Arsenal teams news: Unai Emery’s defensive woes finally eased for Premier League clash at West Ham

Granit Xhaka may be given a reprieve from his makeshift role at centre-back as a host of senior defenders return

Unai Emery’s squad is set to be revitalised this weekend when Arsenal travel to the London Stadium to take on West Ham on Saturday as the Premier League resumes.

Arsenal have laboured with a heavily depleted defence in recent weeks, with Granit Xhaka forced to fill-in at centre-back, and were cruelly exposed in a 5-1 thrashing at the hands of Liverpool before the new year.

Emery had hinted that he would be open to a loan move for extra cover, but has received a significant boost ahead of Saturday’s fixture with Laurent Koscielny, Konstantinos Movropanos, Shkodran Mustafi, Nacho Monreal and Hector Bellerin all in contention to start.

Mesut Ozil is also fit, having recovered from a knee niggle which kept him out of the fixture against Liverpool, as well as subsequent victories against Fulham and Blackpool.

Rob Holding, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Danny Welbeck remain long-term absentees.

Provisional squad: Leno, Cech, Martinez, Jenkinson, Lichtsteiner, Bellerin, Koscielny, Papastathopoulos, Mustafi, Mavropanos, Kolasinac, Monreal, Maitland-Niles, Xhaka, Elneny, Torreira, Guendouzi, Ramsey, Iwobi, Ozil, Lacazette, Aubameyang, Nketiah.