Alexis Sanchez is not in the Arsenal squad for Saturday’s game against Watford (Picture: Getty)
Alexis Sanchez is not in the Arsenal squad for Saturday’s game against Watford (Picture: Getty)

Arsene Wenger claims Alexis Sanchez has been left out of Arsenal’s squad for Saturday’s match against Watford due to a slight injury concern

The 28-year-old was unable to help Chile secure World Cup qualification during the international break and at his pre-match press conference on Thursday Wenger revealed he would check on the former Barcelona forward’s mental state.

Sanchez trained on Friday with the rest of his teammates but has been deemed unfit to play and wasn’t even named among the substitutes, along with Aaron Ramsey who played for Wales in midweek.

Wenger said: ‘Both (Ramsey and Alexis) had muscular alerts they are not very bad but too short for today.’

Alexis Sanchez failed to help Chile secure World Cup qualification (Picture: Getty)

Mesut Ozil, who missed Arsenal’s two most recent Premier League matches and Germany’s World Cup qualifiers with a knee injury, does return but only on the bench, while Per Mertesacker makes his first Premier League start for 532 days in light of Shkodran Mustafi’s injury.

Danny Welbeck returns to the starting line-up following his own groin injury, while Alexandre Lacazette starts up front in preference to Olivier Giroud.