Arsenal Team And Injury News For Brentford Premier League Clash

Will Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang play tonight?
Aubameyang has missed training sessions with illness and could be absent from the starting XI alongside Alexandre Lacazette

Arsenal team and injury news for Brentford Premier League clash

Aubameyang is a doubt for the opening game of the Premier League season

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is unlikely to be involved in Arsenal’s opening game of the Premier League season against Brentford after missing training.

Mikel Arteta’s side face the newly-promoted Bees on Friday night and they will be coming up against something of an unknown quantity.

Perhaps Thomas Frank will feel the same, however, pondering whether this will be the year when the Gunners begin to claw back credibility.

The absence of their chief striker will not aid that cause, if he is indeed unavailable. According to Goal, the Gabon international has been struggling with illness.

Plenty of eyes will be on the 32-year-old this season, his tailing off after signing a new contract one of Arsenal’s chief woes last term.

While he eventually scored 15 league goals, the 2018-19 Golden Boot winner was surpassed by both Alexandre Lacazette and Nicolas Pepe in 2020-21.

Arteta would not pin any blame on Aubameyang for his individual difficulties when asked about him on Thursday.

“Last season and everything that happened individually, collectively and around the club, it was difficult to measure whether it was a trend or a one off,” he said.

Lacazette could also miss out, according to The Athletic, as the Frenchman has also been feeling unwell.

The Arsenal boss does not have too many other concerns ahead of the trip to south London, though Thomas Partey (ankle), Eddie Nketiah (ankle) and Gabriel (knee) will all miss out.

New signing Nuno Tavares will be in the squad and £50m addition Ben White is expected to start, as is another new boy in Albert Sambi Lokonga.

If Aubameyang doesn’t feature, Bukayo Saka is in line to play behind Gabriel Martinelli despite only returning to training last week following an extended post-Euros break.

Arsenal predicted XI: Leno; Chambers, White, Mari, Tierney; Lokonga, Xhaka; Pepe, Smith Rowe, Saka; Martinelli

Edet Esah

A content writer - blogger and sports analyst