Both the Telegraph and the Guardian are reporting that Olivier Giroud is almost certain to miss Wednesday’s Champions League clash with Besiktas, and could be out for a number of weeks with the ankle injury he picked up against Everton.
The Frenchman was hurt when he blocked a clearance from Sylvain Distin and the worry is that he damaged ligaments in the process.
After the game on Saturday Arsene Wenger said, “It’s a stretched ankle, at the moment it doesn’t look too good.”
With Yaya Sanogo also struggling with an injury, Giroud’s absence would be a big blow ahead of such an important fixture.
It might put a stop to the departure of Lukas Podolski or, indeed, if it’s more serious, force the manager into the transfer market in search of a new striker.
Alexis or Joel Campbell may be thrust into centre-forward action on Wednesday should Sanogo not recover.
Not good – can’t let podolski go now
Shad. where are you Shad. don’t just sit there in the shade Shad. Shad up!
Not 100% applicable in this case given our subs were used and it was very late in the game but the amount of times our players play on (particularly Jack) when they have a knock is criminal.
Shad, there’s your step 1.
Step 2, rebury the indian remains we clearly dug up and pissed on.
Yes, we need Podolski’s goals on Wednesday! What would you think of a good old 4-4-2 with Alexis and Podolski up front and a diamond midfield with Özil as a 10?
Arteta, Giroud, Sanogo, Gibbs… ha brilliant.
I’m going to sarcastically also thumb this one down. Not because of the comment’s inappropriateness, but due to words that I cannot bring myself to write down to how this scenario makes my thumb feel.
No idea what you’re talking about. Being english almost every other sentence i say is sarcastic. As is the “brilliant”…obviously
Balls.
Ah, sharpshooter over here beat me to it
*doff*
I’ll be on my way.
Bollocks
Make Ramsey the striker
Better finisher than most strikers out there
Suspended 🙁
Christ on a bike. These injuries will ruin our season before they even begun. Well not it’s imperative we should buy a striker before the window closes.
Dare I say… blessing in disguise? Thumb me down all you want, I support Giroud and I love his work ethic. Works his socks off. Scores some crucial goals. But we need a clinical number 9 in. Hopefully this makes Wenger buy one and breeds healthy competition between a new signing and Giroud, he can only benefit, and we as a club can only benefit from a world class striker coming in.
Not much of a blessing for Wednesday, is it?
if Alexi plays 90 minutes as a striker on Wednesday …..i guarantee you, he will score at least one goal.
He played 45 minute as striker this weekend, and had 0 touches in their half. How do you figure he’ll score if he never has the ball?
Play Podolski on Weds, it might be his last game and I do not think he is the man to hold back; far from it.
He is an expensive squad player but he has almost been criticised because of his short cameos that have often saved us and then done less when started.
I’ll miss him and won’t un-follow him on social media unless he signs for… them.
@Theo, it was (obviously) 0 touches in their penalty box
Why all the thumbs down? He has commended Giroud and then made the point he’d now like to see strong competition or even a bigger name coming in to compete for the striking role. None of us would say no to a new striker and we’d all prefer a big name in this position
It is not like in the old days. This day and age with social media where you get to know players more up close and personal, fans often get more attached to individual players than they are to the club. 10 years ago if we could get in a world class striker every single fan would be hell yes because it would make us more competitive and would benefit the club, Arsenal F.C. But today since Giroud got a charming personality, and the fans follow him on twitter, look at behind the scenes video and what not, they feel like… Read more »
Kangaroo testicles
Giroud is predictably underated and appreciated. He’s not ‘clinical’, well Saturday he was clinical, not many strikers would have scored that goal inc TH14 who was useless in the air (albeit supreme everywhere else). The fact is Giroud is about as good a player as we can get in the current system we play. He has improved enormously since he arrived, and I expect him to score frequently this year, but not just that, he is vital for the guys either side of him and the likes of Ramsey running through. We need him, and is just about irreplaceable, unless… Read more »
Most of the best teams in the world however do not use a big target man up front, and if they do they make sure he is a proper goal threat aswell, like Ibrahimovic for PSG. The two best attacking teams in the Premier league last season did not have a big target man upfront either, except when city played Negredo. Having a big target man available could come in handy for certain games. Their main striker is Aguero however. Liverpool had one very technical creator and clinical goal threat in Suarez, and one pacey exploiting space striker in Sturridge.… Read more »
No new signing would be able to play on Wednesday anyway. If we get through Wednesday’s match because Alexis, Campbell or whoever is upfront has a good game, surely that will demonstrate to Wenger how the striker position is already covered. Yet if we were to lose on Wednesday, which world class striker is going to be so desperate to play Thursday nights? Basically I don’t think this will affect our decision to sign or not to sign a striker. If we’re in the market, Wenger is already working on it. If not, I really don’t think this will force… Read more »
No way will Wenger buy another forward this summer, no matter how long Giroud is out. He bought Alexis and he’s been talking up Sanogo and Campbell.
The focus is on the defensive side of things now.
it is only ever bad news when one of our players is injured. never good news. ever.
If you think Arsene Is going to spend 15/20 million pounds because one player is out for a few weeks, you really havnt been watching the man for the last 18 years have you? Not a chance he’ll sign a top striker better than giroud just because giroud got injured
You clearly have utilised you vast, accurate scouting knowledge to find which of the players that might constitute an upgrade on Giroud are available and drawn up a long list like 1.Cavani 2.Falcao 3. Stefan Robolov; after which you must have spent quite some time on the Arsenal’s published financial accounts, done the math, and deduced that we have 50M+ sitting there which we could use to SPLASH it on any of the above before you rightly called out his injury as a blessing in disguise – and I hope Venga is reading the blog! Because if you haven’t, then… Read more »
Us? Injury crisis? Who’dve thought it.
It is not even September yet, and we are already hit with so much injury. Sad!!!
S(h)ad!!!
We just Shad ourselves.
Shad snaps his fingers…
Waiting…
Our one and only HFB. Gets better every season. Hope he recovers quickly. He was becoming quite the impact sub and beginning to develop his character on the pitch. Let’s not let him down by getting some REAL cover who would augment and stand in for him if need be.
How have we managed to get into an injury crisis already? Is this on-top of or instead of the injury crisis of January/February?
Well ain’t that some merde!
Hopefully this means that we have got our annual injury crisis out of the way early. Better than the usual injury crisis we get at pivotal times close to the end of the season.
I’m trying to cheer myself up.
This is a shad state of affairs.
Giroud is a great trier and indeed a HFB, but we could and should do much better. A more mobile striker such as Cavani would get 25-30 goals in this side. Le Boss needs to act now. Sanogo? Do me a favour.
3 games 4 injuries how very arsenal
Its time for Campbell to step up.. I believe he can cope with the pressure and shine for us
At emirates, false 9 should work.
Anyone who read the guardian and telegraph articles can see that they are making wild guesses. The player himself has said that he might be available good Wednesday. Let’s not jump into panic mode.
Well fuck
Shad out.
Shad can’t do anything about a ball being whacked and bending the handsome bastard’s foot backwards
Yeah, that ball went…
Woooooosh
Hi! Let’s talk about CF again. …when is the window closing again? Bring on the names…
Cliff Richard?
phil collins
Ronnie Corbett
Don’t we have enough diminutive (word)play makers?
Its alright guys, we’ve got Sanogo, he’s quality, Wenger said so…
Nah, he’s injured.
and he’s sanogood 🙁
and we have joel too..
who will soon start a fire..
on goal scoring charts
While I can appreciate the sarcasm here, I would much prefer having Sanogo healthy because in Giroud’s absence he is the only other player we have right now who allows us to stick to our most successful game plan. So many people look at centre forwards and seem to think that because they’re not clinical they’re as useless as teats on a boar but without them, it’s a lot more work for our midfield to truly express themselves. I’m sure that Alexis, Joel Campbell, and maybe even Chuba Akpom can do a job there. But it will require a different… Read more »
teats on a boar–nice
Whatever the papers say you can’t ignore the fact that key injuries don’t leave us much to fall back on!! A fine line between patience with the decisions and that little burning pice of doubt in your belly. …..
If only Davor Suker was still around
Hoepfully its not to late in Poldis case.
I have no fucking lcue why we want to weaken our team further. Though he may not be a ST hes a damned good player to have in your squad.
Please dont sell Poldi.
Fuck! I had a dream/nightmare that we signed Danny Welbeck last night… I don’t know what to think of that.
That would ruin the season & probably the next few seasons for me. That kid is absolutely worthless. That’s why I love seeing him in a ManU shirt!
Maybe you should decide first whether it was a dream or a nightmare.
must have been a nightmarish dream, dreamt on a dreamy night….
crap! this injury shit is getting to my head…
Oh for fucks sake… Let’s just hope it’s pure speculation. Can’t afford any more losses, it’s not even September yet and we have an injury crisis… Only Arsenal
How the fuck can Wenger put any faith in Sanogo as the back up striker, when it appears that he picks up an injury after every game he plays? If Podolski is to be sold, a reliable starting striker is absolutely necessary to compete with Giroud for the centre forward role. Can’t be relying on wingers or teenagers to lead the line for us this season when Giroud is out.
Sanogo shouldn’t even be starting on Wednesday Night. If i was the manager my team would be :
Szczęsny, Debuchy, Koscielny, Per, Monreal, Ox, Chambers, Ramsey, Cazorla, Podolski and Sanchez. My bench would be Martinez, Rosicky, Flamini, Ozil, Campbell, Bellerin and Diaby.
Ramsey is suspended 🙁
Name one world class #9 who’s actually for sale, and not on nonsense wages? And don’t name Balotelli, offs, that cunt has never had a 20 goal season in his life.
he’s also an nasty tackler.
Bar Messi or Ronaldo , we could actually afford anyone.
The question is, ‘who would make us better?’ and I say, quite a few if the ‘rumours’ are to be believed then Falcao, Cavani, Reus could all be available.
If we cant top the points table, then we will do everything it takes to top the injury table. SMH
3 competitive games. 3 injuries. What the f**king f**k??!
its
fuck fuck fuck
We were OK to go with this in the previous season because we didn’t have the money. Giroud is good but we need a better striker if we are to win any major hardware this season
Injury or not – echoing Ghunner, Le Dooner, et al – we definitely need a solid ST to complement the French OG. For this season, I’m okay with Chambers doing a job at DCM as long as they get CB cover. That’s two pieces of business in 6 days; unlikely.
We do the money now to go and get a better striker
Step forward Joel Campbell
Love Wenger, love Giroud, but this Mourinho quote says a lot…
“I want three strikers in the team. Sometimes I play with two, one on the bench, sometimes someone will be injured or suspended. I cannot do a season without three strikers.”
Giroud, Alexis, Sanogo.
Giroud and Alexis can play with each or in place of each other. Sanogo on the bench, in case of injury/suspension. And all this is without considering Campbell.
Theo once fit.
And Podolski.
If we go out on Weds and lose to Leicester on Saturday our season is effectively over….how’s that for pessimism!!
But we won’t, so it won’t.
It’s easy, go to your happy place 😉
Please tell me what medication you’re taking so I can refuse it
Two things.1:anyone who reads the Guardian or the Telegraph is a cunt.2:American Gunner it’s silverware we want not hardware but that’s just Yankee warmongering
There is no way Arsene will buy another striker, our whole forward line is a bit of a shambles, Giroud simply cannot play 50+ games a season, but whenever we try a different option it fails miserably, Sanogo is clearly not ready, Campbell doesn’t look like a first class striker (in my humble opinion) and Sanchez playing up front doesn’t suit our game…..and if anyone suggest Danny Wellbeck, please feel free to shoot yourself in the face.
Cavani please
Goals are his bread and butter
I am gutted that Giroud has suffered this injury, as we are stronger with him in the side than without him, We will miss him on Wednesday for sure and our chances of getting into the champions league are damaged for sure, But don’t give grief to the people posting on here suggesting that there could be a silver lining from this, as they are probably true. The whole world can see that Arsenal have been crying out for a world class striker to complement Giroud, we have the money to buy that striker however Wenger has decided against this,… Read more »
We bought a world class striker to complement Giroud already.. He can play with him/without him, behind him, on the flanks..
I dont get why peoples clamoring for another strikers that play differently then Giroud like Cavani.. for
1) Team needs to understand how to play with him.. We already got Alexis to understand.
2) He need to understand how to play with the team .. We already got a poacher type striker in the team.. called Podolski.
3) We have Ozil.. as Saturday proves, we have to carry him. We cant afford to carry 2 peoples in a game.
Poldi to Wolfsburg with TGSTEL as makeweight?
* cackles maniacally *
We have Sanogood don’t worry! FFS!
7 thumbs down?
All I am saying is that he is not good enough yet!
Knobs c ya!
I would like to see Campbell given a chance upfront as with Sanogo struggling, he is the closest thing we have to Giroud in that he can hold up the ball and is fairly tall but obviously not as tall as Giroud or Sanogo, but is taller than Sanchez. One thing he does have over the other two is pace to get in behind the defence. A front 3 of Sanchez, Campbell, Chamberlain could do the business I reckon.
Is Sanogo even available? He isn’t listed on physioroom (which I can’t believe I just consulted).
I hope not!
Two questions- 1.Do you think we can win the league with the strikers we have?
2. Compared to the other top 6 teams, how do we really stack up(be honest)
1) Yes.
2) Equally as good. Considering each team tactics build to maximized team potentials.