Granit Xhaka was ruled out of Arsenal’s clash against Southampton on Friday with illness.
The Swiss midfielder has been pivotal to Mikel Arteta’s side this season, starting all but one of the Gunners’ league games as they push for the title.
The 30-year-old played the full 90 minutes of the 2-2 draw at last Sunday, but was nowhere to be seen at the Emirates on Friday night, even though Arteta did not report any fresh injury concerns in his pre-match press conference.
It has now revealed that Xhaka’s absence is down to illness, which will relieve fans as he should be fit in time for Arsenal’s pivotal match against title rivals on Wednesday.
His place in midfield has been taken by Fabio Vieira, with Arteta telling Sky Sports: ‘Unfortunately this morning Granit wasn’t feeling very well. I am excited to see Fabio Vieira in the starting line up.
‘It is very important, like every game. It will be a great and unbelievable atmosphere tonight. We are looking forward to the game.
‘Hopefully we have learned a lesson. We know what we have to do but we have to prove it in the moment. Hopefully we will see a very different story.’
Vieira for Xhaka is one of two changes from the West Ham draw, with Oleksandr Zinchenko also replacing Kieran Tierney at left-back.
The Ukraine international was not expected to be back so soon from his groin injury, with his manager saying: ‘He needs some time to heal. We’re not there yet.’
The Gunners are still without long-term absentees William Saliba, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Mohamed Elneny.
Meanwhile, Ruben Selles makes three changes to his side that were beaten by Crystal Palace lat weekend, the most notable being Romain Perraud coming in for Arsenal loanee Ainsley Maitland-Niles who is ineligible to face his parent club.
Though recent results have been disappointing, Arsenal are largely expected to beat Southampton who are bottom of the table and four points from safety, but the Saints did manage to draw 1-1 with the Gunners in the reverse fixture back in October.
Arsenal can go seven points clear of City with a win tonight, albeit having played two games more than the Citizens who take on Sheffield United in the semi-finals on Saturday.
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