture to left fibula. Aiming to return to training in November.

Carl Jenkinson
Significant sprain to right ankle. Aiming to return to training in October/November.

Laurent Koscielny
Right Achilles tendon repair. Aiming to return to training in November.

So we’ll be without four players for the Cardiff game, however, there is some positive news as Mesut Ozil is back in contention after missing the West Ham clash due to sickness.

The German international picked up a cold towards the end of last week and was forced to sit out the Hammers game but he’ll be back in the squad for the trip to Wales on Sunday.