Arsenal manager Unai Emery has confirmed that defender Laurent Koscielny will make his first start since May when they take on Qarabag in the Europa League.
The French centre-half’s last start for the club was in the Europa League semi-final against Atletico Madrid, when he was stretchered off with an Achilles injury that has kept him out of action ever since.
During that time Koscielny was named as club captain following the retirement of Per Mertesacker and is expected to wear the armband for his Emirates return tomorrow.
Emery is also expected to give some young prospects a run-out, as he did in the previous Europa League game.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference, as reported by Sky Sports News, Emery said:
Our first mind in this competition is to be first in the group – which we have done – but we respect this competition and Qarabag. Tomorrow our objective is to win, we will give players a chance to take responsibility and confidence.
We are going to use tomorrow with some different players, with some coming from Under-23s. We also start to play with Laurent Koscielny.
The Arsenal boss also announced that Koscielny will not be in consideration for the away game at Southampton on Sunday, with his fitness needing to be assessed following Thursday’s game.
He suggested Nacho Monreal and Stephan Lichtsteiner are both far more likely to play in the match as he aims to ease Koscielny back into first-team action.
Emery said:
We have some players with injuries and unavailable at centre-back. We are going to decide after Thursday because it will be the first time Koscielny can play.
We can use other players in this position, like sometimes Monreal and Lichtsteiner, so we will decide, but first we think about the Qarabag game.
