Arsenal Wenger has revealed the latest team news ahead of tomorrow’s game against the filthy Orc hoard.
Following the midweek draw with Liverpool, Arsenal are without Kieran Gibbs whose thigh strain sparked some transfer business yesterday and new boy Nacho Monreal could make his debut.
Arsene Wenger said, “Our scouts have followed him for a while and we had a blow with the Gibbs injury. He will be out for longer than expected. It will be 4-6 weeks.”
The boss said he was not sure yet if he’d throw the Spanish international straight into action, and would assess him in training today.
Thomas Vermaelen is a doubt and Francis Coquelin is still out, but Mikel Arteta could return if he comes through a fitness test.
UPDATE – Abou Diaby is also in the squad tomorrow.
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Quotes via @Arsenal and @JamesOlley
[…] Arsene Wenger has revealed that Kieran Gibbs could be out for up to a couple of months, which certainly puts the move into better […]
Could even be 8 weeks according to Arsene..Feel sorry for Gibbs..Was one of our best player along with Jack and Theo
Tis a shame indeed. At least we have this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nttfzwiwtV8
So, the truth has come out. The ONLY reason Wenger spent money is because Gibbs will be out for 2 months putting the 4th place Trophy in jeopardy.
It also shows that if Arsenal really want a player, the transfer can happen in 1 day.
Baffling! But true if he really wants to buy a player, Wenger can do it in a jiffy.
I’m quite happy with this bit of business. It means obviously that Wenger knows Santos is only good enough to be a back up. Plus Monreal is apparently really good and will challenge a fit Gibbs. Gibbs is injury prone and even though I have no doubt he’s going to be a really top level full-back when he peaks in a few years, we still need someone for now who can play almost every game. We dropped points and keep getting attacked down the left where Santos is, so it’s no co-incidence. I reckon this move could save us some… Read more »
AND if Coquelin gets fit fast, he can play left-back against Bayern maybe.
I certainly trust him more than Santos.
Yeah, Gibbs has been great most of the time this season. Be honest though, with his injury record could we honestly expect him to play every game for the rest of the season? Truth be told, we needed a left back last summer. Wenger was playing Andre Santos on the wing in pre-season and Vermaelen has hardly set the world on fire playing in his preferred central position this season, and I don’t think playing him at left back is an acceptable long-term option (better than Santos, though). We need competition for every position, and Gibbs doesn’t have that. Competition… Read more »
Why does everybody take Santi for granted now. We were raving about him early on. Now even blogs has been getting on him. He’s still putting in quality performances.
Good business to be fair. Reactive or not as Bloggs said, 6 weeks of Santos in bad form could be very damaging for top 4. Hope the new boy is good as being honest I’ve never seen him play. Seems like the new emirates deal has changed our transfer window actions already, summer should be interesting.
Stoke would be a pretty tough initiation for the Nacho man. Welcome to England.
Aaah yes. 3 weeks in Arsenal time has been converted to 4-6 in normal time. Let’s hope it’s not longer than that.
I’m a little worried about the TV5 mention. With Nacho Nacho Man just getting into London, does he get thrown on against the Orcs? Or with TV5 potentially out, do we have another Santos sighting?
lol diaby was 2-3 weeks ends up being 4 moths . If he says Gibbs is out for 4-6 weeks ……………………….
Fuck, my spelling.
I did wonder why he always seemed to be gravitating towards the floodlights in evening games.
Ha.
“Arsenal Midfielder Abou Diaby has had his contract terminated after the club discovered that he was actually several moths and a pair of shin pads. The club became aware of the deception after several years of investigation by the medical staff.
The Diaby moths were awarded £1.5 million in severence.”
Big blow for the bayern tie. Be an even bigger blow if he opts for Santos. I’d be tempted to give Meade a run out, least he could keep pace with the wingers. Strange splashing £8m+ on a lb that is cup tied, hope this isn’t an indication of Wengers ambitions for the season. Looks a good signing tho and will hopefully keep Gibbs on his toes
Please, let’s not start with the Wenger ambition directly linked to a player being cup tied. If we wanted a non cup tied left back we could have some schmuk Wayne Bridge rocking up (cold shivers)!!! Face it, Nacho looks quality and he will prove his worth in many other games than the CL.
Yes, Monreal is quality. I think he is second choice for Spain after Alba. A very good signing. I´m surprised Malaga sold him.
Don´t really know what ppl mean by “is he ready?”. The man is a professionall footballer and a short flight to england should not change this fact. He plays with the spanish national team ffs.
Send him out and let him show what he´s got. If he performs horrible, he will still be better than Santos. We have nothing to loose..
And I didn’t really know what “ppl” means.
What’s wrong with adding all of three vowels? This isn’t a text “ffs”.
Nacho please!
Wouldn’t start Arteta for this one, I’d love to see a mid of Rosicky-Diaby-Cazorla/Wilshere.
You want to remove either of Wilshere or Cazorla from the midfield !! :O
Don’t really know if he’s any good but a Spanish international must be good, no ? Interesting that Arsene identified him as a good crosser, Arsenal need someone that can cross. I wanted to see a DM bought but I knew it wouldn’t happen. Let’s be honest,Arsene has done well with Left Backs so far. He has introduced Cole, Clichy and Gibbs to the first team with Santos his only real mistake. Even Silvinho was pretty good.
I’d like a debut from the nacho man, the sooner the better, the merrier!. Get in, ah not you santos.
We’re playing against the Orcs. We’ll win the CL before Giroud scores a goal from a cross against them.
Urgh.. another long injury. Good god. Are we cursed with injury prone players or what.
I’ve given up on having this mad idea that footballers can’t get injured. Any team has this sort of problems. That’s the only reason why I hoped Wenger would buy in January. If you effing know that an injury is a given, than effing rotate by quality players.
Don’t have any? Buy them. Oh, you won’t? Good luck. Credit to Arsenal for punching above their weight since 05 etc. but how realistic is this long term? Glad we got at least the left back sorted out. COYG
I hope the transition period (Spain to England) for Nacho(if any) is as small as Santi’s. Santi’s presence would help him of course to get to know the playing conditions in England. We cannot afford any slip ups now.
…at least it isn’t the dreaded 3 weeks
The Nacho signing sounds more like it. Classic old skool Wenger – A signing from nowhere, who no-one knew that well, very promising by the sounds of it. And how we all long for a bit more of the old skool Wenger. None of this Slivestre shite this time.
“A signing from nowhere”, really? Maybe in the eyes of most British pundits. He’s considered the second best left back in La Liga and has been capped several times for the Spanish national team. I’d say he’s an established quality international rather than “very promising”.
i admit I had never heard of him till we signed him
“I’d say he’s an established quality international”… He has 7 caps for Spain. Sounds like you know as much about him as we do!
I never heard of him.
As much as I love Gibbs he has a mild touch of the Diaby-ies about him. Hopefully a shrewd move by Wenger – you need two decent players for every position and the prospect of that useless tub Santos fannying about down our left flank until Mid March doesn’t bear thinking about
That would be ‘filthy Orc horde”, really….
I reckon even the Fat Boy can stay for the Stoke game, but I don’t fancy him against Bayern at all.
In the long run, maybe Gibbs could be converted into a proper left winger; freed (a bit) from defensive duties – which he doesn’t seem to like that much) – is a thought.
If you have that, then maybe we don’t have such a striker crisis. Poldi moving inside, with Giroud and Walcott – potentially it’s not so bad.
Sounds plausible but then we’d be right back where we started, needing a cover for Nacho. I’d like to see Fontina Salsa brought in.
I hear you, but I think this has the virtue of versatility; Gibbs, as a converted FB can still be pressed into services as a FB when required, presumably sending Poldi back out to his current role.
There is potential cover (Meade?) coming through, hopes for the future.
It’s the cup-tied thing that worries me…although we’re not going much further there anyway
Sorry, but I’m not having a “Salsa covering Nacho” joke going unappreciated.
Your joke is brilliant.
Im just glad the transfer window is closed. Thank god we got another LB. Of course Arsene knows !!
Sorry Malaga he’s nacho man no more, he ours!
I do worry about our coaching, it seems Santos will join Squillachi and co as unplayable but earning big bucks. Why cant we work at improving a player we thought was still good enough at the beginning of the season? Bring in Winterburn to give him some individual coaching, don’t just throw him on the scrap heap. Arsenes turned into my wife, buying overpriced shit which he never uses.
I think Santos can have a useful role as a substitute for Poldi in midfield in some situations.
That’s what I thought.
At least the Squid is gone at the end of the season. His contract will be up. Santos has another 2 years to run. I think he can be useful on the wings or even in midfield sometimes, in the cups or as a sub. He’s creative, has a fairly decent shot on him, gets forward well. It’s just not so good to give him so much defensive responsibility.
Santos could always go in goal as he’d be able to cover most of it.
i just hope crouch and neville brothers love child aka Nacho …shocks the system out of us like santi did with his fine display.
Can someone confirm that nacho has played only two games for Malaga this season???
Nope, 23 games, 1 goal, 4 yellows and a straight red.
2 of those 23 were friendlies – assuming that is what amistoso means.
*international friendlies
Gibbs has been great this season, so it’s a bit of strange one. Sagna on the other hand…
I still think that a strong Dm would have been the best buy… That would have meant that Arteta could have taken some of the pressure off of Cazorla and played further forward.
Still, it’s better than nothing…
I may be wrong about this, but the acquisition of Nacho was fast tracked due to the injury to Gibbs. This means, he was already a target. Doesnt this bode well for the summer, cos it means we have attainable transfer targets? Oh, and we are going to lay waste to the Orcs, and Nacho is going to play like a man possessed. Mark my words.
I kind of had a suspicion that Gibbs was going to be out for longer than 3 weeks when Wenger bought Nacho.
I just hope a month does not turn into the rest of the season.
Gibbs injury is first mentioned at 3 weeks, but as soon as he gets seen by our medical department it doubles to six! If I sprained my ankle in the street and saw an Arsenal physio heading towards me, I’d hop away as fast as I could! I’m glad we’ve bought a player so that we don’t need to use Santos in the Premier League, but it merely papers over the cracks of a woefully thin squad that lacks any quality in many areas. Personally I don’t think Szczesny is good enough to be our no.1, and the back ups… Read more »
” If I sprained my ankle in the street and saw an Arsenal physio heading towards me, I’d hop away as fast as I could!” ………your recovery time would still be upto 6 weeks. You can try to hop away from the truth, but that won’t change the facts!!!!!
http://www.twitter.com/justsommie
‘Arsenal Wenger’? Haha. A lot of folks call him that here in Nigeria.
Fucking comment didn’t appear above.
Great signing by all accounts and a I applaud arsene for having the bollox to admit that santos would never have been upto the job. But with Gibbs fit left back was never our biggest problem this year, it was and has been since the summer a lack of plan b if and when it wasn’t going right up front. We needed proper cover or assistance for giroud. We also needed a quality solid steel defensive midfielder with enough bolox to Marshall our wayward defence and bring other midfielders into play. The problems we have had a lot of this… Read more »
Thank you @DOUBLEDOUBLEDOUBLE my bad for getting my info from Wikipedia
Not a problem, most people get their info from there, e.g. he has 7 caps for Spain, not the widely reported 9 – though it’s updated now on Wikipedia.
Ja MON! a REAL NACHO. ( I ll get me coat)
Good as Gibbs has been for us this season – and he has been very good – it’s more than reassuring to know we’ve cover beyond the remorseful Santos. I’m not sure I could handle 4-6 weeks of that kind of stress. But it still means another solution has to be found for the first leg against Bayern … TV5 at LB (but only if no CB gets injured) or Jernade Meade – who really impressed last time out. It’s a big pity for Gibbs though. But let’s see just how good Monreal is – he is, after all, Alvaro… Read more »
Seriously,I’m hoping for the best performance on nacho man…cuz I can’t breath seeing santos playing in our matches…I always feel like killking that dude!!..he’s a complete shit now not the santos I used to know..
hi guys,, can anyone show me how to start an online petition to get gladiz and stan out of our club.
im still behind arsene as i dont think any other manager apart from him could have stayed in top 4 with his best players leaving each year,,, but arsene did..
if he had the support of dein or someone like dein im sure we can be a force again.. my email is [email protected]
Thanks but not thanks
Hi guy, I can show you, it’s rite this way>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ok, now fuck off.
” Abou Diaby is also in the squad tomorrow.”
Yeah, ‘cos if you have a player prone to getting injured if anyone so much as sneezes near him, Stoke are an ideal team to throw him on against.
Santos left back left back in the changing room no where else
Are Diaby injured again? Or has been again?
It was obvious that Gibbs injury is more than a strain as there is no way Arsene would buy a left back before the summer.
However I really do hope to god Gibbs can come back sooner and stronger.
[…] 来源：[Arseblog News] […]
Decent signing but he’s not eligible for the Champs League; Gibbs looks like he’ll miss both games; leaving us with Santos or ou-of-position Verm against Robben and Ribery. Not good.
I like what someone said earlier, get Coq in there at left back
Nachos!
“you say she your girl, Nachos!
Tell ’em how we play….Nachos!”
what a perfect song for this momentous occasion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQv7P2-_qnA
forgot the link
Why is Wenger LYING all the fucking time to us! I knew.. No.. We all knew that it would be longer than 3 weeks out for Gibbs! Oh look.. 4 to 6.. It’ll be 7 then with Arsenal luck… Also. Im really worried that Monreal signing MIGHT? Hinder Gibbs development. Ah fuck.. Ignore me fellas im just moaning cuz im so pissed off with our season so far. We all want the same thing! Come on Arsenal!
[…] that, coupled with an injury to Kieran Gibbs much more serious than we first feared, prompted Arsene Wenger to splash some cash on Nacho Monreal on deadline day. As an aside, it shows […]
[…] that, coupled with an injury to Kieran Gibbs much more serious than we first feared, prompted Arsene Wenger to splash some cash on Nacho Monreal on deadline day. As an aside, it shows […]