Arsenal Vs Leicester City: Unai Emery confirms key man’s absence
Arsenal boss Unai Emery has said that “it’s difficult” for Sokratis Papastathopoulos to feature against Leicester City on Monday.
The Greek international had to be brought off at half time in his side’s 2-1 defeat to Finland, and after further assessment, it has been confirmed that he has suffered an ankle injury.
Papastathopoulos becomes the third Arsenal centre-back to go into the treatment room, joining Laurent Koscielny and Konstantinos Mavropanos.
Speaking of the 30-year old among others, Emery said:
"“The players are coming back now.“Only Sokratis had one problem, one small injury.“Maybe for Monday it’s difficult [for him to play].“The others are OK.”"
Sokratis’ injury leaves the North Londoners with just two options at the back: Shkodran Mustafi and Rob Holding. Jamie Vardy would be licking his lips.
But Sokratis’ absence still leaves a host of names to be worried about. Arsenal’s attacking trio of Alexandre Lacazette (five goals), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (six goals) and Danny Welbeck (four goals) is quite something, as is a midfield that boasts Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey, Alex Iwobi, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira. Puel’s side would quite clearly have a lot of work to do.
After the defeat to Everton, Leicester are now in danger of losing another. Arsenal come into the fixture against the Foxes on the back of nine straight wins, and they are going to be very tough to beat – especially at home.
Next. This is how Leicester City should line-up against Arsenal. dark
Although Arsenal’s own leaky defence should give Leicester a reason to be more optimistic, it’s something that can only be taken advantage of when the latter are absolutely packed at the back themselves. If they let the home side play, there’s no way they are coming back with anything other than gaunt faces.