by Lewis Ambrose

Arsène Wenger confirmed that Arsenal are almost at full strength during Tuesday’s pre-Community Shield press conference.

The Arsenal manager faced the press early on Tuesday afternoon to talk about the season ahead and Sunday’s ‘curtain raiser’ against last season’s Premier League winner Chelsea.

Petr Čech is sure to start for Arsenal against his former club with Wojciech Szczesny set to complete a loan move to AS Roma and David Ospina just returning from holiday following the Copa América.

Arsenal will be without Alexis Sánchez and Danny Welbeck, who the manager confirmed would miss out. The Chilean forward is yet to return from his summer break, although he has taken it upon himself to start training, and Welbeck is still struggling with the knee issue that kept him out of the FA Cup Final in May.

Arsenal will still have a strong team out against Chelsea, who are missing even more players due to Copa América duty. The season is drawing ever closer and Arsenal have a point to prove, Sunday provides an excellent opportunity to start as we mean to go on.