Thomas Vermaelen won’t be in the squad for tonight’s clash with Manchester United, but the club captain says his recovery from a knee injury is going well.
The Belgian picked up the knock in the 2-0 win over Sp*rs in the FA Cup, and with just Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny as the only other centre-halves at the club, things are a bit stretched now.
“I’m working hard to get to full fitness again,” Vermaelen wrote in his programme notes for tonight’s game. “Things are looking ok.
“This is a period of the season that any player would want to be fit for. Liverpool, Manchester United, Bayern Munich – it’s a run of games we’ve all been very excited about, and it’s exactly why players want to come and play in the Premier League.”
Although no timeline has been put on it, it’s thought he could make it back for the FA Cup clash with the Mugsmashers this weekend.
The captain also had a message for the fans who made the trip to Anfield on Saturday and endured the team’s worst performance of the season.
“We are very proud of you. It’s impossible to take backing like that for granted. Let’s hope we can reward all of you, and everyone who comes to support us tonight, with a vital three points.”
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The Arsenal match-day programme is available to download on iPad and it’s quite excellent – click here for details.
Feel really sorry for the Verminator this season, he has no luck! I hope he comes back and gets a good amount of playing time during the rest of the season, we’ll certainly need him!
yea, but the rock of merterscielny has been so impressive it would have been difficult for anyone to break back into the team. However, he still performs his role as captain with such class and elegance.
“It’s impossible to take backing like that for granted.” Very eloquent and mature indeed. It’s great to have such level-headedness in the team, and not like his own personal situation get entangled with the role he knows he has to play as the Captain of the team. Great man.
I’ve always been a big fan of Vermaelen’s, and his handling of his situation has been top-drawer. He could’ve done a Bendtner or Denilson and just sulked about his lack of playing time, but he knows the score and is genuinely working hard to come back (could you see Gallas doing that when he skippered the side? Didn’t think so.). He’s gonna find it tough to get by Kos and Per, but God knows we’ll need him as the competitions wear on and the fixtures pile up.
Love and admire his professionalism above all.
Thomas Vermaelen is such a vital part of the team, always there when needed…I mean, what will we do without his match day programme notes?
I think match day programme notes is Vermaelen’s most important contribution to the club these days…
That’s the odd thing with injuries, you tend not to contribute much when you have one.
I hope he doesn’t leave in the summer.
Would love to have him tried at DM position as david luiz being used in chelsea.
I wouldn’t. I feel this notion of TV as a DM is flawed. His positonal play is too suspect, and with the way he loves to bomb forward would see us exposed as we used to be when Song would bomb forward in that position.
Like any player being played in a relatively new role, he would need to learn the ropes. That’s not so difficult as he’s an intelligent guy. We lack steel in the middle of the field and he could well be the one to provide it.
Agreed…would do a better job than Arteta at present
Wow, the difference between TV and Fallas just got even wider. Didn’t think that was possible. I will not begrudge him a move over the summer.
I want nothing more then to completely destroy and obliterate United. I want to see the Dutch skank sitting on the sidelines sobbing. I want to see moyes staring mournfully off into the distance. We bloody well deserve this.
And the dutch cunt bloody well deserves that too!
TV5 – The BEST backup defender when out of form, and one of the best first choice defenders when in-form.
Come back stronger than ever !
If we can’t beat this weak manure side tonight then we don’t deserve to win the league
If the mer and kos paring continue to generate great stats,i dont mind puting verm inside with 5defenders instead of a cdm.reason is this will allow sagna or moreal to push further up the field and attack more aggressively on the wings.they wont keep worrying about tracking back in usain bolt speed if our opponent were to counter attack.