After the earlier report that Laurent Koscielny was back in training with the squad, Arsene Wenger had confirmed that the defender is in the squad for tomorrow night’s game with Borussia Dortmund.
The centre-half is in line for his first appearance since the 2-0 defeat to Chelsea on October 5th, and the Arsenal manager will be hoping he can bring some defensive solidity to a back four that has been struggling in his absence.
The good news is tempered by some bad, however, as Wojciech Szczesny misses out after a dead leg against Manchester United forced him off. He’ll be replaced by Emi Martinez with youngster Ryan Huddart likely to make the bench again.
Danny Welbeck is available having sat out training today, although Theo Walcott and Jack Wilshere are not available.
Wenger said of the midfielder, “Wilshere will be out for a while. He has to see a specialist next week to see for how long he will be out.”
It’s likely to be a two month absence for Wilshere whose ankle ligaments were damaged by a bad challenge on Saturday.
The injury gods giveth, the injury gods taketh away. And so it goes.
Is there a sense he is being rushed back, or is he fully fit again. I can’t remember the exact date, but isn’t this ahead of schedule for Kos?
“Koscielny (and Debuchy) are doing well, they are out on the field… field work is three weeks away from full group training. Then there is fitness.” Quote from Arsene, 5 days ago…
I’m no medical professional, but that is one miracle recovery.
Apparently the French have a tendency to recover earlier than expected
Lol at all the wenger out… I’m beginning to enjoy the misery of some of our fans
Being rushed back from an injury..
Definitely rushed back…
AW is trying pull one from his arse here…
I can’t see him starting but as a late sub he could be useful, plus it’d give him some game time.
Giroud was also ahead of schedule and seem to do pretty well after coming on at the weekend.
I was about to say just in time for the Boss to come back in, but it’s rather late. Not his fault of course.
Let’s salvage the season somehow with a decent run in the CL and a top 4 finish.
Groundhog day etc..
Top 3 finish hopefully.
At this point I think any joy we might get out of this season is going to involve keeping the Mancs out of the CL places.
That would indeed be enjoyable.
I’d take that.
Looking at the table there’s no reason that 2nd is impossible. The title race is all but over, but places 2 through 4 are all definitely up for grabs. City strike me as nervous this year – if they lose today and are effectively out of the champion’s league I can see them collapsing.
Well, so much for City losing today, eh. In my defense, it took until the last minute in both games to keep them from being knocked out.
True but they have Aguero. With a world class player like that who can get a hat trick of highest quality against Bayern Munich they have to be favourites to finish higher than us. I thought Navas was fantastic tonight also.
Hey Injury God, mate, do me a favour stop being so greedy and ‘taketh’ away a bit less. You know, Christmas and all that, the season of giving.
Thanks
Seconded
Hail Shad Forsythe
Can’t wait to see 1980’s Bart Simpson with Premier league strikers tucked in his pocket again.
Hopefully German ones too.
It does feel as though our players are coming back from injury a bit quicker this year, I hope Shad ‘works his magic’ on Wilshere & Szczer now too
Does anyone think this is desperation? It’s great news don’t get me wrong, but it’s also out of the blue. I thought he would be rested for a while to let his Achilles heal. Maybe this is rushing him back. Maybe Debuchy will come back sooner. With Giroud back early you have to again wonder about the medical staff at Arsenal.
It’s hard to say. It’s not an impact injury, it’s chronic tendonitis. It’s really dependent more on how he’s feeling than anything else and how the inflammation is doing. It’s not the sort of thing you can fix a recovery schedule around like a broken bone or something of that nature.
He could be being rushed back or it could have just subsided earlier than they were expecting.
Achilles heal. heh.
Really hope he isn’t being rushed back, but I have a nagging feeling he might be, this seems a bit short for a chronic injury that he was forced to play through and presumably made worse. Of course, I freely admit that I know as much about injuries as Phil Neville knows about good commentary. A fully fit Boss would be an absolute blessing right now, we need to turn up the heat on Manure and pull away from Liverpool (although they seem to have pulled off the road and are now having Balotelli wave everyone else by while they… Read more »
Third choice keeper playing because our second choice was signed with an injury. Only at Arsenal.
Wenger out.
Don’t worry we’ll take back Kim Källström in January and ask him to play as Central Defender.
🙂 Only at Arsenal. Hopefully he will not be injured this time.
I’d take Källström back tomorrow. If he was available.
Is your username a contraction of your real name, and the location of your mouth?
I feel like this is the best news i’ve heard all season. In Shad We Trust!
Being rushed back from injury again, great… CAN NOT ANYONE SEE THE ‘COINCIDENCE’ OCCURING WITH OUR INJURIES?
During Wenger’s 18 years we’ve had over 650 injuries, other clubs have had an average of 200. Surely it is more than just the players being injury-prone?
WENGER OUT NOW!
This is how you react to good news? Wow, would love to see how you would have reacted if the headline was ‘Koscielny suffers setback”.
All you’d have to change is the first sentence.
Is it good news that we are rushing back a player and are risking him to spend more time at the side-line? I hardly say so. How the fuck can you in a press conference about 3-4 days ago say that Koscielny is out for another 3-4 weeks and now like 2-3 days afterwards he is back from injury. That is a miracle if I ever saw one 😛
You mean, on average, other PL clubs have had around 200 injuries over the same 18 year period?
And 90% of all stats are made up!
Most clubs have not suffered an average of 200. Since 2002 (as at 1st of October 2014) clubs have suffered this many injuries:
Arsenal – 889 (74)
Man U – 791 (66)
Tottenham – 785 (65)
Everton – 663 (55)
Chelsea – 620 (51)
Man City – 595 (49)
Liverpool – 551 (45)
The figures in brackets are the average amount of injuries suffered each year. As you can see, no figure will equal an average of 200. I’m now not even sure you know what average means…
And to be fair, of those 889 we’ve suffered, 376 of them have been Diaby. (Sorry Abou, get well soon)
A player comes back early and Wenger is rushing him back. Player doesnt play for six months injured and Wenger injures all our player. The man cant win. #WengerIn
Yeah Wenger In! Who cares about looking like a big club an actually competing against our supposed rivals! I love setting new records each year with new humilations. This year was the Anderlect game at home. I just cant wait to see what new humilation is coming our way! Wenger In! I love paying for the most expensive Season tickets in the league each year so that I can look forward to the forth place trophy parade! I love seeing Chelsea, United,Pool and Spud fans with the hashtag Wenger In. It’s so heart warming to see the support we’re receiving… Read more »
Are they the same Liverpool and Tottenham that are worse than us?
So it’s #rogersin?
#pochettinoin?
#moyesin?
Who do you actually want instead of the manager who’s here now and who’s consistently outperformed vs his budget over the last couple of decades?
I say rest Alexis after caring arsenal on his own all season the guy need a rest he never stooped playing for arsenal and country every game with full 90 minutes and coming late from international and playing again full 90 minutes on Saturday, and it was visible at some stages that he is tired he needs a rest, give game time to poldi rosicky cambell the can’t done worse as we are not wining even when we play well maybe it will be a welcome rest even for the only players that are playing well like alexis and ox… Read more »
I guess Kos is like a new signing…just kidding 🙂
What exacly is a dead leg?
Hope Shad can resurrect it, but not so it comes back as the living dead or something…
if he likes he can rush them all back, he put us in this mess, his stubbornness has cost us year after year, every tom dick and harry knew we needed a CD but hell NO the heavens would fall if wenger got one, so rushing the boss back only for him to be out again for another 2 months is not the answer, and pls nobody should say the board are to blame if a coach can say this “Everyone has the right to an opinion. We must show solidarity. When we have something to say to each other,… Read more »
Yup, nobody is bigger than the club. Not even the second highest share holder of the club. Firstly, we are not even sure whether Kos is being rushed back into the team. Of course every Tom Dick and Harry knew we needed a CD but ironically most of them never realized even Barca and ManU(supposedly bigger clubs) needed exactly the same player and who did they get?? Even ManCity got Mangala for 32m, and I believe our own Chambers can give him quite a run for his money who cost us only half of that. Oh, and talking about Chambers,… Read more »
Arsenals injury room is like a nightclub… One in one out
SHAD YOU LEDGE
Really hope le boss isn’t being rushed back. Regardless, we need bosscienly in that defence asap….100 percent; not half fit.
Indeed great news.
Hopefully he is fully recovered.
We will still need a CBack in Jan though. Vermaelen never broke into proper rotation through Meterscielny. We need someone who can and preferably with sufficient experience 23-25 but with good years ahead. A bit of height will also be handy. Chambers can replicate Koscielny and Monreal but Metersecker’s height is useful.
No top class defender in the world is going to stop a 2 on 1 on the counter…mertersacker or not…it’s the brand of football we are playing…we need more discipline from the full backs…
A pacy, tall defender is what is needed in January. Chambers and BFG are similar but no one has recovery pace like the Boss.
Alternatively, a versatile DM that can play CB like Carvalho or Brozovic or that Polish guy at Sevilla would be nice too.
So Wenger isn’t stuck with the Sophie’s choice of Flamini vs Arteta.