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Danny Welbeck is expected to miss the start of the Premier League season after Arsene Wenger revealed that the Arsenal striker has not returned to training, according to the Telegraph. The England International bruised his knee at the end of April and hasn’t played competitive football for Arsenal or England since then.
Welbeck’s situation is quite worrying, considering that the bruising he sustained was supposed to be a short-term thing, according to Wenger. The former Manchester United player was included in Roy Hodgson’s England squad for their European qualifiers in June, but withdrew from the squad after he couldn’t recover in time. He missed out on Arsenal’s pre-season trip to Singapore as well and will definitely not take part in the Emirates Cup, which sees the Gunners take on Lyon and Wolfsburg.
Wenger shared his team news ahead of the pre-season tournament at the Emirates Stadium, and gave his thoughts on the 24-year-old.
"He hasn't recovered and isn't in training yet," he said, as reported on Arsenal’s official website.
“He is supposed to start to go outside and run again this weekend and if that is positive in the next three weeks he will be available. He will be short for the start of the season in two weeks, but three weeks should be all right.”
Wenger praises team and highlights importance of goals from non strikers
Considering that Sanchez has been rested for the start of the season, Wenger feels the need to add at least one more signing and the Frenchman did confirm that he would do so if he found the right player for his squad. According to the Daily Mail, he has also received backing from club director Lord Harris who claimed that Wenger wants to sign a ‘superstar’ centre forward, and that Arsenal would be ready to break their transfer record to land the player.
Wenger dismissed the comments in typical fashion, although he did go on to praise the team as a whole, and stressed on the importance of goals from midfielders and defenders in the upcoming season.
"We are working hard to do something if an opportunity comes up," said Wenger, according to The Guardian.
"We have a strong squad. We built something special last year with a good team dynamic, confidence and style of play.”
He added: “We have plenty of goals and strikers in the squad. We want more goals from non strikers.”
Other absentees from the Arsenal’s Emirates Cup squad include Flamini and Szczesny, with the former picking up a knock on his ankle, and the latter on his way to Roma on a season-long loan.
Arsenal’s first official game of the season will be the Community Shield against Chelsea on 2nd August, at the Wembley Stadium in London.
