Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott will be out of action until after the international break, and suggested that Walcott could be out longer than his England compatriot after suffering a calf strain against Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday.
“Chamberlain will be back before Walcott,” he said. “Both will be out until after internationals. The gut feeling is one will be 20 days out, the other will be longer.”
He also confirmed that Joel Campbell is in his thoughts to play on the right.
“I can play with Campbell or another midfielder,” he said. “I have another 24 hours to make that decision.”
Having already said he won’t move Santi Cazorla, it seems that the only other midfielder to fit that bill is Mesut Ozil, but then if he does that, who plays where Ozil plays?
He could use Flamini and Coquelin in midfield, pushing Cazorla further forward. We’ll find out in due course, and perhaps there was a hint of that thought when he spoke about how his team need to approach the game.
“We need a strong defensive performance as Swansea are a team who are doing very well.”
—
Quotes via @arsenal and @jamesolley
The dreaded “two to three weeks away” has given way to “out for longer”. I have a bad feeling about this.
Really hoping Wenger keeps the whole team makeup in tact as things are working very well at the moment. Keep all the starters in their position and let’s see what Campbell can do with a run of games on the right. I believe moving Cazorla, Ozil, Sanchez, or Bellerin there would be far too disruptive. (Especially Cazorla)
Walcott is always injured.
He really does have a bad record with injury.
Any excuse eh blogs?!
Any excuse for what?
Don’t you get it? You are showing your clear bias against Theo by pointing out that he is injured.
Ah yes, sorry. Stupid facts.
At this point i’m hoping for a miracle, a jesus-turning-water-into-wine type stuff where Welbeck, Wilshere and Rosicky rip off their protective boots/knee thingies and say fuck it. ARSENAL NEEDS ME!
Things are gwan.
A forrest gump moment where Wilshere runs his ankle support off while fleeing John Terry after nailing his mum. Run Wilshere, run!
Fuck fleeing, Wilshere removes the the ankle supports to reveal steel-toed boots underneath, one of which connects sweetly with Terry’s chin as Jack Diabifies him. And Terry’s mum laughs along with everyone else.
“Terry’s mum laughs along with everyone else.”
Best comment on the internet.
All this nonsense because of a meaningless Capital one cup match against shitty Sheffield Weds. Frustration overload
Fuck this motherfucking shit.
Bad news, Giroud likely to be overused, tired, no (great) back up or competition.
Let’s hope they are doing the Arsenal pessimistic stance (eg Giroud came back earlier than expected) rather than the Arsenal vague and optimistic one (it’ll be three weeks).
Alexis can also play on the right
And Gibbs has played on the left when we’re closing out matches. Not ideal, but it’s been done.
Pretty deflated by this news to be honest, feels like a sense of De Ja Vu.. *Sigh*
Hopefully the team can get a win on Saturday to get a feel good factor back ahead of Bayern and Spuds. You can’t compensate for so many injuries to right sided players, but I’m concerned about our striking options now.. Ffs
‘Right sided players’. I agree we have quite a few players who can play on the right (all of whom are injured) but I think its debatable whether we really have ‘right sided player’ in the squad at all. Ramsey does a good job there but its not his natural position. Walcott did play there but its clear Wenger now see’s him as a forward. Jack and Rosicky are really central players, Ox and Welbeck are probably the most suited but wouldnt really say that either of them have nailed it down as a position in the same way other… Read more »
When’s Welbs due back?
New Year.
Every time I read something about injuries hitting Arsenalplayers…
http://www.quickmeme.com/img/ca/ca4a88ee2cae563d374d3b68d1d3225eff40512bd1a15fb59ca1ab93bdcb19b8.jpg
Theo strikes me as the one nicking a living…to borrow some idiots’ word. He does enough to sign a new contract and then goes on an injury break. He returns just in time to remind everyone of his potential, signs a new contract and then…yes yuo guessed right.
An ‘injury break’? Are you seriously suggesting that he has control over or enjoys gets injuried? Whatever you think about a players ability on the pitch, the thought that they would in any way ‘want’ to be injured is pretty bloody ridiculous.
I hope the £3 mil payments towards KSE is for building a cloning machine. Imagine Alexis on the left and right wing!
Walcott is very unlucky and so do Arsenal!.. hope we don’t mess up this season..
Most of our walking wounded we be back around the new year…the problem is can we sustain the title challenge till then?..
I have a feeling if we are to sustain a title challenge this year we will have to do it from the front …I can’t see us chasing city if they get a significant lead on us
Swansea is our bogey team. We have lost 4/5 timesto them i think …
But… Chips are down…we are in shit trouble.
Expect Arsenal to win 3-0 🙂
Haha. I called it !!
I’d be going with Campbell, what’s the point in keeping him around if he can’t get a game when the other 17 players who can play in his position are out injured? If he doesn’t do it then at least we know he can be sold and we aren’t losing anything
Can’t Alexis play on both the left and the right? Having our best player in two positions = double the goals.
Well cloning is quite a complicated, untested procedure and I’m not sure I trust a medical staff that can’t handle calf strain to create a workable clone of the “perfect human specimen” that’s Alexis.
But on the other hand, Sanchez is such a perfect human specimen that he would probably clone better than anyone else in the world.
i dont understand ppl panicing over it, just remember how Chamberlain played for us on right wing this term, nightmare defensively and nothing special in the othr end(n we didn’t care), we’ll be fine with another regular foot soldier there, and actually i believe whoever comes in would be a better short time solution than oxlade as he was obviously lacking confidence every recent times he showed up (cost us big time giving cheap opportunities away though…) yeah im an optimist.
Immensely frustrating news, but if our back four remains intact I think we can see through this period. We still have loads of talent going forward – but the foundation of a title tilt will come from a solid defence.
Disgustingly disgusting. I’m no medical expert so pliz enlighten me how does a calf strain stop someone playing football for 2 months
Don’t like the sound of this at all. There was something really exciting building with Giroud and Walcott sharing the burden of that centre forward role. In fact I’d say that flexibility up front has actually been our biggest improvement on a very good side from the second part of last season. With Walcott now out we’re likely to be left with the exact same flaws as the last two seasons- the unpredictability teams face when playing against us won’t be there, and Giroud will be overplayed to the point of fatigue without any competition to push him on. And… Read more »
Quite amused that fatgooner have yet to milk this latest injury crisis. In anycase, Montero and Costa must be reeling to play us now, yet I’m quietly confident our young dashing spanish bloke will hold out well. COYG
We carry a umber of injury blighted players. Diaby was the archetypal one, at once mesmeringsing when fit but rarely able to stay so. But Walcott has had his fair share, jack is the most concerning, Ramsey has had a record of niggles, Gibbs too. OTOH, Giroud we should be cautious in thinking we are especially cursed in this department. I remember three seasons ago when our midfield was constantly decimated through injuries (and more importantly our strikers were out), we kept a very solid back four in general and were lucky with our DMs All the big teams have… Read more »
Profanity. Lots of profanity.
I’d be tempted to put Debuchy on the right hand side. I don’t get all the negativity towards him. He’s a French international and was very good before his injuries. Now he needs games to be sharp again. Monreal was poor in his first few games after an absence. Now look at him.