Alexis Sanchez was today included in the Arsenal squad for their 2,800-mile round trip to face BATE Borisov in the Europa League but Mesut Ozil will miss the game in Belarus.
Sanchez played 83 minutes against West Brom on Monday and Wenger has decided to take him to Barysaw for tomorrow night’s tie, despite Arsenal facing Brighton at Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
Wenger will rest several key players against BATE but Sanchez was part of the squad who trained this morning before they were due to fly out to Belarus.
Arsenal will have little time to recover between facing BATE Borisov and Brighton. But Wenger has decided against resting Sanchez ahead of the Premier League game.
Ozil has been struggling with a knee injury and, although he came on for seven minutes against West Brom, he was among several players to sit out training.
Wenger will rotate heavily against BATE Borisov. Petr Cech, Laurent Koscielny, Aaron Ramsey and Granit Xhaka will stay in London.
Wenger has one eye on the game against Brighton but Alexandre Lacazette, Hector Bellerin, Nacho Monreal, Shkodran Mustafi and Mohamed Elneny all trained.
Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott and Jack Wilshere also took part in the open session and are in line to start tomorrow. Per Mertesacker, Rob Holding and David Ospina are also likely to play.
Alex Iwobi did not train and misses out with a thigh injury. Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Reiss Nelson, Joe Willock, Eddie Nketiah are all set to be part of the squad.
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Arsenal are having to play three games in six days and Wenger has strongly criticised the “cruel” scheduling, with his side in the middle of an exhausting week.
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Arsenal can take control of Group H with a win tomorrow night. They beat Cologne 3-1 in their opening group match.
The game in Belarus tomorrow will give Wilshere another opportunity to impress as he tries to get back into the Arsenal side in the Premier League.
Midfielder Wilshere has made only one start this season, in the Carabao Cup against Doncaster Rovers. He came on as a second-half substitute against Cologne but will hope to start on Thursday.
