Arsenal face Blackpool in the League Cup on Wednesday night, and Unai Emery could be without several star men for the clash due to injury.
The Gunners will be hoping to secure victory and to take another step towards winning silverware in the Spanish tactician’s first season in charge.
Nevertheless, with a packed fixture schedule and some important games coming up, Emery would certainly have preferred to have been able to rotate and rest key individuals for this encounter too.
Instead, it’s suggested that he could be restricted in his ability to make changes, particularly in defence, with freelance injury analyst Ben Dinnery noting in his tweet below that up to six players could be missing for the clash.
Long-term absentees Laurent Koscielny and Dinos Mavropanos remain sidelined, but it’s added that Sead Kolasinac, Nacho Monreal, Mohamed Elneny and Hector Bellerin could all miss out too.
It’s far from an ideal situation for Emery given his side play four times between tomorrow and November 11, with key games against Liverpool and Sporting to prepare for after their meeting with Blackpool.
With that in mind, he’ll undoubtedly be hoping to get some players back from injury troubles in the coming days, and resting them could be a wise idea this time round with Kolasinac and Monreal set to undergo late fitness tests to determine if they can feature or not.
Sead Kolasinac and Nacho Monreal will be checked ahead of the @Carabao_Cup cup clash with Blackpool. Mo Elneny and Hector Bellerin have been ruled out of the tie along with Laurent Koscielny and Dinos Mavropanos. #AFC
— Ben Dinnery (@BenDinnery) October 30, 2018