Arsenal facing defensive injury crisis ahead of Watford with Shkodran Mustafi out and Laurent Koscielny doubtful

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Arsenal are facing a defensive injury crisis ahead of Saturday’s trip to Watford.

Shkodran Mustafi is out for four to six weeks with a thigh injury and with Laurent Koscielny also a doubt, Arsene Wenger will have to make changes for the game at Vicarage Road. Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Wenger admitted he has “defensive concerns” going into the match with Marco Silva’s impressive outfit.

Arsenal nearly sold Mustafi to Inter Milan this summer but they did not and he has become an important part of the team in Wenger’s back three, starting five of their seven Premier League games so far. But Mustafi, playing in Germany’s 5-1 win over Azerbaijan in Kaiserslautern this week, tore a thigh muscle, meaning that he will be out for up to six weeks. Wenger is not expecting him back until late November, after the next international break.

Wenger could not hide his disappointment at losing a defender he had counted on for the last few games.

“It is always difficult to predict the situation because the player I least expected to lose during the break was Mustafi,” Wenger said. “First of all, I was not sure he would play. Secondly, Germany had already qualified so I didn’t expect him to be out injured as the games would be less intense. He didn’t play in the first game, and we lost him in the second game against Azerbaijan at home. We have to cope with that now.”

Arsenal’s best defender, Laurent Koscielny, is still struggling with a long-term Achilles problem but he will have a final fitness test on Friday to decide whether he can play on Saturday. If he is out then Wenger will be in even further trouble.

"I am thinking about sorting out the [defensive] problem, but overall I will completely decide what I do tomorrow,” Wenger said. “Because Koscielny will have a test then. He worked quite hard physically, he looks like he is capable of playing if he survives the test. If he has no pain on his Achilles tendon, he can play. I will decide that tomorrow. At the moment, he’s not available. He trained on his own and the first signs are positive, so we decided to give him a test tomorrow.”

Sead Kolasniac, who has impressed so far this season at left-back, has come back from international duty with a minor hip problem too, which is being assessed today. If Kolasinac is fit then the back three is likely to be Nacho Monreal, Per Mertesacker and Rob Holding. If Kolasinac is out then and Monreal has to play left-back then Calum Chambers is likely to step into the back three.

Chambers has only played one game this season, in the EFL Cup against Doncaster, but has just been given a new deal by Wenger. “He’s a young centre back and you know that he’s going towards his best period now,” Wenger said. “He played a complete season at Middlesbrough. Unfortunately at the moment he’s injured but I believe it’s important we keep our young centre backs because they blossom at 24. It’s important to keep them during that period.”