Arsene Wenger has revealed that Laurent Koscielny is a doubt for tomorrow night’s game with Sunderland having succumbed to flu.
The French international is unlikely to be risked in the circumstances meaning Gabriel could get a run out for the first time since the FA Cup semi-final against Reading.
“We have an uncertainty about Koscielny,” Wenger told his pre-game press conference. “He has the flu. I will know more after training because yesterday was a recovery day.”
The boss also confirmed that Matthew Debuchy is still not fit to return, although he could return to full training on Friday, and that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Danny Welbeck will also be short for the visit Dick Advocaat’s relegation-threatened Black Cats.
Come on Gabriel! Prove your worth!
Flu only, that’s OK. Was thinking it was something more serious.
Night off for the Bos and useful squad rotation..
Not as much rotation as he’d of probably liked then.
Kos to stay at home, Gabriel to play, Chambers on the bench… isn’t having a bigger squad nice?
Game time for Gabriel is no bad thing
Just as long as he’s available for the Cup final.
It seems Ox has been out forever now.
Wasn’t it only a groin pull or something too? They must be giving him extra time to heal to avoid recurrences.
he better be back to score the winner in a tense final game against west brom?
Its a tradition albeit a little out of season but it always brings out the st totteringhams spirit in me.
Sometime ago we’d be shitting our pants with news of Kos out. Good to have Gabriel who can put in a decent shift
Remember Stoke away…
Of course he’s a doubt. I need to make up 30 points on my mate to win our epic 40-person fantasy premier league comp, so with Arsenal having 2 matches in this game week I brought in Kozza and made him skipper for double points. Naturally he’d become injured. I have Bellerin in there now too so it’ll be a surprise if he doesn’t lose a leg by the end of the day.
Great so his flu is your fault. THANKS.
On a side note I thought having Sanchez as my cap on a double game week would explode the system but alas
Wilshere, Walcott, gabriel in please. Akpom could get some mins too if we get a decent lead.
Personally, I want to see a pretty rotated squad for the last two games of the league. Rest the big names for the cup final. The others need game time and if we cant get a point tomorrow night with chambers, gibbs, gabriel, wilshere, rosicky, walcott ect then i think we have bigger problems.
Rather get second than FA Cup
Gabriel to score a header.
He IS getting chances even with the limited appearances. I’d love to see him get one his first season.
How awfully nice to have proper cover in this position. Last season reading a headline mentioning illness or injury in the same sentence as Koscielny or Mertesacker could give you a panic attack.
Now however I reacted alot more calmly as I have total faith in Gabriel’s ability to cover for Kosciely in his absense. But get well soon Kos. Cup final looming 🙂
Even if we win the next two games, we’ll be 2 points short of last season. Individually, we have only improved our tally against City and Pool and Everton of the Top 8 from last season.
But why do I still have this feeling that we are making progress? I think we are.
No blowout losses against the other bigs, knocking MU out of the FA, returning to defend the cup, etc.. That is definitely progress.
You can’t compare points tally of a different season. The threat/competition and teams we faced have changed. We have an outside chance of finishing second( pity Swansea match). Likely we will end third which is decent progress enough considering we have also bettered our wins against the top 4/6 competition. Plus we are again in the FA cup finals with a chance this time to make history and be the club with the most wins. This is something the press has of course conveniently ignored. We have never been a strong team in Europe as some may imagine. We won… Read more »
FA Cup is intercontinental championship – a young Rocky Maivia, if you will. Premier league title is the WWF title – Stone Cold, Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, Bret Hart… We are Ken Shamrock. You know he’s tough and should have been WWF champion, but he kept getting screwed or he was his own worst enemy and would get himself disqualified because he couldn’t control his aggression.
Stoke is Ahmed Johnson – huge clumsy bastard who botched his moves all the time.
Chance for Gabriel.
Chance to rotate slightly and rest some clearly tired feet for the FA cup.
I would start Jack (ahead of Santi if need be). He adds energy we need at the moment.
Also Walcott coming in second half is a very good option to have rather than last 10 minutes of a game.
There is also Rosicky.
Plenty of options to break down Sunderland.