Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Mathieu Flamini will not be in the squad for the trip to Goodison Park tomorrow.
The Frenchman picked up a hamstring injury against Barcelona on Wednesday night, and won’t be available for the Everton game which kicks off at 12.45pm on Saturday.
Other than that the Arsenal manager says that there are no fresh injuries from the 3-1 defeat, but that he may need to manage fatigue in terms of his team selection.
Asked about injured players making a return in the near future, he was quizzed on Santi Cazorla and Jack Wilshere.
“Cazorla, it’s going slow,” he said. “Wilshere is showing good signs.
“Ramsey and Cech, and maybe Flamini, could be back first after the international break. I don’t think Cazorla and Wilshere come back straight after.
“He [Cazorla] has a little Achilles problem, his knee is perfect but that’s what’s slowing him down.
“If he didn’t have that problem, he would be back already because his knee is perfect.”
He’s our Achilles, so it’s quite natural
what is it with our players picking up knock-on injuries while they’re supposedly trying to recover?
Mad.
Honestly it’s pretty straight forward. With an injury your body can’t use the muscles/tendons etc it usually does in your usual movements so the stress is transferred to other joints and muscles and can often lead to knock on effects. It’s why after an injury it can be difficult to feel and move how you did before it. Shame it caused Santi a delay, hopefully he comes back soon.
looks like Jack is Kaput for the season. The “arsenal three weeks” has come and gone already and he is not training with the first team yet. I hope they are up for the Everton clash I am expecting a good win for some reason
I’m starting to get pretty pissed off with Wenger regarding injuries, or more specifically the handling of queries regarding them. I wish he was just honest with fans- if he said he didn’t know it’d be far better than saying ‘3 weeks away’ every week for a month. It’s like he finds the questions an annoyance. Fair enough if Wilshere keeps getting set backs but he’s not saying that, he’s just being vague and dismissive and right now I think us fans deserve a little more effort on his behalf given how patient most of us have been with both… Read more »
Sounds like you have a case of the butthurt. It’s pretty common for us Arsenal fans this time of year. What advantage would saying a player would return sooner than expected give the manager? I doubt he’s being dishonest and is just passing on what medical tells him.
Think you’ve missed the point. I’m not suggesting that he should say he’ll be back sooner, I want him to be honest. I can’t believe (/ hope) that our presumably incredibly well paid and qualified medical team are unable to tell the difference between 3 weeks and 9 weeks with such alarming frequency. I understand Jack’s injury prone but he’s gone from being ready to start full training or even playing in 3 weeks to zero news on his timeframe other than “he’s doing well” for almost a month. I think his tone is disrespectful to the fans to be… Read more »
Tangent: How I hate the built-in homophobia of “butthurt.”
Maybe it implies you’ve sat on a drawing pin*?
*I think you’d call that a thumbtack
LMFAO who’d have predicted any of this?
Not sure we’ve had one injured player who hasn’t had a setback. More and more the decision to go into this season with a lean squad is looking like a monumental f*ck up.
This is probably one of the deeper squads we have had in a while. Deep enough that Akpom is on loan and we have two capable rb’s on loan. The area that has been decimated is the middle of the park. Wilshere, Rosicky, Cazorla, Arteta; all good enough to start but haven’t been healthy. Last season and at the start of this season, quick movement and good chemistry from our pivots is what brought us success. With that gone, we’ve floundered horribly.
Needs more Shad (also the name of my favorite rapper)
Rosicky and Arteta would not have played under a top manager for the last two years. Pep or Mourinho or Ancelotti wouldn’t be running the middle of their park with those guys, sorry.
No need to be like that about Tomas!
God I miss Santi’s sweet feet. The pressure release, his ability to launch counters. We have REALLY missed him.
Yup.. problem is we’ve missed him too much.. with Jack out where is the backup playmaker?
Elneny!
But after all that hard work at Barca I hope he’s recovered well.
To be fair he put a shift in against Watford too but still played against Barca with no signs of fatigue. Looks like he has a good pair of lungs
Rosi… no, wait, he’s injured too.
It’s like the great fullback crisis but involving central midfielders instead 🙁
Santi lied to us 🙁
unfortunately, it looks like Santi might have been playing an April Fool’s joke on us 🙁
Santi told us 1st April he’ll be back.
Oh well, we are out of all trophies now anyway so no need to rush back.
Oh, and before I get the numbnuts saying ‘we’re not out of all trophies, we can still win the league’ – to able to achieve this we need to win 9 out of 9 (even though we have lost 5 of last 7), and then we also need Leicester to lose 3 out of last 8 (even though they have lost 3 league games all season).
Let’s be realistic guys. I’ve accepted we won’t win the league so I’m cheering on Leicester because the alternative option makes me feel sick.
I’m an Arsenal fan and a fan of good football. Where I’m torn is that Leicester winning the league with their basic kick and rush style might usher in an era of dreadful football, like the kind that followed Mourinho’s first title with Chelsea. It’s all about 10 behind the ball and hoofing it up for the pacey striker to chase. I like cuddly Ranieri, but he’s come back and decided the English game hasn’t developed since the 90s, and the worst thing is that he’s being proven right. His interview in one of the Italian papers last month can… Read more »
I don’t think you’re being fair on Leicester. They were playing some magnificent counter attacking football earlier in the season. Yes, their football has become rubbish now but that was to be expected given the position they’re in. All they care about currently are the 3 points, and rightly so.
The thinking is that if other teams use them as a model then watching the PL is not going to be a lot of fun next season in neutral matches. Pit two deep-defending, long-ball sides that don’t want possession together and you’ve got the recipe for an unwatchable game of football, in my eyes at least.
Oh I disagree. Ranieri has Leicester playing rather clinical football. Mahrez is certainly no kick and run player, he is highly technical. Reminds me a bit of Nasri before he turned asshole. Vardy is non-stop and Kante is full of energy and an unheralded dribbled of the ball. Cap it off with tidy midfielder Drinkwater and two there gutsy Asian strikers and you’ve got a very capable team. It’s the fact that players have not been injured or they’re not pampered or soft that’s winning the league.
Chuffy – I agree with your comments but why mention Asian? Not sure how that is relevant to your point?
Oh fuck off turning it into something its not. Jesus
Uh-oh, can of worms! Clearly there’s no set definition of “good football”; it’s a subjective thing. I may have caught a few of their worse games recently, but the stats aren’t great – 3rd most long balls, worst pass success. For me, that reflects what it’s been like to watch them for the most part this season. It is kick and rush, because generally they don’t want to be precise with the ball; they want to get it into space and chase it. It reminds me of us in the early 90s, getting the ball up the line quickly to… Read more »
What’s so good about passing the ball sideways and backwards. Counter attacking teams produce the most exhilarating football, Man Utd under Fergie, us in the early Wenger days, Real Madrid etc etc. Possession teams send people to sleep, Barca and Bayern under Pep were a total snoozefest. Yes great technically but not great to watch.
Could not agree more I have no idea why you got thumbs down, it seems to me peps team bore the opposition into switching off by passing it around the back four and then admittingly score a belter, which looks great on the highlight reel, We mostly see Peps Barca or Bayern in highlights where they look great but usually his keeper DM and 2 CBs have the most passes between them. I’ve found the games I’ve watched staggeringly boring couldnt say that about Leicester
I was thinking that they are Arsenal 1994 with Merse and Wright.
Entertaining in highlights but we have been spooky since. Watching the opposition for the majority of the game is dull for anyone let alone “purists”
Not “spooky”. Damn my phone!
Cannot remember what word was supposed to be there but I kind of like spooky now so I am standing by it!
Gutsy Asian Strikers? Leonardo Ulloa is Argentinian….
Racist.
Think he means Shinji Okazaki
Man, it’s not a straight choice between Leicester-style football and 80% possession. Spain in 2012 – yeah, now that was boring. That was a team using its technical superiority to play defensively and suffocate the other side with possession, but Barcelona on the other hand have almost always played with three strikers. They’re diving cunts but they have a style that is exciting and technical, and now also involves a lot of counter attacks. What we play now is not possession football. At the moment we don’t really have a style. We get a lot of the ball because teams… Read more »
I don’t see how it sets English football back!!! It’s not like BPL teams have done anything of note in the champions league for a while why not wait to see what Leicester are capable of against Bayern or Barca before writing them off as long ball merchants.
If they win the league then they are the best team in the league it’s quite simple.
I would not mind at all if Arsenal played a bit more like Leicester. Some blood and guts would do our game a lot of good. And not only do they spank teams on good days, they also grind out 1-0s on indifferent days, they are a hell of a ballsy team. Of course I’m gutted Arsenal’s season has turned out the way it has but Leicester winning the league would be far from a tragedy.
Don’t know where to reply, but just wanted to say that I thought the Juventus team that had Roberto Baggio, Fabrizio Ravanelli and Gianluca Vialli upfront was pretty good to watch, but maybe that’s because the majority of live football I got to watch at that time was Football Italia (man, I envied James Richardson’s job at the time…).
I’m dragging this on a bit, but if I’ve learned something since yesterday it’s that everyone has a different idea of what’s entertaining. For me, Football Italia was great for the highlights, but the full matches weren’t all that. The highlights on Saturdays were fun because you’d have Baggio or Signori or whoever doing something amazing, but in the actual matches they’d be completely nullified most of the time. You’d have to keep your eyes peeled and sit through 90 minutes, in which only two or three players from either side ever got forward. It’s all inconsequential anyway. What I… Read more »
Tbh, I’ve found Leicester’s football more enjoyable than our brand of sterile, stale confused are-we-possession-are-we-counter-oh-crap-we’ve-conceded type of football.
The important thing is we finish above Sp*rs, which we can still do. Leicester can win the title. I don’t want to be behind Sp*rs. That turns a shit season into a fucking catastrophe.
At this pace, he should be back just in time for our second leg defeat to Bayern in the CL last 16 next season.
You are missing out the 4th place trophy bud. Lol.
Arsenal has been s*** also with Cazorla and terrific also without Cazorla. Miss Santi, no doubt, but let’s not over-estimate him as some months ago you were complaining about his lack of goals… Don’t have a too short memory.
AND if Arsenal relies on ONE player for winning, then it’s no great team. basta!
I thought my comment was confusing…
In the last arseblog extra, arseblog pointed to Joe Allen’s injury time equaliser as being the point our season went to shit. I think it was when Santi limped off injured. What a miss he’s been this season..
Too revisionist. Lots of people were complaining that Cazorla was ill-suited for central midfield at the time, most infamously Gary Neville. The majority of Arsenal fans were demanding that Ramsey return to that role, and when he did we actually had a surge in form. Beating Man City and so on. It’s only really gone to pot since the turn of the year, Southampton on Boxing Day seemed like a blip at the time rather than the start of a trend.
The fact that a lot of Arsenal fans wanted Ramsey in central midfield really just goes to show that most fans have no idea how to analyze what they’re watching. Ramsey was doing ok on the right but has been hopeless in central midfield, his technical deficiencies, slow speed of thought and lack of tactical discipline exposed time after time. And it should have been pretty clear that would happen to anyone that really watched him closely.
I think your memory is a bit selective here. There were a lot of talk about our midfield not scoring goals before choral got injured and Ramsey when Ramsey returned to the CM he started immediately banging in some. There was a surge of form at the time and I think the Olympiakos and City wins occurred after Ramsey was back in CM, and Flamini was playing quite well at the time too, was praised for his role in the city win. After the Liverpool and Southampton losses the team has seemingly lost some confidence and goals have dried up.… Read more »
Actually your post just makes my point. Ramsey scored a couple of goals against Sunderland and Aston Villa, although the performances were generally poor. But a lot of fans just decided he was playing well because he scored – and then were surprised when things fell apart as soon as we started playing against decent opposition that pressed us in the midfield.
You just can’t replace a player like Santi, or at least Flamini and Ramsey can’t. His passing and creation stats were not far behind Özil’s. Wenger must find a similar player in the summer. Wilshere can’t do it in the long term for obvious reasons. Kroos anyone?
By the way that sweet dribble from Coutinho last night reminded me a lot of Santi. https://youtu.be/Ehlwd6E5xEo
I think the player we missed most is Santi.
With Santi in the side the ‘lack of midfield as a whole’ will not happen 🙁
*points wand at Santi – “heel-knack repairo”
*points wand at Alexis* – “doldrums excavatius”
*points wand at Kronke* – “Yankus disappearo”
points wand @ wenger- Expellriamus
what do we know, another setback? big big surprise
If Santi or Jack play a game this season id be surprised. I miss Santi more than my ex who went off with that rugby player. I can’t say who,but he sounds like frying a pisscall.
Are you sure you aren’t Pete’s handbag?
Nothing really surprises me any more when it comes to Arsenal players and injuries.
I think with the current form we can expect at the very least fourth spot. Wenger will have to have some serious thoughts about what he wants to do with this team in which I think might be his last year as manager.
It’s difficult to take when ten years ago we were in the Champions League final. Look at what we’ve done since. We’re not even close to that level. Just not good enough.
What we’ve done since is successfully build, and relocate to, a state of the art stadium. When that was announced I honestly expected us to drop several levels over the ensuing decade. Instead, we remained competitive. In that same 10 year period, the landscape has changed quite substantially.
well anyway santi’s a one of a kind player, especially for his position. maybe riquelme was the last one of his kind. u cant tell exactly what these players do but their magic makes likes of coquilin n josico look like makeleles. he does everything in a way it looks so easy. a rare breed. (maybe players of his qualities cant cease to play that deep) will be hard to replace u santi. i only see coutinho n pogba as real comparable (better?) replacements
There seems to be an ongoing debate about all the players we missed and the what ifs had they been fit. However, with santi or without, we have still created plenty of chances, so the problem lies with the inefficiency of the centre forwards, i.e Giroud, Walcott and latterly Welbeck. None of them are good enough to lead the line for a club like Arsenal and this should have been addressed long ago…and I don’t just mean last summer. If we had a player like Higuain, Suarez, Aguero in that position we would have taken the title easily…and yes such… Read more »
Also if the team had wing forwards who could score and a no10 who could score. Alexis and Ozil haven’t been scoring too many since December either
i agree as we missed out on both Higuain and Suarez because Wenger would not put the money up that was needed to get them. If you look at the players Wenger had the chance to sign and stalled on the fee for them would scare us. Well at least the bored are getting rich along with Wenger. every player Wenger let go over the last 10 years he replaced with a down grade player. I really hope he does the right thing and walk away this year and we bring in a manger that will sign the rights players… Read more »
Yes. Of course Suarez would have chosen us over Barca.
These players were not available. It is not Championship Manager. FFS!
I’ve often looked at santis knee and though ‘that knee is perfect’. It appears the boss agrees
Which is why we should get Gary Lewin back from England! Didn’t our injury list go up when he left?
And time for Wenger to realise, despite his endless loyalty to certain players (rosicky), we can’t afford to have players on the injury list like that anymore. Thomas is a legend yes, but how many years, not matches, has he missed? Wenger has put loyalty to players to the detriment of the club as a whole. It has to stop
Surely the most important question is how were reports of this circulating over a month ago, why did Cazorla himself shoot down those reports.
And then why has this happened now?
What the hell is going on at Arsenal 🙁
Same shit that happens every year.
This is the most Arsene quote of all time:
“If he didn’t have that problem, he would be back already because his knee is perfect.”
Sure, and you almost signed Messi, and if your aunt had balls, she’d be your uncle.
Can this season just end already?
Now waiting for Santi to come again and saynthere is no setback?
*s
Wenger needs to find his successor between now and the end of the season!!!
Having suffered a torn achilles last year it is certainly not something you mess around with. It may or may not be related to the knee issue and his recovery from that. At this point for him probably safer to not risk a return this year.
What a farce.
Santi won’t play for us this season. It is quite clear. He has been 3 weeks away for the past 4 weeks. So do not expect anything from him at all. Others will have to step up and help us win games.
This season has been so disappointing, its funny.
In the U.S. most athletes get in ice pools after rigorous workouts. They also do a lot of stretching and yoga between workouts to maintain flexibility. I know this is a ridiculous question but Does Arsenal employ these post workout routines?
I’ve always wondered why players who are coming off the pitch don’t start stretching out immediately and then head to the ice tub in the locker room. There should be a routine so that the players recover faster and with less strain on muscles.
Thierry said we couldn’t win the league with a Cazorla-Coquelin partnership in midfield. It’s a shame they couldn’t stay fit and prove him wrong.
People have selective memories and selective views of publishing numbers. As such The player who misses Santi the most IMO is Coquelin. We were without some of our top performers following Santi’s injury then Alexis and Coquelin. Incredibly people slate Flamini and Ramsey but they held up well for us for a very important stretch and kept a number of clean sheets. At the end of tenure, we started to dry up productively in front of goal. Yet many still prattled on about Flamini and hailed the return of Coquelin Curiously it was when we startetd to get our options… Read more »
I checked the injury contract and there’s no Danti clause.
I deserve all the red thumbs down.
Santi, not Danti. Bloody spell check.
I feel even more red thumbs down coming. Bring it on