Mathieu Debuchy may not have broken anything in his awkward fall yesterday but he is still facing two months on the sidelines.
Le Parisien reports this morning that the French international has damaged ligaments in his left ankle and could be out until the middle of November.
It leaves us incredibly short of defensive options with back-up centre-back Calum Chambers now likely to deputise at right-back.
Mathieu Flamini and Hector Bellerin are other options to cover for Debuchy with the Spaniard likely to get a run out in the Capital One Cup against Southampton in 10 days time.
It’s just bad luck, has been all this while. Even Shad can’t change that.
Its not just down to bad luck. I think its inexcusable in the modern football to go into a season with an ambition to win the title having 2 seasoned CBs.
Damn, I feel like a barbeque now.
Compete at the top end – yes, but when was it stated we were in to win the title? Personally, I’ve felt since 2013 (with the heavy drop of deadwood, and with the commercial deals + new TV money) that it would take Wenger until next summer to really show a squad that is strong on every front. We’re not far from seeing that, and I think we can all agree that we have a ridiculously strong squad in quality AMD depth, but there are obvious gaps. The club will need just a bit more time to really show full… Read more »
Coq has played FB as well.
I don’t think Wenger will whip his Coq out unless he has to though….
Don’t completely disagree with you Harish. Still highly curious though on why we were unable to make that last defensive signing. I’m not interested in fans’ easy conclusions. I’d like to know what factors there were: concerning targets’ availability now or later, ease of signing then or in future, economics – seen outside the raging microcosm of one transfer window – if overpaying now affects future transfer targets/bids for example. All things that reside (rightly) within the closed doors of the club so one cannot know. The only useful conclusion I’ve been able to reach is it would do us… Read more »
But will we be able to hold off the other clubs in the fight for top 4 if we have to depend on academy players for large portions of the season? That is the concern. There is allways someone that can cover, that is not the issue. The issue is the quality of the cover. Dipping in to the academy to get us through the season isnt just not ideal, it is borderline crazy, and just unneccesary and ludicrous for a club stating its ambitions is to compete for all available trophys. When other clubs manages to go out and… Read more »
How many defenders to Chelsea have in their squad?
Have a look at the other ‘top’ teams squads and you’ll see that most don’t have much more than us (but they do have more!). personally I think we’re 1 CB short but if Hayden shows the form of Chambers… big IF.
An absolutely perfect comment….tips cap
You have just contradicted your own whinge….
I appreciate the points you are making, but what exactly does compete at the top end mean if we are starting out with the assumption that competing does not equal going for winning. So we are competing, but not to win, just to show competitiveness? Please Note: I have not lost patience, I am not demanding another trophy, I am not complaining about the long drought in the premier league. For me watching the development of the team and the club is as important. But I tire of these half assed revisionisms that keep selling the future. And it is… Read more »
Excuses.
FUUUUCK!! Get well soon Debuchy.
Well, when I saw the oxygen mask and the stretcher come on, I thought he would be out for a year. Two months is a “phew”.
Sigh
Oh fuck
Why the fuck is this happening!
It happens almost every year to us so it shouldn’t come as a surprise. The fact that we have an obvious lack of defensive cover however is not so surprising and is bordering on negligent.
We now have to over play all our defenders to the point of exhaustion and hope one or more doesn’t suffer the inevitable breakdown. Farcical.
But the injury was from nothing! No pressure, no shit surface, nothing! We are seriously short at the back now but I really can’t understand how our players keep receiving these freak injuries. Shad’s job just got that bit harder……
The pressure of his entire body coming down and his studs catching in the hard emriates turf did the trick.
More likely the high proportion of artificial grass at the Emirates. It doesn’t give like the real stuff and many physios blame it for injuries like this.
No point blaming Arsenal, however. We were one of the first to go in for it in a big way but most big clubs now have pitches like ours. It’s just the price you pay for a year-round surface like a billiard table.
He was probably carrying most of the injury from an earlier tackle. Just putting all his weight on it at a particular angle was just the straw that broke the camels back.
I am actually quite excited to see Bellerin take over , although wenger will go for the safer option in Chambers .
One injury per game this is getting ridiculous! Not even funny anymore how can that be happening?!!
Ref are letting it happen. When Milner clattered Debuchy very early on (maybe contributory to the injury) and the ref did nothing when he should have carded Milner, you knew there’s be a serious injury sometime in the game.
Yup, Milner put that patch of grass there……you fool
I guess you don’t understand how most football these injuries happen then. He was carrying a ‘weakness’ from an earlier tackle and all his weight together with the angle and catching studs was the last straw. You fool.
Fools…
When Debuchy got injured, Milner should have been retrospectively red-carded for that earlier tackle. Also the ref should have blown the final whistle at that point. Disgrace.
Ha ha.
It wasn’t necessarily Milners challenge that was the trigger for the injury, even though it was a horrible ‘tackle’.
It was a bit of a scythe but I think he might of gotten away with because it happened soon after a couple of other players were booked for Citeh, and Zabaleta’s yellow was slightly harsh.
On the whole though, in terms of roughing the opposition up, I think we gave as good if not better than what we got. In a way that was quite pleasing, our harrying was…surprising.
No pressure, Hector 😀
We have lost one player in every match whether due to injury or Red card!!!
Insane!!
Footballing gods dont wanna see us winning again.
Merde!
Can we give Carl Jenkinson a bell?
In loan deals, yes.
As I understand it, it has to be specified in the loan agreement. Some say ‘anytime’ and some give specific dates on which they can be called back. Some immediately and some with a notice period. Some can’t be called back at all.
As luck would have it, jenkinson is also injured.
Banter.
Jenkins is actually injured if you can believe it. I thought the curse lifted when one was on loan.
Doesn’t work with Jenko since he’s Arsenal through and through
He;s injured as well
He’s injured as well. It’s a conspiracy I say!
As far as I’m aware a player recalled outside of a transfer window is ineligible.
He wouldn’t be eligible for the CL anyway, as far as I know. We’ve declared our group-stage squad and can’t add to it now. Still, chin up, we’ve got hundreds of schoolboys listed, some of whom are probably defenders.
And on the subject of our kids, brilliant that we’re top of both tables. What a difference Jonker has made in just a few weeks. Hope the under-19s make a good showing against Dortmund Wednesday lunchtime. They should as the squad morale must be really high.
Im seriously getting worried like its not even a case of being overplayed its just happening!! This is not normal 🙁
I’m trying to see the bright side being that it’s only two months–in Arsenal time, that MIGHT mean four months–I thought it would be a lot longer (based purely on the level of writhing).
There you go Arsene. Now what?
normally id be scared, but we still have the young bellerin to scare every opposition
Every game Debuchy has taken a bad knock. Is he being targeted?!
Yup, that patch of grass his studs got caught on was put there by the Premier League just to give us another injury!! Definitely targeted!!! Lmfao
Why arsenal players so fragile.do we need to change the training method?
They aren’t. The if the refs let the opposition be kicked around to the same level then they’d have more injuries.
I’d be inclined to think that the football gods were aiming at Nasri and missed if it weren’t for the fact that this is happening every fucking game. This is ludicrously bad luck.
We’d certainly have won the last two games had it not been for injuries killing our momentum then costing us points! It surely had an impact anyway
Come own up who keeps smashing mirrors?
Need bellerin and Hayden promoted to first team ASAP and speedy recovery to debuchy, he is a real warrior. Can we bring Jenks back?
Injured
I have faith in BELLERIN…..He will surely step up
Bollocks.
It’s just further evidence that Debuchy should have tried to pass Jesus Navas on the left hand side.
Let’s wait until he’s been properly assessed before we throw all our toys out of the collective pram. This is just speculation after all at this stage. Not that I’m really expecting much better…
2 months? Wait till med team gets there hands on him.
This is fucking bad
It’s was bad before….but the “inevitable injury in a position we are short in” happened so now it’s even worse
Rosicky?
RVP
TV5
Walcott
Gibbs
And…Diaby
Better view of injury than what’s in the post: http://arsenalist.com/f/2014-15/arsenal-vs-man-city/debuchy-injury-stretchered-off.html
4 competitions, 5 defenders. This ought to be fun.
Do you mean 5 experienced defenders (not sure if I’d call Chambers experienced but he plays like he is) or are you forgetting Flamini, Coq, Bellerin and Hayden (and more youngsters if really necessary)
Yeah the gif above does not show the injury, only just afterwards.
It is still hard to actually see what the fuck he did lol
Real shame he has hurt himself so innocuously but shit happens. Hope he recovers well.
I actually really like the guy. He just strikes me as a hard cunt and we need some of that in the squad.
Case in point – Milner’s over the top tackle on him in the first half was repaid in kind almost immediately.
That shit gets my dick hard!
Curious what people have thumbed down about this lol
WOW! WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT? IT WOULD HAVE BEEN STUPID BUYING MORE DEFENDERS ANYWAY BECAUSE THIS WAS NEVER LIKELY TO HAPPEN WAS IT?
WENGER IS A GENIUS! I CAN TOTALL SEE WHY WE DIDN’T BUY MORE DEFENDERS.
Hello?
If you turn the ‘Cap Lock’ off then less people will think you’re a twat and actually read what you type. I didn’t read it so I don’t know if you’re right or wrong…..
It wasn’t worth reading. According to the people in the know, it is a mere formality that Chelsea will win the League this season. Apparently they have the strongest squad, with exactly the same number of defenders as us.
Didn’t see the Chavs mentioned anywhere in the original comment….just some facts about our known injury record & lack of cover. Keep spinning things to suit your opinion tho
“Facts about our known injury record”. This is a nonsense statement. As Walcott is almost ready to return to the first team, currently our known injured players are Giroud and Debuchy, hardly a disaster. I prefer to live in the real world and enjoy a superb game yesterday that we could have won and had we been more unlucky could have lost. Despite that the miserablists turn up spouting misery and woe, targeting abuse towards the manager and certain players. Just to help you wallow some more, if it is a bad sprain then we will have lost him until… Read more »
I can’t reply to your other comment for some reason, but YES, FACTS about our known injury record. It’s happened every season for the last 6-7 years. To say we have an injury prone team is a FACT, not an opinion. To not get proper cover for a known injury prone team is criminal FACT.
It is an opinion not a fact. The fact is all teams have injuries, it is inevitable in a contact sport.
Chambers, Coquelin, Flamini and Bellerin can play at right back. How much more cover do you want?
To further illustrate the point that injuries are not unique to us, Dortmund are unlikely to have Hummels, Reus and Sahin available to play against us on Tuesday.
Never let facts get in the way of your lies eh?
Stevie Bould is coming out of retirement, rumour had it that he is quicker than Par over 20 yards
dang people. chill down a lil bit. Bellerin is ready I tell you. Get him on the bench, and if Chambers need to deputize at CB, let Bellerin play.
Is there any centre back free agent right now that we can sign? We desperately need someone.
Mario Yepes, Colombian World Cup CB. He’s 38 but plays like he’s 28. It’d be a decent back up. If we signed Sol Campbell a couple of seasons ago, I don’t see why we wouldn’t sign him. It will never happen though.
Signed for San Lorenzo……Wenger won’t look for cover anyway as it would contradict what he said about us having enough cover this summer. Wengers not there yet, but there are a few “senior moments” creeping in & it’s worrying.
Big bad Sol for a third stint!!
I’m sure I’m not the only Arsenal supporter who’s not surprised by this. We’re used to it. I know in the heat of battle, instinct takes over, but there was no danger and he didn’t have to stretch for the ball like that. Oh well, shit happens, especially if you’re an Arsenal player
It kind of felt like the air and confidence went out of the team (and the stadium) after his injury, it looked so bad with the oxygen and everything. I can’t help but to think we would’ve won had he not gotten injured.
That’s nonsense because our August player of the month came on to replace him.
But sometimes it takes a while to get up to the pace of the game and when you come on with 9 mins left, you may never get up to it.
The problem now is our only available senior defenders need to play every game even when carrying niggles etc thus are prone to injury. A vicious cycle of our own making. Very frustrating as the team is very strong in many regards-always seem to be just a few players short.
It’s fine we have plenty of options in attacking midfield.
Seriously, why don’t we dip into the free agent market at the very least, now? Why not Yepes or any other name which I’ve not been paid to scout and conjure up – what stops us? Can someone who has a ear with arsenal put this in?
We could then line up
Bellerin-Kos-Per-Gibbs, with Monreal, Chambers and , Flamini as cover OR
Chambers-Kos-Per-Gibbs, with Monreal, Bellerin and , Flamini as cover.
Makes too much sense for us to do it?
No mention of Coq who’s started games as FB for us in the distant past…
Also Yepes has already signed for San Lorenzo.
Our lack of defensive cover is criminal….plain as..but a greater concern to me is that we can’t seem to get the best out of Ozil….watching yesterday he was a passenger…..I can’t help feeling that we should have brought Cesc back and made some money by putting Ozil on the market….unpalatable as it may be, Cesc is gonna be a major factor if Chelski take top spot………if he wanted to come back I would have done everything within our power to get him…..he would have played with a point to prove….I think we are struggling to prove that Ozil is worth… Read more »
Why not offer a free agent a 6 months deal? We did loan Emiliano for 1 year to sit on the bench, so why aren’t we doing the same for a CB until January?
You really think that they wouldn’t be looking at that ?
If they don’t get someone then my guess is that all the free agents are deemed less talented than out youth team options.
Nope, I have no faith in Wenger looking at those options bc it would contradict what he has said over the last few months
He said the same thing about our options in attack.
He says these things as he doesn’t want other teams to think we’re desperate for any player that we enquire about.
Personally I feel certain he wanted another CB but couldn’t find one he rates highly enough to justify the price,
It’s the Emirates Stadium Curse
And twats call us lucky Arsenal!!
Arsene Wenger will play there.
Thus spake the manager of the manager out section.
#findramblingpete
Why’s everyone getting so butthurt? We’re pretty stocked at RB.
Even if we lose a CB we shift Chambers across, have (the very exciting) Bellerin in at RB and still have Flamini as emergency cover…
No one’s been crying about the LB situation and we’re in the exact same situation there!
Furthermore if worst comes to worst we can recall Carl Jenkinson or promote Hayden (who has been excellent for the U21s).
Add Coq into the options.
We’re better stocked than the PL leaders at the moment……..
No, not Coquelin!!!! Please, stop……….he couldn’t cut it for us the last 3-4 years & couldn’t cut it on loan at Freiburg last season FFS…..forgive me if he doesn’t fail me with confidence.
*fill me with confidence
He did OK for us (as a young guy). He did OK in his first loan season despite being played out of position (in lots of different positions) but he was poor last year when he spent too much of it injured and didn’t play well when he wasn’t. But playing ‘on loan’ doesn’t always translate when they’re back in their home team. Hopefully he’ll play in the LCup and we’ll see if he’s up to the job.
Oh, injured Jenks?
You guys have said it all. So, why raising alarm now. Our available defenders: Mertesacker… Koscielny… Gibbs… Monreal… Chambers… Bellerin and Hayden. There could be another good guy in there, which the boss has not yet revealed to us. Sorry, our 8th defender is now sideline with an ankle injury for 2 months. I/We are wishing him a remarkable recovery.
Ozil cannot be compared to Sanchez, just as ramsey cannot be compared to Sanchez. Ozil drifts and has a great footballing brain – he is not an athelete. He cannot be used to hunt down defenders. However, that said, Ozil is clearly low on confidence. The biggest issue is that he isn’t sharp in passing. The fluid style arsenal play in doesn’t quite appear to be in his wavelength, for whatever reason – he wants fast runners to thread through balls onto, but mentally he just isn’t seeing it which is worrying. With welbeck, sanchez and ramsey there are enough… Read more »
Wanna know what is a great thing to do to a player low on confidence?? Play him not only out of position, but continue to do it until he gets so frustrated that even the simple things don’t come off. Certain players can be switched to the wing…..a PROVEN WORLD CLASS #10 WHO IS NOT THAT FAST IS NOT ONE OF THEM!!! I swear the lack of defensive #s & Wengers “handling” of Ozil are quickly becoming a joke in the football world!!
Time for one or two of our youngsters to step up. It doesn’t have to be negative but our experience as Arsenal fans tells us otherwise
No biggie. The other top 4 teams will get their injuries after Christmas when we have a full strength team. Can’t wait.
Hahahahahahahha, did Wenger tell you that?? Bc that’s the only way he can TRY to defend not having sufficent #s when any person that can count knew we were short at the back…….oh wait! weren’t there some people on here saying Bellerin/Chambers are ready? Well, all it took was ONE injury right after the window closed to force us to find out!!!! These are situations a lower-table/class club should go thru, not Arsenal 6 matches into the season FFS. Other years we could say we were unlucky with injuries, but THIS YEAR Wenger had time to prepare for it &… Read more »