Arsenal given massive injury boost ahead of north London derby clash with Tottenham

ARSENAL are set to be boosted by the return of Laurent Koscielny for Sunday's north London derby with bitter rivals Tottenham.

 

The France central defender was sorely missed, replaced by Gabriel on Wednesday as Arsenal were battered 5-1 by Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

Koscielny complained of a twinge in his troublesome hamstring in the team hotel before the match. He was named among the substitutes but did not warm up, yet boss Arsene Wenger looks sure to risk him at The Emirates.

With the game coming before the international break - there is a gap of 13 days before Arsenal's next match, at West Brom - he is likely to ask his country to rest him so the problem can be cleared up.

 

Wenger accused his men of being "extremely poor defensively" at the Allianz Arena, and keeper Petr Cech accused them of being a bunch of softies.

The former Chelsea keeper spoke out after the thrashing left their hopes of qualifying from Group F on a knife-edge. They need to beat Dinamo Zagreb at home on the same night Bayern defeat Olympiakos, then go to Athens and win 2-0.

And Cech, who won the Champions League in 2012 when Chelsea defeated Bayern in Munich, was unimpressed with the way his new team folded.

 

Koscielny missed Arsenal's drubbing at the hands of Bayern Munich



Koscielny scored against Swansea, but complained of hamstring trouble ahead of the trip to Germany

 

"We need to do better defensively, be more aggressive because we allowed them too much time on the ball," he said. "Bayern were superior to us in every single way."

Skipper Per Mertesacker insisted the team would use the bitter memory of their humiliation in Bavaria to inspire them against Spurs.

"We will learn a lot from this game, we must learn a lot and we have to play better against Tottenham," he added.

 

"We have played well recently, defended well and that's what we must focus on. But if we are to beat Tottenham then we have to recover quickly."

Mesut Ozil, who had a goal disallowed for handball which would have made the score 1-1, told team-mates the ball hit his arm accidentally and he felt it should have stood.

As well as having the goal chalked off, the Germany star was booked.

Tomas Rosicky, who had a cartilage operation in August, has been given the all-clear to return to running next week after seeing his specialist in Germany.