After an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Everton, Arsenal gear up to face Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley tomorrow. With the title out of reach, finishing 4th has received yet another dent as Everton are just a point behind Arsenal with a game in hand. This game comes in a very wrong time for the Gunners, as they are on the worst run of form this season and injuries to key players haven’t helped either.
As far as team news is concerned, Wenger have his usual pre-match press conference and has updated on the latest happenings around the Emirates.
Key players Mesut Ozil and Laurent Koscielny are still behind schedule and will likely miss out as it will take a few more days before the duo will return for training.
Elsewhere there has been another worrying sign for Arsenal fans in terms of injuries. It looks like Gunners have major doubts over Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (groin), Kieran Gibbs (ankle) and Tomas Rosicky (thigh). With the likes of Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott and Ozil on the sidelines, this is an added worry.
“I cannot give you concrete team news because we have so many uncertainties about Chamberlain, Gibbs, Rosicky,” manager Arsene Wenger explained, according to Arsenal’s official website. “There will be last-minute decisions on those three players. They are all 50/50.”
Further talking about the team, Wenger said:
on Ozil and Koscielny…
Ozil and Koscielny are still out. I think the earliest to come back for Koscielny could be Tuesday and for Ozil it could be next Saturday. That would be a boost because at the moment we have too many players out and it’s important we get them back. We know that at this period of the season, the number of players we had out is too many.
on Diaby…
Diaby is back to full training next week. He could be available soon, maybe in a couple of weeks.
on Ramsey…
He is ready to start and certainly I will decide to start him because Flamini is suspended.
on Fabianski…
Fabianski will play in goal. It’s not a difficult decision because it’s a decision that has been made for a long time.
on whether Fabianski would play in the final…
Let’s play on Saturday. You play football on your merit and your performance and he has turned up with top-level performances until now in every single game. He has done extremely well. He has been man of the match in the three games he has played.
on Wilshere…
It’s all going well but he has not started to run. I think that’s planned for next week. At the moment all is going well.