Team news v Sunderland: Walcott returns

Written by Jonathan Chong on Saturday, November 21, 2009

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
21 Nov	3:00 PM	P	Sunderland (A)	0	1	Lost

The team news for the match against Sunderland today makes good reading, considering the fact that during the international break we lost our top striker and remaining left-back.

Theo Walcott has finally gotten over his own injury troubles and is in the squad to face the Black Cats. Despite the England international's return, it looks like Eduardo will deputise for the injured Robin van Persie.

Denilson has also recovered from injury, just in time to slot into the defensive midfield position when Alex Song heads off to the African Cup of Nations in January.

Speaking at yesterday's pre-match press conference, Wenger said: "Denilson is back, Walcott and Wilshere are all available for selection.

"Walcott will be in the squad for Sunderland. Fabianski is not very far, so it [the injury situation] is a bit better.

"The French players have played 120 minutes. Andrey Arshavin comes back from a very long trip and is very disappointed. Apart from that, it is not too bad."

The manager also took this opportunity to again voice his disagreement with the structure of the football fixture calendar, and that it creates added pressure on players who go on international duty.

France for example, played 120 minutes on Wednesday againse Ireland, and the players return to their clubs to play again on Saturday.

Wenger added: "I believe the whole structure of the season is not right.

"But in the next round of the European Championship qualifiers, there is now a freedom for teams to play on Friday and Tuesday [instead of Saturday and Wednesday].

"As soon as one team starts to play on Friday, then everybody will."

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