Norwich vs Arsenal Premier League preview: How to watch, lineups, top four & prediction

Arsenal Team News vs Norwich City

Arteta has been fortunate enough to avoid serious injuries to players across the season so far. Granit Xhaka suffered a knee injury that kept him out for a while, and Kieran Tierney missed a few weeks, but other than that it’s been mostly smooth sailing with the absences not keenly felt.

For now, anyway.

Takehiro Tomiyasu was the worrying case after he went down clutching his calf against Leeds, although that turned out to be a precautionary substitution and he will be OK for Boxing Day.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang continues to train away from the team and gets to spend his festive period on the comfort of his sofa. So long as he isn’t dragged into London Colney, that is. Either way, he’s not playing.

Sambi Lokonga and Pablo Mari will be available for selection after UK laws reduced self-isolation time from ten to seven days, and it will also be the last Arsenal see of Partey, Aubameyang, Elneny and Pepe before AFCON.

As for Smiths’ men, Christoph Zimmermann, Andrew Omobamidele and Grant Hanley are set to miss out, but Milot Rashica and Mathias Normann could return in a boost to the hosts.

Lukas Rupp, Joshua Sargent and Pierre Lees-Melou all recently missed out with Covid and it’s unsure whether they’ll be available or not.

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