Ahead of Sunday’s clash with Tony Pulis’ Mark Hughes orcs, Arsene Wenger has revealed that Mikel Arteta could return to the squad for the first time this season.
The Spaniard injured his thigh on the eve of the season but has finally recovered after five weeks on the sidelines.
Speaking to the press at London Colney this morning, the boss paid tribute to the midfielder’s importance:
“He is back in full training today. A decision will be made tomorrow morning. He is a leader. We are happy to have him back.”
Unfortunately, Arteta is the only player to have recovered from injury. The likes of Santi Cazorla, Yaya Sanogo, Abou Diaby, Tomas Rosicky, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Lukas Podolski remain unavailable.
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Updates via Twitter from @JamesOlley
boom
patterns
Kung fu fighting
Worrying how nothing is mentioned about when Rosicky will be coming back
Hopefully that perpetual injury black hole, hasn’t returned to Colney.
Pretty sure it’ll be 2-3 weeks..
Once Santi returns too, what happens to Wilshere?
He drops to the bench, as simple as that. Noone is a guaranteed starter. Atm Santi, Rosicky, Ramsey all rank ahead of Wilshere for me, and they deserve to be in that starting line up. Arteta should also not ‘walk’ into the team, must earn his place back.
I find it suprising why people think Wilshere is indispensable/cannot be benched. Atm there are players who are better for the team as a whole. Jack will have to fight for his place.
People Arsenal is a team and if Wilshere or Carzola or whoever else is benched, it means the coach has decided so. Remember we need as many fit very good players available as the bench can fit. So let us be supportive of whoever the boss decides to play and / or bench. Come on you Goooners!
Don’t blame the people for being worried about what will happen to Jack when Santi is back. For years we have been told if we sign play X it would “KILL” player Y, so people are not used to competition for places and if it happens, it is like a shock to our system. Now, our players could play 60/70 games a season, with only trusted squad of 18, EVERYONE will get around the 30 games mark (no, Diaby is not included) with no worries if they stay fit. Why the worries? Trust me when we had squad of 22… Read more »
wrong! Arteta is key to ball retention in the middle of the park as well as orchestrating counter attacks.
Flamini is a boss but not as effective as Legohead
Right! Arteta needs to fight too! there can be no safe spots ! also as he is just returning to fitness Flamini is probably sharper, thrusting a barely ready player in when we don’t absolutely have to is reckless and foolish, bring him on at 70 for a 20-25 min match fitness boost i say and consider him a starter or not for the following match, lets be a bit careful while we have the luxury of being careful, for if we don’t we might loose the chance with an aggravation of said injury
But I wouldn’t really want to throw Arteta to the orcs right from the start. Keep him on the bench and bring him on during the 2nd half. Then start him vs WBA.
It’s a nonsense argument. Flamini has made us look solid in the middle, we look arguably stronger than we have for years with him in the team. I agree Arteta is a class act but right now if he was to be played I’d hope he’d be put back in his preferred position and allow Flamini to carry on bossing the midfield and kicking the shit out of people. He’ll definitely be needed tomorrow against Sauron’s Orcs.
Careful! seems like y’all are now turning on wilshere I agree he is not unbenchable but you’re only judged by your last game right? and he did well the last time out I suppose.
Players should be kept on their as it only helps raise their game and that’s why I can’t wait to have the full house back!
*toes
The great thing right now is that saying Wilshere should drop to the bench is not saying the guy is crap.
It is a consequence of our midfield having so much quality in depth that even someone as good as Wilshere doesn’t walk into the team.
Ramsey does walk into the first 11 right now, but if his form drops, he gets tired or (god forbid) gets injured. Its not a case of Oh Shit What Do We Do! We just play Jack.
I’m not sure that saying he can spend some time on the bench is running a young player down. It might do him & all the others some good to be part of a decent midfield squad and play a decent number of games without having to play when they’re in ‘the red zone’, which is where players perform less well and become more vulnerable to injuries.
The bench wasn’t a bad place for our keeper last season!!!
Nacho or Gibbs
Sagna or Jenkinson
Kos/Mert or Verm
Arteta or Flamini
Ramsey or Wilshere
Rosicky or Diaby (if they’re ever fit)
Santi or Mesut
Walcott or Ox
Giroud or Poldoski
Stating the obvious but loved writing it out, we have 2 quality players for every position except CB (as we have an odd number and I don’t count Sagna as he’s counted for the RB spot)
And I forgot to mention the mouth watering selection dilemma of Bendtner or Park.
Ohh to, Ohh to be, Ohh to be a GOONER
This being Arsenal it may sound strange, but Wenger might rotate players. Which way, it is unclear at this point.
If Arteta isn’t ready to start, the only real rotation options are across the back four… Monreal for Gibbs (possible but not likely), Jenks for Sagna (less likely) or Verm for either CB (really unlikely). I just don’t see Wenger rotating Gnabry, Miyaichi or Akpom into the first 11 vs the orcs.
Don’t make me get the stats out! I showed the other day that Arsenal’s first XI are rested about as much as any other top premier league team.
probably clockwise
Stoke have actually started playing football since Hughes arrived, Pulis would never have got a defender from Barcelona! Lets hope we can destroy them as usual, maybe Ramsey dribbling past Shawcross and scoring for abit of fun.
Rambo firing off a thunderbastard and it takes a 90 degree deflection into the net off of Shawcraps balls would be better.
Unleash the Flamini!
One is better than none
LANS again
damn. i thought i would never haunt our team again
Excellent, excellent news. Will be interesting to see who comes out on top with Art and Flam. I have a feeling Flam is a better organiser, but that’s just me.
Incidentally, game is on Sunday, not Saturday.
Agreed I think he is a better organiser and Arteta is a better distributor, which is a lovely choice to have in different situations and different games. Lets not forget people this is a squad game these days and our squad is pretty thin on numbers. We don’t have to fit square pegs into round holes, just fit them into the situations that most require their particular talents.
It all depends on the matchup I suppose. I’d rather have Arteta against Stoke than Flamini. Like the orcs even know how to attack… Arteta is probably defensively more disciplined than Flamini as well.
However, he is definitely not starting, it just wouldn’t be very kind to him or his career, and Flamini is certainly capable of helping bring 3 points against stoke.
saturdays clash? @arseblog.. isnt our match on sunday?
Yep, sorry for confusion. It’s been corrected.
I sincerely bloody hope it’s not Saturday, as I’ve just booked my train tickets…
Happy to have him back.. at lease our bench would look decent. Cannot wait for Santi to come back and combine with Ozil though.
I want my santi back!
I think Santi may be ready before the intl break, but wenger might not want him to go on another 6000 mile trip for sitting on a bench….so they’ve put his return to after the break….we really need Santi after the intl break when the tougher games start…
Yes! One more off the dreaded injury table, Arteta’s calmness, discipline and use of the ball cannot be underestimated to the teams importance..delighted to have him back
Ahh but that means there’s a spot free now!
You volunteering to take one for the team?
Don’t get me wrong, I love Arteta and could watch his Culann Davis youtube all day long, but I’d still pick Flamini against the orcs just because of his aggression and ability to absolutely clatter people.
Hes just back in training, there is no way we can expect him to start on Sunday….that would be suicidal in the way we used to rush people on early in the last few years only to lost them again…thats why we needed, and now have, those extra players in midfield – ozil and flamini….regardless of what others say about not needing ozil, our midfield is what works hardest, runs most distance and gets most injuries, hence we really need so many quality players there…because a small drop in quality in our midfield at either end means toothlesss attack or… Read more »
Miki is BACK, bitchesssssssss!!!
Arteta is a great player to have back. In Marseille we lacked a bit of leadership between the link up of defense and attack.
I think that our team is the most versatile in the world. Arteta could come in for Ramsey, Wilshere, or Flamini. It makes us very unpredictable for teams to try and read our game.
Bloody brilliant.
No arsecast this week blogs?
Blogs is in New York on holiday this week. @arseblog_tom is covering the blog in his absence (hence no podcast)…
give it a try
will he be at the blind pig on sunday?
I believe he was for the Marseille game. So maybe.
Love to have Mikel back. Also, to pick a midfield trio between him, Ramsey, Wilshere, Flamini and Ozil will be hard, but I suspect that either Jack or Mesut will drop to the left flank….
I think even if he’s fit the boss won’t risk starting him. He will start next week I guess.
As much as i like Arteta I personally wouldn’t want to risk him returning from injury to play against Stoke only to end up back in the medical room..Also agree that that no player is unbenchable, they each need to fight for their place. Isn’t this what we wanted tho, good options on the bench?
Glad Arteta is back, but I still feel flamini has d force to calm down canter attacks
Options. What i nice change.
Arteta and Ramsey centre, with Flamini back as DM, surely? Arteta can do Jack’s job, with Jack on the bench until he improves.
Having said that, wouldn’t start with Mikel on Sunday. Give him a run out after we’re 8-0 up.
No, then they’ll deliberately hurt him like Jack vs fenerbahce. Where’d Pubis go, anyway?
Eaten by his orcs.
How about Arteta and Flamini pivot?
Everybody seems to have a short memory arteta is not in compition with flamini he is not a holding midfielder he was covering our lack of one. Arteta and flamini can both start no problem and in games with a phyical approach would be the ideal solution.
Ramsey for a hatrick
Cheers Tom
with santi back soon we’ll be able to rotate 2 sets of world class midfield players completely between premier and champions league games.
wednesday flamini, santi and wilshere
saturday arteta, ramsey and ozil
drooling…..
and I’ll throw Rosicky in there to the mix for the last 15-20 minutes of each game to attack a tiring defense and midfield.
Not too sure Ozil will be content to play only on Saturday, tho
I love the tone and maybe/maybe nots of his words.
He keeps us wondering plus his opponents quibelling. (or quibbleing?)
Anyway, for a tricky game, put Voldemort on the bench, less of a c*nt than the B52 anyhow.
may the almighty God grant all our injured players quick recovery and give them divine insurance against any more injuries.Rossy, Pls I really want to see you playing again and the Rest of you guys keep the momentum.
Why is there no update on Bendtner’s injury and expected comeback date? Is he not part of the squad? and where the hell is Park ?
I think they gave up on NB again after he posted that Nando’s photo…
According to the Daily Mirror, Bendtner is in Denmark with a fitness coach trying to lose weight…
You make more sense than those Spuds who get on here.
🙁 Blogs, do you know anything about Rosicky? Although we havent missed him on the field just yet….. I miss him terribly. Hes my absolute favourite player to watch, backwards doesnt compute to Rosicky and his little pirouette turns are just dreamy.
I don’t have a a problem with players being benched/rotated. Risk of injury is reduced and competition for places will benefit us
Anyone have an update on how long our injured players are out?
And so the midfield selection headache starts for Mr Wenger. I’m sure he has dealt with worse scenarios
Lads and Lasses, remeber that for the past couple of seasons we have been wishing we had rotation problems. If Jack has to sit then so be it. Also, should the Bossman make adjustments for the different type of opponents that we face every match? I think it will only make our boys work harder to get in the starting 11..COYG!!!! That is all… End transmission…
Go legohead kick some shawcross ass – i hate those scumbags and mark Hughes is a complete a-hole. Beat the dross to a pulp!
Start the Flame, Arteta on the bench, to come on in the 60th minute when we are up 4.
Trending… Arsenal bench!
Our Captain is Back…. #TeamLeggoHair
what mate
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Will echo many that
* arteta should earn his place back unless flamini or another becomes weak link
* wilshere atm should be benched; nothing came of him and loses the ball too many times and often led to Counterattacks; not good enough
* diaby should have been killed ages ago ffs
Crush the stokes….