Arsenal Team News: Injuries, suspensions and line-up vs Burnley

Chris Wheatley

Arsenal Team News: Injuries, suspensions and line-up vs Burnley image

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger will take charge of his final home game for the Gunners on Sunday.

The Frenchman will leave his post after 22 years at the helm this summer and would have hoped for a better send off after Arsenal were denied a place in next week's Europa League final following defeat against Atletico Madrid.

Wenger is expected to be given a guard of honour by both sets of players before the game while post-match celebrations will mark the careers of the Gunners boss, departing kitman Vic Akers, captain Per Mertesacker and Arsenal Women's star Alex Scott, who are both retiring.


Arsenal injuries


Laurent Koscielny is expected to miss the World Cup with a suspected ruptured Achilles sustained in the first half of Arsenal's Europa League semi-final defeat to Atletico Madrid.

Egypt midfielder Mohamed Elneny is out with ankle ligament damage and is unlikely to be involved.



Spanish midfielder Santi Cazorla remains a long-term absentee with an Achilles injury, although he is running again and will hope to be involved in pre-season if his contract gets renewed.


Arsenal suspensions


Arsenal have no suspended players for this game.


Arsenal potential starting line-up


Wenger is likely to rest a number of players due to the short turnaround following Thursday's match in Madrid,

The likes of Alex Iwobi and Sead Kolasinac will start, while Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Calum Chambers or Rob Holding are able to fill in for Laurent Koscielny and Shkodran Mustafi.

Konstantinos Mavropanos could feature after an impressive appearance on his first team debut against Manchester United last week.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is expected to return up front and could play alongside Welbeck, with Petr Cech expected to return between the sticks.

Arsenal XI


Burnley team news


Burnley are expected to start with their strongest XI in a 4-4-2 formation, with Chris Wood and Ashley Barnes set to partner each other upfront.

Sean Dyche's side have been a revelation in the league this season where they currently sit in seventh place, but have lost one and drawn two of their last three games.

Barnes is the club's top scorer with 10 goals to his name so far this season.

Sean Dyche Burnley


Best Opta match facts


  • Arsenal have won their last six home games against Burnley in all competitions, since a 0-1 loss in September 1974 in a league match.

  • Indeed, Burnley haven’t beaten Arsenal in any of their last nine attempts in all competitions (D1 L8), losing the last seven in a row. Their last win against the Gunners came in a League Cup match in December 2008 (2-0 at Turf Moor).

  • Arsenal’s last three Premier League matches against Burnley have been decided by a 90th minute winner – it’s the only fixture in the competition’s history to see three consecutive 90th minute winning goals.

  • This will be Arsenal’s eighth consecutive Premier League game to be played on a Sunday – the longest run of games ever played on a specific weekday in the competition (excluding Saturdays).

  • Burnley have won three of their last four away Premier League games (D1) – as many as Arsenal have won all season on the road.

  • This will be Arsene Wenger’s 606th and final home match in charge of Arsenal. His first was a 0-0 draw against Coventry on October 19th 1996. Current Burnley manager Sean Dyche played in a 1-0 win for Chesterfield against Crewe in a third-tier league match that day.

  • In their last game against Manchester United, Konstantinos Mavropanos became the 30th player to play for Arsenal in the Premier League this season – only in 2011-12 (32) have the Gunners used more different players in a single campaign in the competition.


TV channel & kick-off time


The match kicks off at 16:30 BST on Sunday with no live television coverage available in the UK.

Chris Wheatley

Chris Wheatley Photo