Arsenal are currently having several injury problems and their manager Unai Emery will have to make some changes in the starting lineup against Manchester City in the Premier League match on Sunday. The Gunners are now out of the FA Cup with a defeat against Manchester United at the Emirates on Saturday in the fourth round and barely managed to defeat Cardiff City in mid-week. However, Unai Emery is more concerned with the injury problems. Two important centre-backs of the Gunners are now out of action for the next few days.
Sokratis Papastathopoulos will return to the squad of Arsenal after 15 days. After the defeat against Manchester United in the FA Cup match, Unai Emery told,
“I am happy because I think our work is good, but the result is bad,”
“Today it is the result and the injuries. They do not help us to be in the match, maybe when the result is 1-2. In this moment we had the possibility to grow and to win, but these injuries – especially the one to Koscielny – did not help us because our rhythm went down.
“Also, we needed to change different players to play at centre-back. They were very clinical today and in the moments when we attacked, we got into the box but couldn’t produce the last action to score.
“We deserved more but we played against Manchester United who are in their best moment of the season, and they have a lot of players to make the difference.”
Laurent Koscielny had a collision with Romelu Lukaku and the Frenchman would be out of action for few weeks as he had a broken jaw. However, the Frenchman was said to have returned to full training, with a bruise on his face and could be ready to feature against Manchester City.
There are other long term absentees for Arsenal too. The young English centre-back Rob Holding is out of action at present and Danny Welbeck is also out for the whole season. The play-maker of Arsenal, Henrikh Mkhitaryan has been out of the field with a metatarsal injury.
The Armenian play-maker is suffering from a broken metatarsal and a quick return is not on the cards. Only fit centre-back remaining for the Gunners left would be Shkordan Mustafi. Shkordan Mustafi and Nacho Monreal are the centre-back pair for the Gunners against Cardiff City. Mavropanos and Carl Jenkinsen are in the bench for the Gunners in this match. Ainsley Maitland Niles picked up a knock and was out for the game and Stephan Lichtsteiner was playing as a side-back, along with Kolasnic in this match against Cardiff City.
Mesut Ozil was the captain for Arsenal in the match against Cardiff and he was back in the starting lineup of the Gunners after so many weeks. Unai Emery played both Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre Emerick Aubameyang in this match against the Blue Birds, though they look rather tired now.
Elneny made it back in the side, but was taken off at half-time. On the other hand, Cardiff City’s newly recruited centre-forward Emiliano Sala is still missing and the search is still on for the player.
Everton loanee Niasse started the match for Cardiff City, though he failed to impress. The visitors were poor in front of goal and should have punished the loose play in the first half by the Gunners. Mustafi nearly went off injured and these will be the concerns for the former PSG and Sevilla manager ahead of their clash against Manchester City.
