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Team news: Welbeck, Debuchy and the Ox

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

Arsene Wenger has revealed the latest team news ahead of Sunday's Premier League game against West Bromwich Albion:

on team news…
We have no basic injuries from our last game. We had a few jaded legs maybe at the end of the game but we’ll see how everybody recovers for Sunday. Do we have anybody back for Sunday? Danny Welbeck no, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is back in full training today [Friday], and Mathieu Debuchy as well. They might be a bit short.

on Welbeck…
There is a good chance that he will be available for England. It’s difficult to know. He had a little knee problem and will go out today for the first time. We have to wait for the response to that to know if he responds in a positive way. He could be fit very quickly.

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on whether he will have to play in FA Cup final to play for England…
Certainly yes because if he is not available for the FA Cup final, I can’t see him being competitive enough for England.

on Oxlade-Chamberlain playing in the final…
It’s not impossible because he starts full training today. We’ll see how he responds to that.

on Welbeck being in England squad but not Oxlade-Chamberlain…
The difference is that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has not played in any competition for a long time. That lack of competition takes some time to come back to a good competitive level. Danny Welbeck has not been out for a long time and he has nothing at all on any scan, just bone bruising on his knee. That’s just the pain that will decide if he is fit or not.

on if he’s changed training to help jaded players…
Yes, we have our medical tests to see how everyone recovers. We have given a lot physically and mentally at Manchester United and it [the time before the Sunderland game] was a bit short maybe for us to recover completely. This time we have a bit longer to recover and we have our tests to see how well everybody recovers. I might rest one or two maybe but overall I believe that the team will be similar to the team that played on Wednesday night.

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