It’s natural to think that most players will come into these Premier League games in full fitness thanks to the extended break, but that’s not the case.
Going from nothing to competitive games so quickly was always going to result in knocks and pulls in training, and Arsenal have suffered a late blow ahead of their clash with Man City tonight.
It’s not clear when this happened or how long he will be kept out for, but Football.London are reporting that Greek defender Sokratis will miss the game tonight.
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Arsenal have been poor defensively but Sokratis did play in the majority of their Premier League games this season, so this is the last thing they needed ahead of such a tough game.
The report points out that Sokratis actually started their last game at right back so this might give Hector Bellerin a chance to play instead – a change that would probably be welcomed by most of the fans.
It also means that Pablo Mari may get a chance to partner David Luiz in defence, and it will be interesting to see how this affects Arsenal tonight.