Team news: Aaron Ramsey out until January

In his pre-match press conference ahead of tomorrow’s Carabao Cup quarter-final against West Ham, Arsene Wenger revealed some discouraging news about Aaron Ramsey’s recovery from the hamstring injury he suffered against Southampton. According to Wenger, the beginning of January is the earliest Ramsey will return, meaning he will definitely miss the crucial match with Liverpool on Friday, and also probably the clash with Chelsea on New Year’s Day. And this is the best case scenario, it seems.

Fortunately, Shkodran Mustafi is fully healthy again after missing the last three games, but he’s not playing tomorrow anyway. Theo Walcott, who hasn’t made the match day squad for a Premier League game since the Manchester City match on November 5th, will play tomorrow, however.

Wenger confirmed he will rotate his squad significantly tomorrow, saying, “the players who will start are basically all international players, so that’s why I think [squad rotation] makes sense. You have as well to show the trust and the confidence that we have in the players who did not start last week.”

So, expect a similar lineup to what we’ve seen in the Europa League matches this season, meaning the likes of Olivier Giroud, Danny Welbeck, Mohamed Elneny, Francis Coquelin, Mathieu Debuchy, Calum Chambers, and Rob Holding will also get a chance to start.