Arsenal will assess Francis Coquelin before deciding whether he is ready to return against Burnley after scans showed that the midfielder’s knee injury is not as bad as first feared.
There was concern that Coquelin was facing a lengthy lay-off after he was hurt making a challenge on N’Golo Kanté in the first half of last Saturday’s victory over Chelsea. Arsène Wenger said after the game that it could be a repeat of the ligament damage that kept him out for 10 weeks last season.
However further tests have shown that Coquelin has suffered no damage to his medial ligament and Wenger, who will be without Olivier Giroud and Aaron Ramsey for the trip to Turf Moor, is encouraged by the Frenchman’s swift return to training. The Burnley game is likely to come too soon for Coquelin, though, with Granit Xhaka in line to start alongside Santi Cazorla in midfield.
“I think Coquelin is looking much better than we expected, he had a test today but I still think he will be short for Sunday,” Wenger said. “His medial knee ligament was not damaged as we thought. He is keen to start again with the session of today but we have to be cautious as well. We have plenty of games coming up, but for us now we work in cycles of three. Week by week we play three games.”
Wenger said that Ramsey, who has pulled out of the Wales squad with a hamstring injury, should be available after the international break. Giroud, who is yet to start a game this season, remains out with the toe injury that forced him to miss Wednesday’s victory over Basel in the Champions League.
After a slow start to the season, Arsenal have hit form and will look to extend their four-match winning streak when they face Burnley on Sunday.
“In recent games we have combined style and efficiency and we want to continue that because we want to give pleasure to the fans,” Wenger said. “We know that comes with results but as well with the quality of the game and in our recent games against Chelsea and against Basel, we managed to do both.
Wenger is celebrating 20 years in charge of Arsenal. He could not say if there would be a 25th anniversary. “I think I have one quality which is a passion for the game, and another quality is that I always have the desire to be better tomorrow than I was yesterday,” he said. “If I look back, the way I manage today is not the same as it was five, 10, or 20 years ago. How long can I do? I don’t know.
“I rule nothing out because I want to work and I want to do well. I accept that it can finish tomorrow as well. It’s a love story and you always expect a love story to last forever, but it can always stop suddenly.”
Wenger was asked what his time at Arsenal means to him. “I think it is a privilege for me, I do not look back,” he said. “Maybe what people will keep is the Invincible year, but for me the job of a manager is to do the maximum with what you have available and that is what I try to do.
“After is like a marathon, you do one step after another and when you look back you have done the distance. We are obsessed always by the next game, the next game and that is what we expect always: the perfect game in the next one. That is what we work for.”