Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Alexis Sanchez will miss Saturday’s clash with north London rivals Sp*rs with the same hamstring problem that sidelined him against Aston Villa.
“The latest is that Alexis is not ready,” Wenger told Arsenal Player.
“He is not far away, the Leicester game [on Tuesday] is a possibility. He is of course very difficult to keep quiet! He is training but it’s light training.”
Stories circulated earlier this week on Reddit that the Chile international had to be persuaded down from a climbing wall at London Colney having clambered up with a whole load of weights attached to him. Kind of hilarious and worrying in equal measure.
In better news, Danny Welbeck is fit to feature at White Hart Lane having not played since the 2-1 win over West Ham United in December.
“Welbeck is back in the group,” continued the boss. “Apart from that we have the same squad available as last week.
“Jack [Wilshere] is back in full training next week, hopefully from Sunday. Alex [Oxlade-Chamberlain] is still out, but he is starting to practice again, not full training.
“Serge [Gnabry] will play on Monday night at Newcastle [for the under-21a], with [Krystien] Bielik. Bielik is coming along very well.”
Bugger.
Shame, but we have enough still to beat them. Just play like we did v City or Villa and we will.
”Just play like we did v City or Villa and we will”. Exactly. We go out prepared mentally and tactically and we should win – though let’s not kid ourselves… Spurs are playing well at the moment. Apart from Kane, another test for Ramsay and Coquelin will be taking Dembele out of the game as he has been very creative in midfield. I am certainly not happy that Sanchez is unavailable but I really do not like the team to be seen dependent on one player (a fact disproved already). In mid-field or attack we now have talent available in… Read more »
Agreed, and at last. So gratifying, The mighty Arsenal are looking good…on a roll, COYG.
Indeed. We’ll have to make do with another 5-0.
For old times sake a 2-5 hilarity will do…..
Clean sheet!!!
I’m disappointed.
On the other hand, he’s finally getting the rest he deserves.
Wish he had missed the Brighton game instead.
oh darn, I guess we start Walcott on the right instead 😉
Anyone know if this injury was from the FA Cup game? If so its pretty disappointing because it was unnecessary to play him. Not having a dig at Wenger at all because I’m pretty sure Alexis would have subbed himself on whether Wenger chose to play him or not. But just curious.
Silver lining: It’ll be hilarious when we do them at their place without our player of the season.
Without “the” player of the season
here here!!
3 weeks ago “Oh shit” today “OK – not the best news but we have options”.
A little bit no that note, I just had to share this article with you all from Sport.es, the Barca mouthpiece. They really hate The Arsenal for, apparently, putting a gun to Barca’s head and making them buy all of our players for ridicules money and then stealing there youth prospects. They have been following closely the form of one Alexis for us and don’t like it one bit that he is doing well so they came up with this article this morning: http://www.sport.es/es/noticias/inglaterra/alexis-puede-irse-del-arsenal-3912277 It’s in spanish but it basically says that Alexis wants to leave us because he wasn’t… Read more »
Having lived most of my life in Spain, I can confidently say there is no credible spanish newspaper, be it sport related or otherwise, sad but that’s the state of modern journalism. If anything, sport newspapers either from Catalunya o Madrid are the worst of the worst and I dont even trust them to tell me the football results. Next to them, pamphlets like the Sun or DM look like a beacon of decency, coherence and truthfulness, they really are that bad.
It is translated to Vietnamese on Vietnam papers as well!!! How stupid it is!!!!!!
Pfft as if there is anything to hate about Cazorla!
Oh fuck. This has really pissed me off 🙁
No Sanchez or Ox? No pressure Theo 😉 . Can see Welbeck making a big impact on this game too
I don’t think starting Theo is the best option. I was really hoping that the hard work what he can see from Rosicky/Alexis has rubbed off on him but so far he has been not the best in tracking back. And going forward he’s been playing “Where’s Theo” a bit too much for my liking as well. I would start with Tomas instead of Theo.
I like tommy r, however theo playing automatically pushes their defence line 10/15 yards back at least so give us more room to play in. Plus their team further away from our goal area. Tommy or theo gunner win.
And Tomas does love a goal against the spuds!!
Walcott tackled back to help set up the second v. Villa. Rosicky scored twice v. Sp*rs last season. Plus Özil or Welbeck can step in for Alexis. Obviously Alexis and _____ is better than Alexis or ___, but great that there’s options.
For me the selection also depends on whether we think they will target our young right back. They’d be silly not to, with Monreal and the CB’s defending well. But if Ramsey or Coquelin does a job helping out there, it might not be an issue.
Side note, although his passing was a little wayward especially in the attacking third, unspoken in our more solid defending is Ramsey being more positionally disciplined. Coquelin has been dominant, but Ramsey hasn’t been spending the whole match in the opponents’ box. Back to basics. Love it.
Good to have Danny back, but shame about the Ox he’s been playing so well this season.
Not too worried about this game but just look at what a ‘small muscle injury’ meant for Welbeck, he was said to be “a doubt” for Southampton on New Year’s day. That’s now 5 weeks ago and he’s only just back..?!
Yea I know right. Same way they told us Sanchez has a little problem, doubtful for villa but available for spuds, now its been pushed forward again. Sincerely hope its not for 5 weeks.
I believe we will still win, do you?
It would have been nice to see Alexis tear Sp*rs’ back-line a new one, but we proved that we can win without our star. I’m predicting another really influential performance from Ozil.
It’s a shame he won’t be able to attend the party on Saturday.
Not worried though.
Not good. But we have enough to give them a game. Still really confident about doing them. I havent actually seen them play alot. My mate(spuds fan) said they were shit a few weeks ago. Kane n eriksen just carrying them. So question is do we set out to stifle eriksen like silva at city and counter them….or do we take it to them?
BOTH
On the bright side, we can let players who just returned, who seem to be hitting form, continue their development! Considering the form of Santi, Rosicky, Ollie, Mesut, Theo aswell as Welbeck comming back wanting to prove himself, it could really be worse. No Sanchez will be a loss to any team, but his back really must hurt after carrying us for 6 months.
Ha ha no Sanchez then. So the Spuds get serious beating by a ‘one man team’ without the man how will they feel? I’m sure Wenger is resting Sanchez just to make a point. Can’t wait for the Spudbashing to commence. COYG
They gonna say we one man team with Cazorla instead 😮
With Cazorla running things, and Ozil and Theo hitting their stride… Not to mention the HFB banging them in, we’ll be fine 😉
Last week proved Arsenal do not rely too much on Alexis alone. Another 5-0 win should keep the doubters quite. And it’s really nice to have some players back to add quality to our depth. Can’t see us reach the top of the table, but another FA Cup and a third place finish wouldn’t be a bad season considering all the injuries we had again this season. Oh, and the CL win would be nice.
Will Wilshere play after his new smoking incident?
Did them 1-nil at their place last season without him too. Another Rosicky screamer please – oooooooooof!
I didn’t expect him to get ready for the derby anyway, but bad news nonetheless. We beat them three times last season without conceding, and we didn’t need Alexis to do that. Özil, Theo and Cazorla should be good enough, Rosicky also seems to love a good Sp*rs hammering.
you conveniently forgot Giroud, who has easily been our most consistent performer aside from Santi and Alexis.
Giroud goes without saying. I was talking about the three players behind Giroud on the pitch.
Welbz shouldn’t start and I doubt he will. Giroud is automatic in that position. Hoping we see pretty much the same starting squad we saw against Villa. Let their chemistry run ruins on the sp*rs.
And all this time I thought the hammy was a smokescreen so we could give him a rest…
DAMMIT ARSENE Y U NO READ SCRIPT
Well it’s not a shock with Wenger’s methods. Let’s hope he doesn’t rush him back like he usually does with star players.
give us a fucking break, this has nothing to do with Wenger. minor injuries will happen to every player from time to time. last week chelski played without fabs do to a hamstring strain. costa has been out with injury too. it’s like you’re looking for a reason to slight Arsene.
It’s never Wenger’s fault is it. He’s been the constant at Arsenal for 10 years but the fact we’ve won zero league titles in that time has nothing to do with him. We have so many injuries that are supposed to be 3 week injuries but somehow turn into 3 month injuries. Wenger even admitted that Alexis overruled him on whether to rest him for the Hull cup match. Under no circumstances should a player overrule Wenger on anything. Ozil had a problem with his knee at half time at Chelsea this season but Wenger let the player make the… Read more »
This repeated sentiment about the Arsenal medical department being incompetent always amuses me somewhat. So I’m a doctor, a radiologist, and I have circulated around a few of the arsenal affiliated hospitals and known some of the orthopaedic surgeons that work with the team. To suggest that arsenal has a little hospital where they have a load of physicians and surgeons with red and white lab coats and arsenal crested stethoscopes, all fumbling and misdiagnosing like a scene from faulty towers is pretty hilarious to me. Arsenal have a network of sports medicine physicians, musculoskeletal radiologists and orthopaedic surgeons who… Read more »
This is some fine interventional radiology!
* softshoe, vaudeville hook *
Considering only three teams have won the Premier League in the last ten years, I’m not sure you can lay the blame fully on Wenger.
HK1 – aka Harry Kane 1 – get off this website with your anti-Arsenal sentiment you hack!
Agreed. I gave HK1 a bit of support on the subject of resting players last week but that’s it. “Wenger didn’t…he should…if only…blah blah blah” and fuck off!
Either way we’re fucking, either way…
COYG!
Oh dear. At least we now know that Mesut and Santi can both flourish alongside each other in the same starting 11 🙂
Everything is conspiring to make it a bad day .. 12.45 kick off always bad, 3-2 home loss to Spurs, Pool 5-2, Chelsea 6-0 & City 6-3 all at 12.45. No Alexis but Carzola is in. Then look and realise that 5 of Carzola recent 6 goals are pens so only 1 real goal. Walker and Rose playing at full back, their long range shots still send shudders down Gooners spine..
Apparently he was on climbing wall to hide Jack’s pack of Luck Strike and Shisha baccy…
Proper team player.
This will make the Sp*ds “one man team” quotes look pretty fun, after we leave them lying on the floor crying
I love how every poster says we’ll be alright, then goes on to list every player, but Giroud. what the hell more does the guy need to do to gain this fickle lot’s respect? he’s been nothing short of outstanding and should be getting way more accolades than Feo, your golden child.
The way certain Arsenal fans act with Giroud is unbelievable. He didn’t get enough credit for he game against city. There were a fair few Arsenal fans not long ago that wanted Podolski upfront ahead of Giroud.
True he doesn’t get the credit he deserves.
I dare say he’s the perfect team player in the CF position. He leads the forward line by always being available to bring everyone else to play, he eases the pressure on our team by winning aerial duels on clearances and long balls, and he’s getting better and better in front of the goal this season.
When you get used to caviar, it’s hard to get excited about sausages…
We got used to players like Wright, Henry, Anelka, RVP and now have Giroud.
I’d much rather have sausages than caviar, personally.
So you’d pick giroud over henry??
Why not both?
With giroud as second choice, not a problem.
have to admit… as far as sausages go, Giroud would get a Michelin star.
Maybe because Sanchez plays on the wing, and they are thinking of players who can play on the wing to take his place? Just a thought.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Sanchez is on the bench
That would be a nice touch!
His absence means the score will be less embarrassing for Spurs…may be just 3.
damn..hopefully Giroud will push their sh1t in
Ospina; Hector-Per-Kos-Nacho; Coq-Rambo; Theo-Santi-Ozil; OG (Welbs and Rozza from the bench)
Continues to be incredibly worrying about all the muscular injuries that we continue to get at Arsenal even with the players that have just joined us this year (Sanchez and Welbeck). Of our regulars I believe that only Per and Monreal have not been out injured (of course Bellerin and Chambers could be included, but neither has really played a full season).
Wenger will surely start the same lineup that he did vs Villa last weekend even though I think he needs to find a spot for Rosicky in there for this away match.
And this comment is thumbed down for what reason?
No need for Alexis when Google says the spurs defence is ‘dogdy’. Google ‘dodgy definition’ if you don’t believe me
I did, too funny.
We have so much depth and choices now that we can actually allow opposing fans to go online and select the line up they want us to beat them with.
Huge loss…alexis intensity would’ve done us a whole lot of good against spuds.
Don’t think ozil on the wing would be a good idea. Despicable and pathetic the spuds are, they’ll def be much more of a challenge than villa were.
Then again, maybe alexis will finally get the rest he needs.
I do find it quite comical that poor old Abou doesn’t even get a mention anymore in the injury news. Must still be broken.
Obviously NOT ‘comical’ for Diaby..
Aah good to have Danny back I’ve missed him bummer about sanchez though but hey he will still enjoy the taste of roasted spuds chicken 😀 😀
Alexis, what a guy.
We’ve such a likeable set of players right now, no real egos just a quality squad… Couple of good videos on arsenal player:
Coquelin: story behind my return. Just great stuff
Bellerin: close up. Sounds London born and bred. Amazing
The spuds are probably doing cartwheels at this news and will be lulled into a false sense of security. If we play like we have for the last few weeks the poor spuds will be smashed by ht.
No matter, we have Ozil and Walcott with Santi combination.
It makes me a bit sad, not to see the magic, and skills Alexis brings every game, not to mention the goals.
Other than that, its a BLESSING the break he is getting.:)
Getting scarily into that “three weeks” territory here. Hope it is a strain and not a tear.
This is hoping the players will come fully focused for this noon games past history regardless