Welbeck is likely to line up against United this weekend.
Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has suggested that Danny Welbeck is benefiting from a level of first team opportunities at Arsenal that he wouldn’t have been afforded at Old Trafford, report the Express, ahead of the England international’s first meeting with his former club this weekend.
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United surprisingly allowed academy graduate Welbeck to depart the club on deadline day this summer in a £16 million deal, with Radamel Falcao arriving at Old Trafford as a replacement, but the Colombian is set to miss out on the clash with Arsene Wenger’s men due to the latest in a succession of niggling injuries.
Welbeck has made a solid start to life with Arsenal and has also been in fine form for England, bagging two goals in last weekend’s Euro 2016 qualification victory over Slovenia, something that hasn’t gone unnoticed by van Gaal:
“It’s good to see he’s doing what I thought he would. I cannot judge him so well because I haven’t seen him play but now I shall see him I can judge him.”
Van Gaal seemed to defend his decision to allow Welbeck to depart the club however and also suggested that Welbeck wouldn’t have been given enough first team opportunities to impress had he stayed at Old Trafford:
“We decided that he could go and he has benefitted from it. I think that any player who is playing regularly in a team will always develop. He is now benefitting from playing every week. That was a question mark with Manchester United.”