Alexis Sanchez: Arsenal to assess forward’s injury this week

“Obviously if you ask Alexis Sanchez if he is OK, he is going to say yes”, Henry explained.

Aaron Ramsey could not hide his delight after returning to Premier League action during Arsenal’s 1-1 draw at Norwich City on Sunday.

Verheijen now says that Wenger needs to accept that his techniques are failing his own players.

“Cazorla got a kick on the knee, we don’t know if it is ligaments or just a kick on the nerve but the worrying thing is that it got worse during the game”, Wenger added.

Arsenal go to Athens needing to win by two goals, or by a high-scoring one-goal margin, if they are to progress to the Champions League last-16.

Sanchez is a massive blow but, despite the Arsenal star hoping it was only a kick, it is believed that it is a hamstring pull. “There are a lot of young players in the team waiting to come through”.

You nearly had to shake your head in disbelief as Sanchez limped off with a hamstring injury against Norwich on Sunday – only four days after Wenger queried the fitness of his talisman.

“The players are there to play football and not to be rested and not for the press to decide if they need to be rested. Because that happened he put himself behind others in the pecking order and that is why he hasn’t been involved – but I thought this game suited his attributes”.

The coach told Sky Sports after the game that he would have rested Sanchez had the forward not insisted he was fit to play, saying: “Of course we are concerned but you go through spells like this in the season. What happened on the pitch was not a great experience but we need to try and bounce back so we are ready for the next game”.

Centre-back Koscielny went off clutching his hip in the early stages, while Sanchez, who set up Mesut Ozil for Arsenal’s goal, departed with around half an hour remaining after hurting his right hamstring. However, there is some good news in the form of Laurent Koscielny, whose scans have shown that he may be back in training before their game against Sunderland. They played a few long balls at times and it was hard to get he ball down and get our pressing on but they did really well and probably a draw was a fair result.