Reports this morning suggest that Alexis Sanchez could miss the start of the season as he recovers from an ankle injury picked up during the Copa America final.
The Chilean star has kept people up to date with his progress via his Instagram account, posting various pictures of his mangled ankle joint which was swollen, bruised and, frankly, disturbing looking – like if you had never seen a foot and were asked to make one from clay after a vague description.
Anyway, speculation that he might not be fit in time for the opening of the new campaign should come as no surprise. Even without an injury, he needed time off to recover from what has been a monstrous physical effort over the last three seasons, so the ankle issue adds another layer to proceedings.
It probably adds some more urgency to Arsenal’s efforts to improve the forward options as Olivier Giroud will be on holidays until the first week of August, Danny Welbeck is likely to miss most of the season with his knee injury, leaving only Theo Walcott as an established option for Arsene Wenger.
The Arsenal manager appeared unconvinced by his efforts last season, but will certainly choose him ahead of the likes of Yaya Sanogo or Chuba Akpom.
Whether Arsenal add new faces before the opener against Liverpool on August 14th remains to be seen, but the need for reinforcements will grow if Sanchez is ruled out.
And yet we still won’t sign anyone else.
Right. I am full on starting to shit my pants now. The season is 4 weeks away, and no striker, no wide forward, and no centre back. Ozil, Giroud, Sanchez, Koscielny, Ramsey, and Sanchez to potentially might miss the start to the season, and our two opening fixtures are against a Liverpool side with something to prove under a new Klopp regime, and Leicester City the defending champions, who will want to prove last season wasn’t a flash in the pan and they will be ever intent on beating us especially even more so now with the whole Vardy storyline.… Read more »
I think Arsenal will do something, but i would not put it past wenger to go into the first game of the season against liverpool with 2/3 of the first team out and theo up front. I dont want to be anywhere near the emirates if this happens.
I’b be more worried about Wenger playing a half fit Sanchez then a fully fit Walcott
Theo
Iwobi Jack Ox
Santi
Xhaka
Nacho Hector
Gab Per
Cech
Don’t see much to worry about. And we’d have the likes of coquelin, elneny and campbell on the bench.
Awful lineup.
Who would you pick, then, smartypants?
Other options are Coquelin, Elneny and Campbell. Back 5 picks itself and so does Theo, unless Campbell gets a chance to prove himself in pre-season (which I can’t see happening as Arsene doesn’t seem to rate him at all).
Damn it!
“So here we are, heading into a season, again with Theo Walcott our only striking option..”
– F. Kafka
I’m gonna cast my hat in the Joel corner Vote up if you’d like to see Joel Campbell tried as a striker during the preseason to establish if he could be a better option as a striker than Theo or the others. Vote down if you don’t and believe Theo should be the de facto voice in the preseason. Naturally, those poll excludes the (potential reality) of no signing. Personally I think Joel has all the potential. He’s probably as fast as the current Theo, much better dribbler, stronger, works much harder off the ball to press and harass, technically… Read more »
Yes last season it pissed me off that the manager was rarely starting him when clearly we needed new spark towards the end of the season. I think he always played well when given the opportunity as u mention well his qualities. However, I see him at best as a winger, I haven’t seen him strong n able to shove off defenders. Yes he makes amazing efforts to win the ball back, but when u put him as central striker you are telling him to calm down on those winning the ball back runs so much since u want to… Read more »
Not all CF are target men.
Based on your description, neither Suarez, Neymar (when he plays as a no. 9 for Brazil), Messi (when he played as a false 9 for Barca) or Aguero play as a pivot with their backs to the goal. And they are the best strikers in the world.
Heck Vardy doesn’t play like that, so not sure what you expected him to do if we had got him.
In my view, Joel Campbell has already established that he would be a better option than Walcott et al as a central striker.
He has established that whilst representing his Country at international level, including at a World Cup.
The real question is whether Arsene is prepared to give him a meaningful opportunity to show what he can do in that role for the Arsenal.
Good call stillmatic (& good handle too). As magneto noted, he’s already played the striker role with distinction in the world cup. Generally i back Arsene, but i wish he’d show more faith in joel.
Classic.
I wouldn’t have started him anyway. GNABRY TIME
You must be older than me cliff?
Why am I not surprised? We face similar issues every effing season. And in the middle of the season we have Ox, Ramsey waiting to pull their hamstrings.
The stage is yours, Iwobi
He’s not a striker
Well, he actually has played as a striker for the youth teams, and done ok. But it doesn’t seem to be his natural position, at least not any more, that’s true.
Theo Walcott as an established option…
May Draxler or Higuain bring us light in these dark days.
Or both… Wouldn’t that be something *dream*
Have no problem with Theo playing if he performs but will he? Theo CF and Cazorla and Wilshere on wings, Granit and Coquelin (or Elneny) as DM. Where is Gnabry? Not saying he will play, just curious.
BTW, has anyone seen Santi Carzola?
Sorry, I meant Cazorla
Look down about 8 inches.
Was always going to happen. His ankle looked like nigella’s right tit. Rest up Alexis…. seriously do nothing for a while.
Poor Nigella … that’s one seriously disturbing tit, if true.
He “should” have missed the start of last season but we all know what happened then
With Giroud, Koscielny, Ozil, Sanchez & Ramsey out, the first 11 we field against Liverpool is looking very weak, should we not sign anyone.
We have cohesion who needs signing!!
Cohesion vs Remnants of Bredan Rodgers Charcater
A man thinks that we would struggle even with signings such as Draxler, Higuain etc. as they all played a lot in the summer too
Whoever we sign will probably still be on holiday if they were at the Euros anyway, or would at least need a couple of weeks to integrate. Time for certain players to step up (yes, looking at you, Theo and Ox) and for others like Joel and Serge to take their chance. We have enough firepower to get therough the first few games if everyone’s on their game.
It’s starting to have a worrying Old Trafford 2011 feel about it. Admittedly we’ll have better options than Armand Traore etc, but I don’t like the way the squad we put out against Liverpool and even Leicester the next week could have the look of a pre-season team if we don’t get someone in soon.
Sanchez and giroud both reached the finals its a given they will be out. They should rest properly for the season ahead. Where is our new striker ??
You mispelled “will” in the headline.
Year in year out, we are always short in the start of the season, is it Wenger or Gazidi or even the board? Just curious
Every team that contains a lot of international players is short at the start of the season. It’s not just us, it’s not Wenger or the board being incompetent. It’s that there’s too much international football every bloody summer. There should never have been a Copa at all this summer, and Sanchez should have got his rest and not had his ankle kicked into the shape of a melted ice cream cone.
We have Sanogo, Akpom… Plenty of options for upfront, and Gnabry is here as well for the wings… Nothing to worry about 🙂 OMG there is, shit… We really are in the groundhog day with Wenger. We still have time but the only realistic option for the striker, and the one I would be happy and excited about, is Lukaku. Higuain? We were idiots not to sign him 2 yrs ago. Draxler? Yes please, but a year ago when he was on the cheap. Why Wenger let him go to Wolfsburg is beyond me. Now paying 55 M for him,… Read more »
Klopp was saying Balo must go because he would compete with three or four strikers otherwise. Compare to us.
To be fair, I’m not sure I’d want most of their strikers at our club…
And of course, everything the golden boy Klopp says is automatically God’s word.
Wenger has ultimate power at the club so if we go into the start of the season short again it’s his fault again. Let’s face it we ain’t signing a striker,it takes Wenger years of procrastination and fucking about before finally signing a player so when Vardy turned him down it’s back to the drawing board,expect a new striker next summer.
I’m not so sure about that. How do we really know if Wenger can do what he wants? To me it does not make sense. I think they just tell us these things because they know most fans have a soft spot for Wenger and know we won’t give him anywhere near as much of a hard time as we would the board.
Next summer is a very ambitious target.
Draxler looks promising, but reports say it would require 40-50mm. Too much
Not a problem really. He will be 23 in Sept. If Napoli want us to fork out 80m for a soon to be 29 year old Higuain, 40m is perfectly fine for the Drax IMO 🙂
YOu have to remember we also SHOULD get a Cback which means we need to bring the prices down on strikers (wait for it to sweat out) I think 40m is about the top end of what we should pay. Add 30m for Granit (never mind the Japanese fellow) and we are already at 70m which may leave 10-15m for a Cback. Draxler is rumoured around 55m currently but I think the price would be more realistic as you mentioned at 40m Higuain’s price may tumble down considerably but may still be prohibitive plus we do not know if say… Read more »
I doubt PSG are in for Higuaín. They want/need a brand player for their brand team. Someone like Ronaldo or Messi. Maybe Griezmann since he’s French and did well at the Euros. I don’t think Higuaín quite cuts it for them.
If we’re buying from real i’d take jese over morata personally.
If we’re buying from real i’d take jese or isco over morata personally.
Been here 1,000 times before. Wenger never signs enough players. Last season everyone said we need a DM. We didn’t buy one. What happened? Arteta and Croqued, and Flamini went rubbish. We also needed a striker last season. What happened? Giroud lost the plot and Walcott disappeared. Why must we do this every year? Don’t tell me there is a long way to go! Sp*rs have already bought a striker when they have K*ne. It just freaking sucks being a Gooner.
That striker the spuds signed, is he even a member of his national team? If not, he must be a bit……well….not Arsenal quality. I think we aim a bit higher, that is why we are mentioned in the same wavelength as top clubs and target the same top players. Our main issue is we are still trying to hold on too much to the money.
3 goals in 5 games for Holland. He still looks like a donkey to me though. Hopefully I’m right and he’s as good as Son Heung-Min.
The guy they signed led the Ditch league in scoring. So did Jozy Altidore.
“Don’t tell me there’s a long way to go”
Yeah, wouldn’t want reality to intrude on your ranting.
“It just freaking sucks being a gooner”
To me it’s generally great and the only downside is whinging, overly-entitled “fans”, but if this is how you really feel, hey, there’s plenty of other teams in the sea. Get in there, as the football ramble guys once said.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA this has happened EVERY YEAR FOR 10 YEARS and you think this year will be any different? I am pro Wenger. But it’s obvious we are in for the same old shit. Give me one shred of evidence to suggests this year will be different? What about all the other years when we went into the season in a complete clusterfuck? The 8-2 at Old Trafford? The not replacing Van P*rsie? The run Alexis into the ground. Wenger buys players extremely quickly when he knows what HE wants. Rosicky IMMEDIATELY replaced Pires. Cech IMMEDIATELY came in. Xhaka IMMEDIATELY came… Read more »
Let’s face it when Wenger does decide he wants a player there is no fucking about and we sign them quickly,xaka,Sanchez,cech, or it’s turned down for us being stupid or tight,higuain,Suarez, so all this talk about higuain and lanzcette is just shite.
we’d still have a decent line up if Alexis, Özil, Kos & Giroud were unavailable.
Cech
Bellerin – Per – Gabriel – Nacho
Xhaka – Coq
Joel – Cazorla – Gnabry
Feo
Capable of getting a point against Liverpool.. Not ideal way to start of course but could manage if we don’t add to the squad.
The ankle looks normal: https://www.instagram.com/p/BH0ZZsWg2NS/
(looks like the dog loves him almost as much as we do).
I’d say that only the swelling has gone, however inside there could be some damage still. The skin colour is still not normal it seems as well.
Regarding the Liverpool game, the scousers must have players Not available due to Euro 16 as well as us..
If we got someone like Draxler to convert into the middle, it may give us another option wide.
That said we already have the ineffective Walcott and of course there are 3 pretenders to the throne fighting for one flank in Campbell, Iwobi, Ox (not to mention Gnabry). One may step up further this season.
Joel Campell should start ahead of Wally based on form but Wenger doesn’t seem to trust him
Oh wow, Akpom or Walcott up front?! That said, if Theo ever has a good game it’ll be against a team who play a high line like Liverpool.
The pessimist in me can see us whittling down and whittling down and in the end we’ll sign Sissoko on a bargain within the last 24 hours before deadline. He’ll be OK but something will be lacking. Welbeck will return in January and it’ll take a couple of months for him to be match fit. He’ll eventually start doing alright and in the last month of the season he’s banjaxed by some Stoke ape and injured forever. Giroud hits another bad spell and Theo will keep being shit while collecting his 140 smackers every week. Jack is fucked, Welsh Jesus… Read more »
I’ve got a bad feeling about this.
I would almost be content going into the season with Walcott up top and then with Draxler out wide and Campbell as the other wide player. Again i say almost. Im trying desperately to convince myself of this. I would really like to see Wenger strengthen in the center back position. Draxler would be an instant upgrade in the wide areas and he can play thru the middle as well. Wenger has been rumored again and again to be a big fan. I guess we shall see if he is willing to shell out the 50 mill it will cost… Read more »
We’ve got Yaya Sanogo! lol
If the manager fails, yet again, to address the glaringly obvious deficiencies in our squad (even a deaf and blind 3 legged dog knows we need a CB and striker) as well as the injury crisis that makes it worse, he must leave.
I’m sure Wenger waiting for barca, real and psg to make their big moves. Depending on that he will make a move.