Ivory Coast’s elimination from the Africa Cup of Nations puts players back in contention to face both Arsenal and Manchester City this weekend.
Ahead of Arsenal’s game against Nottingham Forest this weekend, there were only two players who could potentially miss the match due to their participation at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Forest’s Willy Boly and Ibrahim Sangare were both called up by the Ivory Coast for the tournament, and if they made the semi-finals then they’d miss the Arsenal game to play in either the final or the third-place play-off.
Yet the Ivory Coast have now been eliminated at the quarter-final stage, meaning Boly and Sangare could play their first games back against Arsenal this weekend.
That’s much more likely in Sangare’s case, given he’d started 11 of Forest’s first 16 games of the Premier League campaign, including the one away to Arsenal. Boly hasn’t started any of them so far, nor has he come off the bench.
It was a similar story on international duty, with Sangare starting four of the Ivory Coast’s five matches and Boly exclusively playing a bench role.
But Arsenal fans bemoaning their luck at Sangare’s return in time for their game shouldn’t feel too hard done by, as Ivory Coast’s elimination also means Amad Diallo will return to Manchester United for their game against the Gunners’ title rivals Manchester City.
The winger scored three goals and assisted one at AFCON, having also scored in his last game for United, so he’s returning to Manchester in good form.
Diallo was always going to be back in time for the Arsenal match the following weekend, but it’s good he’ll be available against Pep Guardiola’s side too.