Facing Everton on Saturday, Arsenal are without Mathieu Flamini.

The Gunners are also without Santi Cazorla, Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey and the boss provided updates on the midfielders: the news was a little mixed.

Cazorla hasn’t played since November and suffered an Achilles problem when coming back from his knee ligament damage and isn’t recovering as quickly as expected.

“I think Cazorla has developed slow,” said the manager. “His knee is perfect but he has a little Achilles problem slowing him down.”

Jack Wilshere also won’t be back immediately after the international break as some reports have suggested in recent weeks.

“Wilshere is showing good signs of recovery,” Wenger added.

“The players who are back could be Ramsey, could be Čech, could be Flamini.”

Good news on Ramsey, then, who was expected to miss a number of weeks. If he is back after the international break it would be a huge boost for Arsenal, who currently have no option but to use Francis Coquelin and Mohamed Elneny in midfield.

A win on Everton is the first step, though, as no returning players will help us make up the ground on Leicester City if we fall any further behind the Foxes.