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Swansea captain Ashley Williams is a big doubt ahead of Swansea City’s Premier League clash with Arsenal at the Liberty Stadium. Join us for live scores and updates from 2.30am AEST.
The Welsh defender, rumoured to be on a list of players Arsenal had decided against bidding for over the summer has an ankle injury.
Manager Michael Laudrup estimated he has less than a 50/50 chance of playing, with Jordi Amat on standby to fill in. Pablo Hernández is out again due to a hamstring injury.
The Red and White team leading the table ahead of their deadly North London rivals give fitness tests to Aaron Ramsey and Mathieu Flamini with the German youth Serge Gnabry to be given another rare start on the right.
Theo Walcott has apparently responded well to minor surgery on an abdominal problem, but will still be out for up to five weeks, meaning the Gunners have five first choice widemen currently out injured.
Players definitely out in Arsenal’s now legendary injury list include Czech playmaker Tomas Rosicky, Santi Cazorla, Yaya Sanogo, Lukas Podolski, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Abou Diaby.
Arsenal will match their best ever sequence of away league wins in their illustrious 126-year history if they win at the Liberty.
Swansea, keen to build on last year’s impressive season will be tough opposition determined to keep the points in South Wales.
The Swans are unbeaten in three league games even if the current holders were unexpectedly beaten at St Andrews by the 2011 winners of the Capital One Cup in midweek.
After they lost their first two league games of the season they are have now gone three matches unbeaten, together with an astonishing European win at the Mestalla that saw Valencia fans clap the Welshmen off in honour of their performance after their improbable 3-0 win.
However, it could be pointed out that Swansea have also gone seven home games without a win in the Premier League – even if a record Liberty Stadium crowd for the Manchester United game saw a crushing 4-1 home defeat, with the attendance quickly beaten by the visit of Liverpool and an absorbing 2-2 draw that Jonjo Shelvey will never forget.
With a hand in all four goals as well as a booking it was testament to his strength of character that he refused to hide during or after the game.
Yet, you can tell it’s been a good month for The Gunner’s when even ‘Silent Stan’ Kroenke is talking.
Arsenal’s majority shareholder said in one of his intermittent interviews that he was ‘totally aligned’ with Wenger ahead of the 17th anniversary of his first Arsenal game vs Blackburn Rovers away.
Although it could be argued it may have been far more helpful to Wenger if the American had uttered those words on the night of the Villa defeat.
It is amazing to think that six short weeks ago the natives were restless.
If not open rebellion, a defeat against Fenerbache would have seen many fans, pundits and journalists start calling for the Frenchman’s head.
One £42.4 million signing and eight wins on the bounce later all appears to be well in the camp – even if injuries continue to bite into an already thin squad.
It could be said Arsenal have also been lucky with the fixture list too – although early November will tell us far more about the Gunner’s aspirations as they have Liverpool, and United in successive weekends with Everton, Man City and Chelsea to play before Christmas.
But before all that unfolds the game on the Gower peninsula promises to be a match for the footballing purists amongst you, between two teams with positive attacking intent looking for a win.
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