Frenchman Alexandre Lacazette has been ruled out of the London Derby clash with Chelsea this weekend after failing to recover from Covid-19. The status of the Arsenal striker ahead of the Chelsea game was revealed by the Gunners’ medical team on Thursday. According to the statement released by the Arsenal medical team, Lacazette failed to recover from the Covid-19 that prompted him to miss the Premier League opener at fellow London team Brentford.

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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said that French international Lacazette was ill in his pre-match press conference for the Brentford game played at the Brentford Community Stadium on Friday night alongside strike partner Pierre-EmerickAubameyang. It has now been revealed that Lacazette and Aubameyang were two of the four Arsenal players that missed the Brentford after testing positive to Covid-19. Brazilian winger Willian and Icelandic international shot stopper Alex Runnarsson also tested positive to Covid-19. The Gunners were said to have tried to postpone the game at Brentford to no avail after the four positive tests as mentioned above.

Unlike Lacazette, Gabonese international Aubameyang is in contention to face Chelsea when the two teams meet on Sunday evening at the Emirates Stadium after he returned a negative test for Covid-19.

Lacazette and Aubameyang were sorely missed as toothless Arsenal were beaten 2-0 by the Bees. Sergio Canos and Christian Norgaard scored the goals for the hosts either side of the interval. The Gunners would be looking to bounce back from that defeat when they face Chelsea. On their part, the Blues began their Premier League campaign with an emphatic win over Crystal Palace in the London Derby. Marcos Alonso, Christian Pulisic and debutant Trevor Chalobah all scored for the Blues who recorded a 3-0 victory at home to Palace.

Chelsea will have the services of new summer signing RomeluLukaku available for the Arsenal game following his return to the club in a record-breaking £98m deal.