Ahead of their meeting this weekend, Arsenal will be boosted by David de Gea’s continued absence from the United squad.

The goalkeeper, who picked up an injury during the warm up against FC Miidtjylland in the first leg, was missing again from the teamsheet for the second leg on Thursday night.

Louis van Gaal had already admitted that his star shot-stopper would miss out and the certainty with which he said “I was hoping for that but he shall not be involved, that is already certain” could hint at him being unavailable for the clash at Old Trafford on Sunday.

The Gunners haven’t won at United in the league in ten years so they will no doubt be hoping that the long injury list in play in Manchester will aid their title hopes.

Luke Shaw, Phil Jones, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, Ashley Young, Marouane Fellaini, Bastian, and Will Keane all missed out on Thursday night while Chris Smalling, who didn’t train on Wednesday, also did not feature.

United went with a starting XI of Romero, Varela, Carrick, Blind, Riley, Schneiderlin, Ander Herrera, Lingard, Mata, Memphis and Martial.

I’ll take that on Sunday, thanks very much.