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Arsenal team news round-up: Bellerin, Cazorla, Mertesacker & Welbeck

By on December 8, 2016

Hector Bellerin arsenal

It’s been another busy day of team news at Arsenal HQ so I thought I’d bring you a round-up of all the updates from Arsene Wenger….

The boss held his pre-match press conference this morning ahead of Saturday’s Premier League clash with Stoke and he confirmed that Bellerin could make his return this weekend.

The Spaniard has been out since suffering an ankle injury against Tottenham a month ago and was initially not expected to return until mid-December at the earliest.

However, Hector has made a swift recovery and underwent a fitness test today to see if he’ll be in contention on Saturday after returning to training earlier this week.

We’ll have to wait and see whether Bellerin was passed fit but it would be a huge boost if he’s available again this weekend as he’s been sorely missed at right-back over the past month.

Coquelin is certain to be back in the squad on Saturday after missing the Basel game through suspension but it’s going to be a while longer before we see Cazorla back in the fold.

The Spaniard was forced to undergo surgery after struggling to overcome an Achilles injury which has already ruled him out for almost two months and he took to social media yesterday to say the operation was ‘perfect’.

Wenger was reluctant to say it was perfect but did admit the surgery went well – although the boss feels it’s still going to be while before Cazorla is available again. I watched the press conference this morning and Arsene said it would be at least 2 months before Santi’s back, but I’m not sure why Arsenal.com hasn’t included that quote on the website.

The final update was on Welbeck and Mertesacker with Wenger saying that the duo are recovering well from their long-term injuries but are still ‘a few weeks away’ from being back in the squad.

Danny Welbeck

Danny has been out since damaging knee ligaments at the end of last season while Per has also not featured this term after suffering a similar injury in pre-season but they are both back in light training.

After such a long time on the sidelines, Wenger will no doubt be cautious with them and I think we’ll see them turn out for the under-23’s before they’ll be considered available for the first team so I’m not expecting them back until in to the New Year.

Here is what Wenger told Arsenal.com:

on team news…
From Tuesday night we have no injuries, I hope. Everyone looks to have recovered well. Coming back into the squad, we have Coquelin who was of course suspended and maybe Bellerin who has a test today.

on Danny Welbeck and Per Mertesacker…
They are recovering well but they are a few weeks away from joining in again.

on Santi Cazorla’s surgery…
It’s a difficult way to say the surgery is ‘perfect’, but you can say it was needed and it went well. Afterwards we have to see how he recovers.