Arsenal are sweating over the fitness of Shkodran Mustafi ahead of Sunday's Premier League trip to Southampton .

The defender was forced off early on in last weekend's defeat to Manchester United and could be out of the St Mary's clash with a thigh problem.

Santi Cazorla (ankle) is the only other absentee with manager Arsene Wenger set to recall a host of first-team players rested for Thursday's 6-0 Europa League win over BATE Borisov.

Despite his ability to rotate his team between competitions, Wenger has been unable to keep pace with those at the business-end of the Premier League table and the 68-year-old has conceded talk of a first title since 2004 is not on the agenda.

Shkodran Mustafi is an injury doubt (
Image:
Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

"At the moment we have different worries than the title," he said. "After such disappointment, you have to think about winning the next game.

"We are too far from the title at the moment to speak about the title. It's not realistic. Let's try to win our next game and over a longer distance see if we can come back."

Provisional squad: Cech, Ospina, Mertesacker, Holding, Koscielny, Chambers, Monreal, Debuchy, Bellerin, Nelson, Kolasinac, Maitland-Niles, Ramsey, Coquelin, Xhaka, Elneny, Ozil, Wilshere, Iwobi, Walcott, Sanchez, Welbeck, Giroud.

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