Arsenal have confirmed their full squad for their trip to Belarus to play BATE Borisov in the Europa League which resumes on Thursday.
The Gunners go into this tie off the back of a 2-1 victory over Huddersfield Town in the Premier League - their first away win in the league since getting all three points at Bournemouth in November and will hope to build on that result tonight.
Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil were not named in the squad while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Granit Xhaka have made returns.
According to Unai Emery, Ramsey who agreed a £400 000-a-week pre-contract agreement with Juventus this week was omitted as he did not train with the rest.
Sokratis has not trained much with the first team since his recovery, thus, he remained in London.
The manager gave the same reason for Ozil's absence but many supporters feel there is more to what Arsene Wenger's successor comes out to tell us about the midfielder's repeated exclusion. Some have even alleged that the Spaniard intentionally leaves Ozil out of games probably for personal reasons.
The 30-year-old has started one game out of Arsenal's last eight fuelling speculations that he will be departing the club at the end of the season.
Aubameyang and Xhaka are back after recovering from illness and a groin injury respectively.
"The players we didn't bring in the squad were because Aaron Ramsey did not train with us and Sokratis only started training on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I don't think it's enough," said Emery via the BBC.
"Mesut is the same. (Pierre-Emerick) Aubameyang, after he was sick, trained this week, and I think he's OK for the match."
This will be the second time Arsenal will be tied with BATE Borisov in recent times. The North Londoners recorded a 10-2 win (in a two-legged tie) over them in this same competition last season. On that occasion, they got to the final of the Europa league before Atletico Madrid sent them packing.
Full Arsenal Squad for BATE Borisov Clash
Cech
Leno
Elneny
Koscielny
Mkhitaryan
Lacazette
Torreira
Lichtsteiner
Aubameyang
Maitland-Niles
Iwobi
Monreal
Mustafi
Suarez
Guendouzi
Kolasinac
Xhaka
Nketiah
— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) February 13, 2019
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