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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Matt Maltby

Arsenal team news ahead of Olympiakos clash as defender is ruled out

Arsenal will be without Sead Kolasinac for Thursday's Europa League round of 32 second-leg clash at home to Olympiakos.

The Gunners hold a 1-0 lead from the first leg but will be without the left-back after he suffered a serious shoulder injury in the weekend win over Everton .

Cedric Soares (knee) and Kieran Tierney (shoulder) are back in training but not expected to feature, while Calum Chambers (knee) remains sidelined and faces a race to be fit for the start of next season.

And speaking about Kolasinac's injury in his pre-match press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Gunners boss Mikel Arteta admitted the defender could be out for some time.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and coach Freddie Ljungberg during training (Action Images via Reuters)

He said: “He’s seen a specialist today. We are not very positive about it. We will know more this afternoon.”

Arteta, meanwhile, is hoping his team can follow up on their first-leg performance and book their spot in the last-16 at the expense of their Greek opponents.

The Spaniard added: “I was very pleased with the general performance apart from the first 10 minutes when we gave the ball away.

Arsenal's (left-right) David Luiz, Eddie Nketiah, Shkodran Mustafi, Alexandre Lacazette and Gabriel Martinelli during the training session (PA)

“The team played with a lot of personality and we managed to score which is positive.

“The team is progressing well, the club is looking in a better place, we are getting unity. There’s a lot of positives but still a lot to improve.”

Arteta was joined in his press conference by Alexandre Lacazette, who believes Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang deserves more credit for his goalscoring exploits.

Arsenal's David Luiz (centre) and Gabriel Martinelli (right) during the training session at London Colney (PA)

Aubameyang's brace in the 3-2 win over Everton took his goal tally for the season to 17, level at the top of the Premier League scoring charts with Leicester's Jamie Vardy.

Lacazette said: “People should talk more about Auba. He’s not just a goalscorer. If we start winning trophies people will start talking about him (like that).”

Provisional Arsenal squad: Leno, Martinez, Bellerin, Papastathopoulos, Luiz, Mustafi, Mari, Holding, Maitland-Niles, Saka, Guendouzi, Torreira, Xhaka, Willock, Ceballos, Ozil, Pepe, Nelson, Lacazette, Martinelli, Nketiah, Aubameyang.

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