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Emery offers positive injury update on Arsenal star but duo to miss Southampton trip

By on December 8, 2018

shkodran mustafi arsenal

Unai Emery has offered a positive update on Shkodran Mustafi after the centre-back limped out of Arsenal’s 1-0 victory over Huddersfield Town on Saturday afternoon.

Mustafi has been ever-present for Arsenal in the Premier League so far this season having started in every game and once again lined-up alongside Sokratis and Stephan Lichtsteiner in a back three against Huddersfield today.

It looked like the German defender was set for a spell on the sidelines as he limped off midway through the second half clutching the back of his leg after suffering a hamstring injury.

However, Emery has provided an initial update at his post match press conference and played down the issue after suggesting Mustafi’s injury is not a serious problem.

Obviously that will be a relief but we’re still going to be down to the bare bones at centre-back against Southampton as Mustafi and Sokratis both picked up their fifth bookings of the season today meaning they’ll be suspended for the trip to the south coast next weekend.

With Rob Holding ruled out for the season with a knee ligament injury it means we’ll be without three of our main central defenders next week but Emery says he still has options with Monreal making his comeback today while Laurent Koscielny was on the bench after recovering from an Achilles injury.

Emery told Arsenal.com:

on Sokratis and Shkodran Mustafi now being suspended for Southampton…
I need for my mind to take two days off!

on whether Mustafi’s injury was a hamstring…
Yes but I think he will be OK.

on whether Laurent Koscielny will be ready for next week…
Now, I don’t know how we are going to play next week, but we have players. Stephan played at centre back today and had a good performance in Manchester with good commitment. Koscielny is also coming back, Nacho Monreal too. We’ll have players.

It’s good to have Monreal available again but he’ll be lacking match fitness and it will also be a huge risk to throw Koscielny in to an intense away league game after eight months on the sidelines so it will be interesting to see how we line-up against Southampton next week.

Thankfully we recovered from the loss of Mustafi today to secure a vital 1-0 win over Huddersfield thanks to a superb goal from Lucas Torreira that extended our unbeaten run to 21 games in all competitions.