Arsene Wenger insists Danny Welbeck is in 'good shape' despite his early change in Arsenal's defeat to FC Koln

Wenger also hailed the performances of youngsters Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Reiss Nelson in the Europa League defeat

Arsene Wenger looks pensive in the dugout as Arsenal are beaten (Getty)

Arsene Wenger insisted that Danny Welbeck was not injured and is in “good shape” after playing just 45 minutes of his injury comeback in Cologne on Thursday evening.

Welbeck was taken off at half-time in this, his first Arsenal appearance for more than a month as he recovers from hamstring injury. Wenger explained in his post-match press conference at the RheinEnergieStadion that Welbeck did not feel any new injury during his run-out, and his early withdrawal was in fact pre-planned.

“The situation that it was planned before the game that he would play 45 minutes,” Wenger explained. “He is coming back from injury. We have three more games, on Sunday [Burnley], Wednesday [Huddersfield Town] and Saturday again [Manchester United]. And medically the risk was a bit too high to play him for longer, because he has been out for a while. But he has no problem. He was of course ready to stay on, and frustrated to come off. But he’s in good shape.”

Wenger also hailed the performances of youngsters Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Reiss Nelson in what was otherwise an underwhelming 1-0 defeat to FC Koln, on a night when Arsenal won Europa League Group H regardless. “Maitland-Niles was very good,” Wenger said. “In the first half especially when we had problems to create dangerous situations, he did very well. Reiss Nelson came on and looked really tricky, dangerous going forward every time. Overall I would say the really young players did well on that front.”

Wenger said that Koln’s penalty, which Sehrou Guirassy converted after being tripped by Mathieu Debuchy, should never have been given. “It was not a penalty at all,” Wenger said. “We missed a little bit in the final third, a little bit accuracy in our passing to score more goals. Plenty of dangerous situations ,but we missed always a little something to finish our chances.”

When asked what it meant to win Group H, Wenger did not know. “I will tell you after the draw,” he said. “You feel you have done the job if you finish the group top. What does it really mean? I don’t know. But it’s what we wanted.”