Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Gervinho, Theo Walcott and Laurent Koscielny will all miss tomorrow night’s Champions League group match with Olympiakos after picking up knocks and strains in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Bolton Wanderers.
The Ivorian winger is is understood to have picked up a ‘mild’ muscular problem, Koscielny is having trouble with his ankle, while Walcott will sit out the game as a precaution. All three players are in line to return for Sunday’s North London derby with Spurs.
In the short-term the trio of new injuries heaps the pressure on Arsenal’s threadbare squad with the likes of Abou Diaby, Jack Wilshere, Johan Djourou, Yossi Benayoun, Thomas Vermaelen and Sebastian Squillaci also sidelined.
It appears the Frenchman has a big decision to make in the heart of defence with Alex Song looking likely to drop in alongside Per Mertesacker at centre-back.
More to follow…
Here we go again.
Not knocking the medical staff as am unqualified to judge these things but how can one club get so many injuries ffs
we are in for one long hard season… and can someone tell me whats happened to almunia? is he dead?
He’s not playing for us ever again, and that is all we need know.
Definitely not a bad thing.. What is a bad thing however is that he is still collecting his 80k weekly pay check.
Almunia is not earning 80k a week
Obviously NOT on 80k a week.
Talent like that is on 160k AT LEAST
Sorry.. 50k. Still a rediculous salary for a man whos best skill is pulling horse faces while impersonating Basil Fawlty between the sticks
What the hell is with injuries to our squad?
Something must be up as this is abnormal. evry bloody yr about 8 diff player out at the same time.
Bloody annoying
I’d go wit Alex Song
I think man u have about 8 players out at the moment as well so it ain’t all bad 🙂
But yes it’s true it seems like we can’t get through 1 game without someone being injured, it sucks.
What’s the status on Djourou, if available he is a better alternative at CB than Song who is essential at DM. If unavailable, would love to see Miquel play alongside Mertesacker. Miquel will be a star.
Agree with everything you say. We should have more than the lion’s share of possession in this game, and our defence shouldn’t be under too much pressure. If Djourou is fit, he needs games to get his confidence back and gain some form. Granted he has been terrible thus far this season, but how quickly people forget how good he was last year. Just needs games
Miquel is nowhere near as good as Bartley, he is lightweight, quiet and has no leadership qualities… He isn’t even very imposing for a centre-back!
SHUT UP HE’S FROM LA MASIA HE WILL BE AMAZING
Agree but bartley’s got Groin problems. Think Bartley and Miquel will be our long term CB pairing. Cover all the bases.
isn’t miquel the captain of the reserves? surely he’s got some leadership qualities then
Miquel and Mertesacker / Djourou is a bad combo as none of these are quick players. Miquel and Vermaelen / Koscielny would be good options.
So from last season’s first choice team we’ve lost Koscielny, Vermaelen, and Clichy … Wilshere, Cesc, and Nasri. Plus Walcott and Gervinho.
Add to that a possibly-grumpy RVP, an out-of-form Arshavin, and an extra-out-of-form Chamakh.
This is why Miquel was pulled from the reserves last night; he’s going to partner Mert (Could be worse, Squillaci could be on the mend).
What the hell, we could see AOC or Park start. And Rosicky could be ready to partner Arteta.
Afterthought: What are the chances of a similar teamsheet for Spuds as we had for Old Trafford?
We didn’t have Song, Sagna, Gibbs, Santos, Mertesacker, Arteta, Frimpong or Park for ManUre, so good shout….
I think all 3 are just precautionary measures, and they probably need a rest anyway.
SZCZ, Sagna, Mert, Djourou, Santos, Frimpong, Ramsey, Arteta, Rosicky, Arshavin, RvP.
Bench: Fabi, Gibbs, Miquel, Coq, AOC, Park, Chamakh
That team should easily take care of Olympiacos.
Song as well..
I am pretty sure that someone has cursed our club, it is simply not possible to have so many injuries to our players year in and year out. I may be getting a little longer in the tooth myself but I remember when having 15 players was enough to go a whole season. Nowadays we are 25 + juniors and still short of cover in all areas. Makes no sense to me. Off to drown my (sorrows) self in beer.
For fucks sake if things don’t improve i think we should make a transfer record shattering move for House in january
heh
Now that is funny. Dr House in da house.
Just kill everyone, fuck it
That would appear to be the plan.
Im pretty sure Most of those injuries are precautionary. We are playing Olympiakos at home, I’m sure our carling cup team would get at least a draw.
I nveer ever worry about the Champs lge, we’ve got our £25M in the bag, anything else is a bonus, cos i doubt anyone really thinks we can win it.
I expect Koscienly & Gervinho to return for the spurs game, hopefully Walcott too.
Sky is falling and all that. It won’t be as bad as people are making it out to be. Arshavin/Oxlade-Chamberlain in for Gervinho/Walcott, Miquel in for Koscielny. We’ll lack some pace but have a bit more technical quality. May even see RvP play behind someone like Chamakh or Park.
We struggle through, cause that’s what we do.
In the NHS we trust !!!!
It doesn’t seem to matter how many central defenders we have, there will always come a point in the season when we don’t have enough.
Check out Arsenal injury count v other premiership sides. Arsenal always seem to be near the top of this table at least (unfortunately). http://www.physioroom.com/news/english_premier_league/epl_injury_table.php
I would rest a few tomorrow regardless of injuries, it’s vital we get something from the spurs game Sunday. The league has to be our priority at the moment. The way we pick up injuries we can’t afford to go to their place without the best available team.
Let have faith with a bottle of beer in our hand
————————–SZCZ———
SAGNA – ——-PER – ——MIQUEL——-SANTOS
———————–SONG————————-
————RAMSEY——-ARTETA————–
—-ALEX——————————-ARSHAVIN
———————–RVP—————————
would be my vote as the line up.
Think Miquel’s injured dude, he’s not been playing reserve games. Song might have to drop back and we’ll play Coqulin or Frimpong maybe.
Arshavin doesn’t last 90 minutes anymore we might even see Miyachi.
Fuckin A !
This is probably one for the statisticians amongst us – but over the last 4 or so years, does anyone have a number for how many games we played with our preferred starting XI and how many without? It just seems we can’t string 3 games together (literally) without one dropping off and I’d like to see number to confirm that or quell it as merely psychological.
Our chief problem is mr Wenger,he always buy light weight player that is why when we have injuries everybody starts shevering like oliver.am not comparing but take Man U for example,injury to Fedinand and Vidic did not even shake them the pairing of Jones Smalling or Evans is ok for them so its high time he starts buying the right size of playe not player with petit body like himeself
“its high time he starts buying the right size of playe not player with petit body like himeself”, mate that is one of the funniest internet comments I’ve ever read, but I get what you’re saying…who else saw Wenger on his waterslide in the summer?
Fuck this. Can someone explain me what’s going on in the training ground and the medical centre? If Hargreaves was here he would tell us the truth about the undergraduate bastards in the medical team.
I want to see Park in the “poacher” role, with RvP behind him threading him in and hitting som shots from outside the box.
Probably get injured while poaching an egg much less the incredibly physical contact sport of football. This club makes me more physically sick each day.
who did this to us and when will it stop?
Would be nice to see some of ryo and the ox involved… Could be an 80’s cop show
My school coach used to ask “Are you hurt or injured?”…then respond with “You can play hurt.” Wenger needs to ask this of his players…these are men!
CHRIST ON A CUNTING BIKE!
Why can no cunt at this fucking club stay fit for more than 5 fucking minutes!?
I tell you what introduce a “no play no pay” policy and see how bad some of these “injuries” are. Our medical team are a fucking joke and should be fired – useless cretins.
Lets hope Djourou is also injured. Let him play and it’s an instant defeat!
It’s so ironic. Our fans are very frustrated. Extremely understandable, but not acceptable. BUT…. As fans we should be behind every player that currently dons the Arsenal kit and is on the Arsenal payroll (except Almunia and Squillaci). Manure fans (The pricks they are) are usually always behind their players, even when Nani and Ronaldo continuously attempted to break dance on the football pitch and offered nothing productive, with the support they got from their fans and manager look at them now. Players like Djourou was the player we prayed was fit last season so that we can win games,… Read more »
Jb212 I have to disagree. Djourou is an awful player who Tina and time again makes very bad decisions during the game. I’m afraid to say he’s no better than Squillachi. And with Per being so slow on the turn we need someone to sweep up behind him. If Djourou dones
If Djourou dons the famous red shirt again it would be a travesty!
How about an injury league. Each player has a value eg the suns fantasy value without the zeros so a player worth 9 million has a value of 9. Each week he is out he gets 9 points. Apply this to every player and team in the league We then get this sanctioned by the fa and we then get to win a trophy every year. As the saying goes “simples”
ffs this is an arsenal blog.why compare everythng 2 man utd.carik,vidic,rio,fans,park and saf.
Gora, Can you honestly say you complained when Arsenal were being compared to Barcelona due to the style of play and we were nicely spoken about when being compared to Barcelona. No…., I didn’t think so. I don’t think I heard an Arsenal fan complain about such comparisons with a club in totally different league and country to Arsenal. BUT A problem arises when comparisons between the most successful team in the country, Premiership champions and team currently lying in first place with the strongest looking team in our league. It’s ironic that a problem usually occurs amongst Arsenal fans… Read more »
[…] so? Because injuries are in the season it seems, as Gervinho, Walcott, and Koscielny joins Jack Wilshere on the treatment table. Though it seems the worst of the lot has to be Jack […]