Arsenal travel to face Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium this afternoon with several injury problems appearing to subside ahead of the clash. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette pulled out of the Gabon and France squads respectively over the internaitonal break.
However, they have both recovered from knocks and will be fit to start against the high-flying Cherries. Boss Unai Emery provided more encouraging news for Arsenal with Laurent Koscielny closing in on a return to action following a long-term Achilles problem.
Emery said: “Koscielny now is close with us to start maybe little by little taking minutes. It’s good news.
“He started to train with us, every day, one month ago. The process with him is that in this International break, it is to finish training with us every day to start playing, little by little.
“First, our idea is to start with the Under-23s, but also, these two weeks training with us, I am looking at him.”
Emery ruled three stars out of the game, though more defenders are also close to joining Koscielny on the list of returnees.
“Danny [Welbeck] who has an injury and also Nacho Monreal now is not OK for Sunday.
“Stefan Lichtsteiner is starting to train with us but for Sunday he is not OK. We will look tomorrow.”
Mesut Ozil is primed to start in the No 10 role, while Lucas Torreira and Granit Xhaka will command from the middle of the park as Emery seeks to maintain the Gunners’ 16-game unbeaten run when they face Eddie Howe’s men.
