Norwich vs Arsenal: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in contention to return but Alexis Sanchez won't be rested

Oxlade-Chamberlain could return to the squad to face Norwich on Sunday while Theo Walcott is also back in training and nearing a return to action

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is in contention to return for Arsenal (Getty Images)

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is in line to make a return to the Arsenal squad for this weekend’s trip to Norwich as Arsene Wenger looks to ease his growing injury crisis.

Wenger saw the defensive midfielder added to his lengthening list of players unavailable for selection, with Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck and Tomas Rosicky yet to play a minute of action this season.

Their absences have been compounded by the loss of Coquelin, who remains the only defensively-minded midfielder in Wenger’s squad after he refused to add another in the summer transfer window, and the news that the 24-year-old will not play again until March has left Arsenal supporters fearing for their Premier League title ambitions.

The return of Oxlade-Chamberlain at least relieves Wenger of some of the pressure over selecting his midfield, and there was an extra boost with the news that Theo Walcott has returned to training ahead of his own comeback from a hamstring injury picked up in late October.

Club captain Mikel Arteta also picked up an injury having replaced Coquelin when he went off, but the Spaniard will not be sidelined for as long as his midfield colleague.

“Arteta is short term but Coquelin as I told you is much longer but the scans are positive because he does not need any surgery, but it will be 12 weeks,” Wenger explained.

"Walcott goes through a few tests and steps but the first one was successful. He started running again on Tuesday morning and had no reaction. He has no big hurdle to get across today and hopefully he will be successful."

Arsenal will want to get back to winning ways at Carrow Road having suffered a shock 2-1 defeat by West Brom last weekend, where the Gunners let a lead slip from their grasp and miss the chance to top the Premier League.

"For us, it was a bad result," Wenger admitted at his pre-match press conference on Thursday morning.

"But on the day everything went against us, they had one shot on target and scored two goals. That will not always happen.

"On top of that we missed a penalty and scored an own goal, so we had a nightmare. It was an unlucky day, that can happen in a season but after it is how you respond to that and we did that well on Tuesday."

Wenger was in much better spirits than he was last weekend thanks to the 3-0 Champions League victory over Dinamo Zagreb which has given them a shot at reaching the last-16 despite losing three of their group stage matches.

Alexis Sanchez got himself on the scoresheet in the win over Zagreb, notching his first goal since mid-October, but despite the risk of burnout and what was described as a minor hamstring injury, Wenger will risk Sanchez this weekend instead of giving him a rest.

"I will have to assess that a bit later,” added Wenger when asked if he would give Sanchez a break.

"Spontaneously it might not be the best moment to rest Alexis but I don't know. He had a little hamstring alarm but we will see how he recovers from that. Joel Campbell had a little calf problem so I will assess all that Friday, latest Saturday.”