Arsene Wenger admits Arsenal are in defensive crisis and tips Shkodran Mustafi to miss FA Cup final

Arsenal are facing a centre-back crisis for Saturday’s FA Cup final as Arsene Wenger confirmed at his pre-match press conference this morning that Gabriel is out and Shkodran Mustafi is a serious doubt to face Chelsea at Wembley, an “absolutely unbelievable” combination of events.

With Laurent Koscielny also suspended after his red card last Sunday against Everton, Arsenal are without their three best centre-backs for the biggest game of their season. After storming to the Premier League title with 93 points, Chelsea are hot favourites to win the double and now Wenger must find a way to stop Diego Costa and Eden Hazard with a patched-up defence.

Wenger admitted at London Colney on Wednesday morning that Mustafi, the £30million summer signing from Valencia, is now unlikely to play. He suffered concussion in the 2-0 defeat of Sunderland eight days ago and has still not returned to full training. “Mustafi, we still have some worries about,” Wenger said. “He is still sick at the moment, and has not trained yet.”

Mustafi is bound by rigorous official guidelines on returning to action after a concussion and they mean that Mustafi is now running out of time to train in time to get ready for Saturday. “I don’t know,” said Wenger, downplaying the German international’s chances. “I have to listen to medical people.”

Mustafi is a big loss because Arsenal will also be without Koscielny, their most reliable defender for the last seven seasons. But he is suspended after getting sent off for a ludicrous tackle on Enner Valencia after 13 minutes of Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat of Everton on Sunday.

More bad news is the fact that Brazilian centre-back Gabriel will also miss the game. He was stretchered off on Sunday with a knee injury and Wenger confirmed that it is a ligament problem that will sideline him throughout the summer and could affect his pre-season.

“Gabriel is out for six to eight weeks,” Wenger confirmed. “We had a scare about his cruciate, but it’s only a medial knee ligament, so the positive is that he avoids surgery. He’s out until the beginning of August now, certainly.”

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The combination of the three absences leaves Arsenal dreadfully short ahead of the final. Eight days ago they could expect to call up Koscielny, Mustafi, Gabriel, Nacho Monreal or Rob Holding as their three centre-backs. Now they are left with Monreal and Holding, and may have to play Per Mertesacker between them, more than one year since his last start.

“It just shows you how unpredictable football can be because we played at home [against Everton], your mind is on attacking, and on the day we lost two centre backs,” Wenger said. “It’s absolutely unbelievable and unpredictable, and we have been hit hard in a position where we will need to be strong on Saturday. We’ll have to find solutions and hopefully I will find the good solutions.”

Wenger was more confident that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain would be fit after the midfielder returned to training this week after a few weeks out, and also backed Alexis Sanchez to shake off a knock and play.