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Team news: Arsenal duo ruled out but key quartet return for Swansea

By on January 13, 2017

Hector Bellerin arsenal

Arsene Wenger has been speaking at his press conference this morning ahead of Arsenal’s trip to Swansea and he’s given a full team news update.

The boss confirmed that a number of first team regulars will come back in to the squad tomorrow after being rested for our FA Cup win over Preston last week.

Petr Cech is set to return in goal, Laurent Koscielny will come back in to the defence while Alexis Sanchez will be recalled in attack after all being given breathers last time out.

Wenger also confirmed that Mesut Ozil will be back after recovering from a bout of flu that kept him out of our last three games but the German international is now fully fit and should be restored to the starting eleven tomorrow.

However, there wasn’t such positive news on the fitness of Hector Bellerin as the right-back has been ruled out of the trip to the Liberty Stadium this weekend.

Bellerin missed the Preston game last week after picking up an ankle injury in training and he’s still not recovered so will miss the Swansea game – although Arsene hopes to have the Spaniard back for next weeks clash with Burnley.

Francis Coquelin is also still missing as he continues to recover from a hamstring injury that he sustained against Bournemouth earlier this month but the midfield could also be back in contention next weekend.

Wenger is quoted as saying by the Metro:

‘Bellerin is still out and Coquelin are still out,’

‘They could make next week but they’re not too far away.

‘Basically we have the same players available from last week plus Koscielny is back, Cech is back in the squad, Mesut and Sanchez as well.

Youngster Ainsley Maitland-Niles filled-in at right-back last week but I think we’ll see Gabriel start against Swansea with Shkodran Mustafi alongside Koscielny in the middle of defence.

Coquelin’s absence means that Aaron Ramsey is set to continue alongside Granit Xhaka in midfield this weekend as Santi Cazorla is also still unavailable while Mohamed Elneny is away at the African Cup of Nations.