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Arsenal confirm Champs League squad: 4 signings in, key man left out

By on September 2, 2016

per mertesacker arsenal

Arsenal have submitted their official 25-man squad for the group stages of the Champions League and Per Mertesacker is the big-name exclusion.

Arsene Wenger had until 11pm on Thursday night to submit his squad for group stage games against Pariss Saint-Germain, Basel and Ludogrets.

Unfortunately it looks as though the boss is confident Mertesacker won’t be making a swift recovery from his knee injury as the big German hasn’t been included in the 25.

Per suffered the injury in pre-season and was immediately ruled out until at least December following surgery so he won’t play in the group stages but hopefully he’ll be back to play in the knockout stages – assuming we progress out of the group.

New signings Rob Holding, Granit Xhaka, Lucas Perez and Shkodran Mustafi have all been named in the 25-man squad after completing their moves to Arsenal during the summer window.

Obviously Jack Wilshere isn’t included either after completing a surprise season-long loan move to Bournemouth on deadline day but there is a place for forgotten striker Yaya Sanogo!

Here is the confirmed squad:

Goalkeepers: David Ospina, Emiliano Martinez, Petr Cech

Defenders: Mathieu Debuchy, Gabriel, Laurent Koscielny, Rob Holding, Nacho Monreal, Shkodran Mustafi, Carl Jenkinson, Kieran Gibbs.

Midfielders: Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil, Santi Cazorla, Granit Xhaka, Jeff Reine-Adelaide, Francis Coquelin, Mohamed Elneny, Krystian Bielik, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

Attackers: Alexis Sánchez, Lucas Perez, Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott, Yaya Sanogo.