Arsenal team news: Alexis Sanchez and Aaron Ramsey join Scandinavia tour as Arsene Wenger fast-tracks comebacks

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James Benge4 August 2016

Alexis Sanchez and Aaron Ramsey could be fast-tracked back into action against Liverpool next week with the pair set to join Arsenal’s pre-season tour of Scandinavia.

Both Sanchez and Ramsey returned to training this week and will join the squad when they fly to Stavanger today ahead of Friday’s friendly against FK Viking. Arsenal also play Manchester City in Gothenburg two days later.

Arsene Wenger has confirmed that the pair will play a part in at least one of the pre-season games, opening the door for both to feature in next Sunday’s Premier League opener against Jurgen Klopp’s side. Sanchez could be a surprise option to lead the Arsenal line, with Chuba Akpom and a reluctant Theo Walcott the only other options currently available.

Wenger had intimated earlier in the summer that he was eager to give his players extended breaks but Ramsey in particular has returned to the squad earlier than he had expected.

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“I believe that they need four weeks’ holiday because they need to recover from that,” Wenger said last month. “It takes you two or three weeks to regenerate… to recover completely, and they need to come back with hunger.”

Sanchez and Ramsey both returned to London Colney on a high earlier this week after summers to remember with their international sides. Chile won their second consecutive Copa America, once more beating Argentina in the final, whilst Arsenal’s Welsh midfielder was the star man in his country’s remarkable run to the Euro 2016 semi-finals.

A trio of that tournament’s participants, Laurent Koscielny, Olivier Giroud and Mesut Ozil, are expected to return to first-team training on Monday; their chances of featuring in the first game of the season appear notably more slim.

Santi Cazorla is also not expected to appear until later in August whilst Jack Wilshere may not be risked next week should he, as feared, miss the flight to Norway.

Last summer Wenger faced criticism for rushing Sanchez back into club action just 36 days after his Copa America had ended, throwing his star attacker on with just over 20 minutes left in what would remain a 2-0 home defeat to West Ham.

The forward all too often struggled to discover his explosive best in the first half of the season, with the exception of a flurry of goals in late September and October, and Sanchez ultimately suffered one of the worst injuries of his career, tearing his hamstring and spending nearly two months on the sidelines.

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