With Laurent Koscielny set for a late fitness test, his fellow centre-back Gabriel Paulista could be more important than ever this weekend.
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Wenger has told Arsenal.com that “Koscielny has a slight chance to be back on Saturday”.
In the absence of Koscielny, Gabriel started at center back alongside Per Mertesacker in the club’s 3-0 victory over Manchester United. However, none of the other 13 players returning from games with their countries have suffered injuries during the last fortnight.
Wenger has no complaints though, and is delighted his star player is back to his best after a somewhat slow start to the season which took him seven games to find the back of the net.
Laurent Koscielny is out of the fixture with a hamstring injury he picked up just before the Manchester United clash. “Arteta and Flamini will certainly be available for selection”, Wenger confirmed.
“So I think these things I went through back then give me great strength to be able to be a great player”.
Wenger, though, was less upbeat over Wilshere and Welbeck. Both England internationals are long-term absentees, and will definitely miss the first half of the season. “Danny Welbeck, earliest, beginning of January”, Wenger said at his weekly press conference.
Joel Campbell, Alexis Sanchez and David Ospina are all yet to return from global duty, but Wenger says they have all reported to say they are fit.
He added: “From the internationals we only have positive news”.
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“We need to see how they are and how confident they are but we can’t rule it out”. He is a guy who wants always to play so I knew that it cold be a tricky situation for us. Sanchez posted the following with a photo on his official Instagram account: “What a surprise I found myself with on the plane with the wonder boy”.
