Arsene Wenger has confirmed Theo Walcott and Jack Wilshere “are back” for Arsenal’s home clash with Norwich, though Tomas Rosicky remains a doubt with a hamstring problem.
Ashley Young has been ruled out for the next two weeks for United. Jonny Evans is back in training ahead of the double Gameweek against Stoke and West Ham, while Sir Alex Ferguson is hopeful Nemanja Vidic will start training today. Chris Smalling “has started running” after missing out against City on Monday and Paul Scholes is set to return to training on Monday after a recent knee injury.
Roberto Mancini remains uncertain over David Silva’s fitness ahead of Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final clash against Chelsea. With a home league showdown with Wigan the following Wednesday, Silva looks a real prospect, given he has registered double figures in three of his last four at the Etihad but his manager admitted earlier today:
“We will decide on Sunday morning on David. We don’t know if it’s possible for him to play or whether it might be a risk if he does. He has a chance, but I don’t think he can recover fully. He may be able to play some part, but we will make a final decision as late as possible.”
Davide Santon has been ruled out of the next couple of league games by Alan Pardew after failing to recover from the hamstring injury that forced him off against Fulham last weekend. The Magpies boss has also indicated Hatem Ben Arfa will feature from the bench in Sunday’s Tyne-Wear derby, though still has question marks over Mathieu Debuchy, Steven Taylor and Cheick Tiote.
Demba Ba and Ryan Bertrand have returned to light training this morning ahead of Chelsea’s cup semi-final with City on Sunday. Given Rafa Benitez’s penchant for rotation, a start for Ba at the weekend would likely mean Fernando Torres will square up to Fulham in the midweek Craven Cottage league encounter.
Finally, for bib theorists out there, the pictures from Arsenal’s training session do little to clarify Arsene Wenger’s thinking ahead of the double Gameweek. Theo Walcott featured for both sides this morning, though given that Mikel Arteta and Santi Cazorla were also on opposing teams, we’re likely to take this with a bigger pinch of salt than usual.
As always, this has all been collected for you in our team news section, where you’ll find our current predicted lineups for the weekend matches.
Rate My Team has been updated to reflect the very latest with the Projections due their update in a short while.
Keep an eye on our Twitter stream as always, for any late breaking news.
