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TEAM NEWS: Wenger On Ozil, Rosicky, The Ox, Gibbs, Ramsey + Kos

By on April 10, 2014

We take on Wigan at Wembley on Saturday evening in the semi finals of the FA Cup and it looks like we’ve got mounting injury problems to deal with.

Arsene Wenger has been speaking at his weekly press conference this morning and has revealed some concerning team and injury news with several players set to miss out this weekend.

Kieran Gibbs, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Tomas Rosicky are all major injury doubts and could miss out along with the suspended Mathieu Flamini and long-term injury victims Laurent Koscielny, Mesut Ozil, Jack Wilshere, Abou Diaby, Ryo Miyaichi and Theo Walcott.

That’s 10 players who are potentially unavailable, so we’re facing up to the very real possibility of having a severely weakened team for what’s arguably the most important game of our season so far.

Gibbsy is struggling to overcome the ankle injury that saw him miss the Everton defeat last week, while it looks like Rosicky and The Ox have also picked up knocks in training. Arsene revealed that at the minute all three are unavailable but he’s giving them every chance to prove their fitness before Saturday.

We should be able to cope without Gibbs as Monreal can fill in at left-back, but fingers crossed at least one of The Ox or Rosicky can make it, otherwise we’re going to be left with limited options in midfield.

Arsene did confirm that Aaron Ramsey will start the game, and he has little option given the state of our other midfielders. The Welshman looked sharp when he came on last week so hopefully his return will give the team a much-needed lift.

The boss also confirmed that the Wigan game will come too soon for Koscielny but he could face West Ham on Tuesday, while Ozil might be back the following game against Hull City as he continues to recover from a hamstring strain.

Victory over Wigan is vital not only for the teams confidence and our quest to end the trophy drought, but it’s also pivotal for the future of Arsene Wenger, so the mounting injury worries have come at the worse possible time.

I’ll try to figure out what our possible line-up will be and have it up on the site later…

What team would you select for the game?