Arsenal travel to the Dean Court Arena on Sunday knowing well that anything less than a win against a 15th place Bournemouth side would put a hammer dent in to their title challenge.
Arsenal are without a win in their last 4 Premier League matches and a further slip up against Bournemouth on Sunday would severely affect their title credentials. The return of Alexis Sanchez to full fitness will boost Arsenal’s hopes of getting on the score sheet after firing blanks in their last 3 matches. They will find it incredibly hard to beat Eddie Howe’s battle hardened Bournemouth side that has climbed out of the relegation zone and currently sit 7 points clear of the drop in 15th position.
Coquelin and Mertesacker expected to return to the first team
Arsene Wenger is expected make a couple changes to his Arsenal side that played out a 0-0 draw against Southampton in midweek. Midfielder Francis Coquelin and central defender Per Mertesacker are expected to come into the starting eleven in place of Mathieu Flamini and Gabriel for the Gunners against Bournemouth.
Wenger also went on to reveal that Czech midfielder Thomas Rosicky is expected to be out of action for a further 2-3 months after suffering an injury in the FA Cup match last weekend.
“It’s too early [the assessment]. The only thing we know is that it’s a bad muscular injury that will keep him [Rosicky] out for a long time,” said Wenger (via Arsenal’s official website).”
“The good news is that he will apparently not need surgery as it is a partial rupture of his tendon but how long it takes, [whether] it is two months or three months, we don’t know. We are all shocked and he is the most shocked and we have to [be] patient and hope that it is not his last game.”
English striker Danny Welbeck made his long awaited return from injury earlier this week while playing for the Arsenal’s Under-21s.
“He [Welbeck] has not played for 10 months so we need to be patient with him,” said Wenger. “He has good basic fitness but after it is competitive decision-making and he needs to get used to that again. We are a bit relieved because with such an injury, you never know how a player will come back. But he looks promising in training.”
TEAM NEWS: The boss has good news on Danny Welbeck and a Tomas Rosicky update: https://t.co/eYYpNmox4F #AFCBvAFC pic.twitter.com/tzNSFd9pkT
— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) February 5, 2016
