Arsenal stars missing through injury

Arsenal will be without several key players for Saturday’s match against West Brom. Theo Walcott and Lukas Podolski are two of the big names who will be missing, manager Arsene Wenger confirmed, as Arsenalseek to bounce back from two successive defeats. The Gunners suffered a demoralising 2-0 reversal at home to Swansea City last Saturday and followed it up with a 2-1 defeat away to Olympiakos in their midweek Champions League fixture. A bout of injuries mean that Wenger’s side will now have to make do without a number of first-team regulars against the high-flying Baggies at the Emirates Stadium. “Lukas Podolski and Theo Walcott are out,” he said. “Bacary Sagna and Laurent Koscielny are not back. “From Tuesday night in Greece there are no new injuries so we have a selection from the combined squad of Tuesday and Saturday.” Podolski missed out on Tuesday’s trip to Athens thanks to a calf injury but Wenger does not expect the Germany international to be out for too long. “It is a hamstring,” he said. “It should be short term.”