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

Everything you need to know ahead of Saturday’s match against the relegation-threatened Terriers at the John Smith’s Stadium

Another defeat to Manchester City last week saw Arsenal slump to sixth place in the Premier League table, with Manchester United and Chelsea now in pole position to reach the top four at their expense.

Unai Emery has spoken of the need for the Gunners to improve their form on the road in particular, their last victory away from the Emirates coming back in November against Bournemouth.

They have taken only two points in six away fixtures since then.

Arsenal have also been battling an injury crisis in defence with regulars like Hector Bellerin and Rob Holding unavailable in the long term. To add to the woe, there have been reports of sickness in the camp this week with Laurent Koscielny and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang struck down.

Huddersfield meanwhile are battling for their Premier League lives having picked up a total of only 11 points this season.

New coach Jan Siewart is winless since replacing David Wagner in late January, with the Terriers’ last outing yielding a 5-0 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Town fans could be forgiven for planning for life in the Championship already.

Shkodran Mustafi was substituted against Manchester City last week but is back in full training.

Laurent Koscielny and Pierre Emerick Aubameyang have both been ill since the defeat at the Etihad but should be OK for Saturday.

Granit Xhaka missed the City game with a slight groin injury and is being assessed ahead of Huddersfield.

Similarly, Ainsley Maitland-Niles missed out on Sunday with a knee injury but could be available this weekend.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan played on Monday for the under-23s after returning to full training as he makes his comeback from a metatarsal injury.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos will not be back until the end of February due to an ankle injury.

Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding and Danny Welbeck are all long-term absentees.

Arsenal have no suspended players for this match. 

The game might well come too quickly for the likes of Xhaka and Maitland-Niles. If the young Englishman doesn’t make it then it will mean another start for Stephan Lichtsteiner, who had a torrid time against City.

Beside him in defence, Mustafi should remain in contention despite his knock last weekend. Konstantinos Mavropanos has been left out of the Europa League squad and has not convinced Emery of his qualities as yet. Koscielny, if recovered from illness, will start.

If Xhaka, touch and go for this fixture, misses out then the axis of Guendouzi and Torreira will be retained. This is the kind of fixture in which Emery sees a place for Mesut Ozil, whose through-ball abilities work well against the smaller teams.

Aubameyang has returned to training after illness and should keep his place while Denis Suarez could make his first start.

Captain Jonathan Hogg missed the Chelsea defeat with a back injury but has since returned to training.

Likewise, Erik Durm should be back this weekend after a foot injury. He has not played the last three games. 

Chris Lowe had been ill earlier in the week but should be OK.

Forward Isaac Mbenza has been ruled out for five to six weeks with a calf injury.

Abdelhamid Sabiri is lacking match fitness and is not expected to be involved from the start.

Danny Williams is a long-term casualty.

The game will not be shown live in the UK. It kicks off at 15:00 GMT (10:00 ET) . It will be available to watch live in the United States on NBC Sports Live.

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