Arsene Wenger has kept his cards close to his chest in terms of the recent injuries suffered by Santi Cazorla, Alexis Sanchez and Mikel Arteta.
The trio are missing with knee, hamstring and calf problems respectively, and this week the word was that the Chilean would miss three weeks, Cazorla at least three months, while last week Wenger himself said that Arteta’s problem was ‘short-term’.
However, in an update on the official site, the Arsenal manager was giving nothing away, and cast some doubt on just how short-term the captain’s calf injury is.
“At the moment on Alexis, Santi and Mikel, we don’t know how long they will be out for,” he said, but it feels a bit more like ‘We don’t want to say how long they’ll be out for just yet’.
However, there was some good news with Laurent Koscielny making good progress, while Theo Walcott might make a return having suffered a calf strain against Sheffield Wednesday in the Capital One Cup in late October.
*We will make a decision on Saturday on Koscielny and Walcott, they could both make the squad,” he said.
“Gibbs is available again for the weekend.”
Take the time said, double it and you wouldn’t be far away traditionally.
I was hoping with Giroud coming back earlier than expected from injury that we’d reversed that law, but not so sure given Welbeck, Rosicky.
I have to say, as frustrating as all these injuries are, I really do feel for Arsene. Don’t get me wrong, he’s at fault for not signing a striker and a backup defensive midfielder in the summer, no doubt he should have done that. However, the amount of genuine midfield/wide options we have at the club is probably the most in world football. Central midfield (next to DM): Cazorla Ramsey Wilshere Rosicky 4 genuine options for one spot, 3 currently out injured Wide: Alexis Ox Walcott Ramsey Welbeck Cazorla Wilshere Rosicky Campbell 9 genuine options for 2 spots, 6 currently… Read more »
Big on numbers short on quality i’m afraid.
Cazorla and Sanchez would attract the interest of the biggest clubs, the others not so much
That would depend on fitness, a consistently fit Wilshere and Walcott would be in demand imo.
So that’s 4 players out of 9! Less than 50% and we haven’t included Flamini or Arteta on that list. Let’s also add Coquelin to the list, so I make it arguably 5 players out of 12 that top teams might be interested.
Sorry couldn’t reply to your later post about Bayern’s wages being 50% less than Arsenal so gonna do it here. That is an absolute fabrication. Their wages are £155 million and ours is £180 million. That is about 15% difference. While I am a little stunned that our wage bill is so close theirs I’m sure that boils down economic factors like cost of living, tax structures, tv revenues, etc.
Er, Ramsey?
HFS I can’t believe he’s been panned here.
Yeah I bet nobody would want him if they thought he’d be remotely available.
FFS.
Add Ramsey then, that still only makes 6 out of 12 players that top teams would want.
Not really what you’d expect for a team who’s wage bill is almost 50% larger than Bayern Munich’s is it?
If we transfer listed him tomorrow, Barca, Bayern and maybe Real Madrid would try and get Ramsey, in my opinion. He is a completely unique kind of player, somewhere between an intricate player and combative one. Add on top of that high work rate and a genuine goal threat (when played in his preferred role). There are not many similar players to him in the world. Perhaps Rakitic? I understand why he frustrates some people, but I prefer players who try and make things happen more than cautious ones. Whenever he is available Arsene starts him and I’d do the… Read more »
Ramsey is a jack of all trades master of none. Always very busy but neither a goal threat or defensively sound. In my opinion playing him on the right wing has set him back as it’s just encouraged his lack of discipline in a role he clearly has no future in when he should have been told to fight it out with Cazorla in the middle. Whatever happens he’ll play in the centre over the next month, if he himself can stay fit. Obviously I hope he plays well and rediscovers his form of a few years ago but if… Read more »
Maybe we can schedule a quick interlull so these guys can have a bit of a break?
Only to lose another 7 players …
I smell a transfer market strategy here. You just know that the players are out for longer than 3 months, so he won’t show his weakness going into Jan for the transfer window. #BlackJanDeals
Shad Forsythe. Get swinging.
Remember last season againt Villa away? Alexis was injured and Ozil destroyed them
That’s what I’m thinking the next few weeks will be like.
At least, that’s what I’m hoping. But with Mesut in the form of his life, why not?
Please don’t say that. The injury Gods don’t like that kind of talk…
Can’t tell whether I’m an Arsenal fan because I’m an unreliable self destructive bastard, or if I’m an unreliable self destructive bastard because I’m an Arsenal fan.
Why does anyone care about Arteta? He’s nothing, but a liability.
Shad Forsythe… more like bad foresight
Boom
He knows full well how long they’re out for, he’s just waiting until after the home game this weekend to tell everyone the bad news. He knows he’ll be subjected to an enormous level of abuse this weekend if the fan’s know the facts. And he also knows he only has himself to blame and the next home match is 2 weeks after the Sunderland game by which time the fan’s might have calmed down.
I think it’s more about hoping to break the news after a win. Assuming we do win, that is.
That’s a jinx if ever I saw one!
of course Wenger knows how long they’ll all be out, but it would be stupid to announce anything because it will drive up the prices of our targets in the transfer window. It’s better to keep your cards close to your chest.
Having said that, we better be bloody active in January.
bollocks. i don’t care what it does to the transfer prices. teams ought to state the precise details of their players’ injuries and give regularly updated dates for their expected return. arsenal’s vagueness on this subject is by far one of their most annoying tendencies.
Why would you want to do that? If I were the boss I wouldn’t give ANY injury update information. Why give your opponents any information that could hep them in their preparations? Be glad you get at least vague information.
Be careful what you wish for. The NFL made this a requirement and now the Patriots routinely list almost all of their best players as “probable” for the weekend (when they’re actually healthy) just to mess with the media and disguise who is actually hurt. The rule accomplished nothing for them.
Out of what? Some moral obligation to keep anyone who asks completely informed about everything?
I like listening to Wenger speak and make it a point to watch most of his pre and post game press conferences. The thing that frustrates me most in these events is the level of incompetence displayed by the supposed ‘journalists’ asking him questions. They act more like tabloid reporters with the kind of questions they put across. Is it too much for us fans to be asking the journalists to act their profession for once and ask good questions. There is an excellent opportunity to do that tomorrow with all these injuries. If I were there, I would be… Read more »
Why always us?!?
Arseblog, I know you have a thing about Arteta’s hair but at 100%, he’s a slow, weak, old man playing out of position. Good teams target him, like lions eyeing a knackered buffalo. He was exclusively responsible for losing the game he was injured in. Whatever +ve influence he has off the pitch should not influence his selection and he should have been move on 2- 3 years ago. When you talk about his availability in the same sentence as Santi and Alexis as if he has similar relevance, it sounds daft.
Against Liverpool when we won 2-0 at home in 13/14 he gave one of the best performances I’ve seen from an Arsenal centre mid in about ten years. He should not have moved on 2-3 years ago. He does indeed appear to be waning but it’s laughable how quickly people forget the contribution of players as soon as it becomes the consensus to dislike them. And it does not sound daft when we have two fit central midfielders. I’d rather have Arteta playing than the Ox (who is presumably our third choice currently), who due to his age and inexperience… Read more »
Some of us acknowledge that both Arteta has regressed due to age and the Ox has failed to progress over the last couple of years. I’d personally also add Wilshere, Gibbs and Ramsey to the same category as Chamberlain.
You have a forgetful memory my friend. In the last 10 years, we have had Cesc pulling the strings several times..As much as I hate him for moving across London, he had some brilliant games. But I would reserve the best to one ABOU DIABY at Anfield when we won 2-0…Simply Vieiraesque And I always have loved Arteta, and more recently for the way he has conducted himself as a non-playing captain. On the pitch, honestly even Mikel himself would agree that he has waned quite considerably. We needed an upgrade during the summer, and Arsene dithered. Atleast a younger… Read more »
My memory’s very good, Abou Diaby had one good game, and many many many more terrible ones. It’s everyone else who’s memory is selective
but the rest I agree with you
I have a very good memory. Cesc had some unbelievable games, and unlike most I have no issue with him moving to Chelsea if we didn’t want him. However as an all round performance, defending, attacking, being vocal, Arteta against Liverpool that year was a 9/10 in almost every area. I won’t encourage you to try to find highlights as I doubt they exist and I’m sure you have better things to do, but I’m still of the opinion that he must have something to offer. Sadly I think the only way we’d see that is with a run of… Read more »
S
Spot on
Arteta is like Almunia. Will do well occasionally but you know if you’re being honest that he just isn’t good enough for what we want to achieve. same as per
This is my totally conservative and unsubstantiated take on how long each will be out for
Santi – if PCL, April return. If ACL, season over
Alexis – February return, but likely to already be in top secret solitary full training
Arteta – Season, and Arsenal playing career over
This makes me sad
The weird one with Cazorla was it looked like an impact injury. If that was the right time when he got injured, the movement of the knee wasn’t really one that looked like it would put strain on the ACL but we’ll wait and see. The fact that he was able to play on and seemingly move multi directionally should rule out major ACL and PCL damage.
Guaranteed it wasn’t ACL. An ACL injury is immediately debilitatingly painful. There’s no way Santi could have played through the pain if he’d done his ACL.
I will spend more cash in the January sales with the missus than Wenger will spend on players during the forthcoming window. I know it. You know it. Rosicky, Wilshere and Welbz will be fit in mid-January until early Feb – then you know the rest. Amazing how the best clubs in Europe can improve their squads – but we cant find anyone of sufficient ‘super-quality’.
And yet, last summer, who moved who we should have got instead of wherever they went to?
I mean you can get totally unreasonable and say somebody like Mahrez. But that’s clearly not what you were talking about. You were talking about not signing recognized top quality players.
Who did we miss who was available to us but went somewhere else?
That’s great news that Koscielny and Walcott are close to a return, I certainly would not rush Koscielny back this weekend with the big CL match next week which we will need him for. Gabriel should play this weekend vs Sunderland. Will be nice to get Walcott a few minutes this weekend if fit to have him as an option for next week’s match too, but need to be careful with both of them not to rush them back too soon and especially with Walcott ease him in. Hopefully having Walcott back will give Giroud a kick in the butt… Read more »
Was Gibbs injured?
meh. things are not so bad.
we still winning the league.