Arsene Wenger has ridden in on his white horse and delivered the news that we’ve all been waiting for… no, not THAT news, we haven’t signed a striker yet, but Alexis Sanchez, Aaron Ramsey and Granit Xhaka are all fit and set to play against Manchester City.
The match against the Blues in Gothenburg marks the end of our pre-season and it’s pretty much the last real test in which Wenger will be able to analyse where we’re going wrong – if we are, that is.
“Alexis and Aaron Ramsey will play a part in the game,” he said.
“Both of them are in reasonably good form physically. I took this Friday and Sunday to give competition to everybody so I will see how much and how long I will play them for.
“Granit Xhaka will come in, certainly. He did not play at all on Friday, and maybe Calum Chambers too. We’ll see in training. The players who have not played will all be involved on Sunday.”
Until now, Rambo and Alexis have been gradually returning to training with the squad but since they were both involved in international tournaments until late on, they’ve needed a bit of extra rest. According to the boss, they’re now physically fit enough to face City, which is very exciting.
Although we beat Viking FK 8-0 on Friday evening, we fielded a very young team, presumably because Wenger wanted to put out a stronger one against our Premier League rivals. It’s sensible because ultimately, this will show us where we are. If he’d played some of our strongest players against Viking FK, the chances are, at this stage, they’d be too tired to face City.
It’s good to see the boys back.