According to the BBC’s David Ornstein, Gabriel Paulista is set to miss 6-8 weeks with an ankle sprain.
The Brazilian picked up the injury in Sunday’s 3-2 win over Man City, but just this morning put up an Instagram post playing down the seriousness of the injury. Perhaps he though it was going to be a season finisher and was relieved about that, but being out for the best part of two months is still a significant blow for Arsenal.
Arsenal CB Gabriel out 6/8wks – ankle sprain. Not quite as bad as he 1st feared but #AFC stepping up pursuit of Valencia's Shkodran Mustafi
— David Ornstein (@bbcsport_david) August 9, 2016
It leaves the club desperately short of experienced central defenders going into the new season, as Per Mertesacker is out until 2017 with a knee injury, while Laurent Koscielny only returned to pre-season training yesterday.
Hopefully the interest in Valencia’s German international Shkodran Mustafi is now properly stepped up, as a reinforcement is needed badly as soon as possible.
I don’t know who to believe anymore…..
If Ornstein says it it’s probably true
It takes two long term injuries to our CB’s for Wenger to make a move in the market. Sums up everything wrong at the club right now.
Ok, thats some fairly good news as we’ll need him soon enough. Shkodran Mustafi (or another experienced, quality defender) must come in as soon as possible or the whole Arsenal league season could fall over in the first few weeks. When Stones has just gone to City for ~47m, 25m for Mustafi would be a good deal. Come on Wenger push it through, its not your money!!
Hopefully we’ll still get a cb by the weekend. Looks like it’s Koscienly-Chambers/Holding for Saturday.
Is anyone else dreading this season? Ugh..
Get well soon Gabriel! The whole thing is a bit silly though, if we were interested in Mustafi why on earth didn’t we go after him sooner? As much as I love him, it would be a nice change if Wenger decided to stop making decisions based on gambling on the fitness of his players!
Yep, I have been dreading it for weeks!!! Rumour has it we are in for Evans for FIFTEEN MILLION or mustafi for £25million – doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out which option to avoid!!!!
Wouldn’t surprise me to see Shkodran Mustafi and Riyad Mahrez head to Chelsea and Wenger to go bargain hunting on transfer deadline day for a CB. I don’t think Wenger will sign a CF as he has deluded faith in Walcott, plus he won’t pay the few million extra required for Lacazette. You can vote this down all you want but the ineptitude of how this club is run gets more intense each year. If we sign nobody and win the league I would gladly proclaim Wenger as the greatest manager ever, however, the reality is we will fight it… Read more »
The other worrying factor is that, despite being able to offer champions league football, quality players are off to the likes of manure and chavski!!! Latest story is that mahrez is off to the chavs!!!!
So, basically, read 6-8 months then.
Sweepstake time: which week of the “6-8 weeks” will he suffer a small, small setback? And then after week 20 of being out, which other part of his body will be injured that “has nothing to do with the ankle injury”?
Wenger joined us when we finished 5th in the league under Bruce R, he will depart at the end of the season going full circle – if we are lucky!!!
Playing Giroud and Alexis would mean moving Ozil away from where he has been so effective. Not sure we could afford to play all three down the centre.
Oh what a sad day. Man City signing Stones, Manure signing Pogba, Chelsea signing Mahrez and poor old Arsenal short on defenders and signing nobody at all.
Bollocks!! Drat!! Bummer!! What else can I say?
I thought when we signed Gabriel I thought he was going to be great, but so far not turned out that way.
For the Liverpool game I would play Bellerin , Kos, Monreal and gibbs.
If we dont sign anybody get the 2 new young lads in as quick as possible.
I wish people would calm down about transfers. Every single story about the club is followed by comments like “whatever, just sign a fucking striker/defender Wenger!” I personally think it’s not worth getting too wound up about it until the window closes as a lot of transfers happen in the last week of the window. I’ll make my mind up once the window closes. That doesn’t mean I don’t get frustrated about not signing players earlier, but it’s really not as simple as making an offer for a player and getting him. I also think it’s a blessing in disguise… Read more »
In other news…
Great piece of business that is for Man Utd…Pogba sold for £1.5 million by the so called ‘great’ Ferguson and now bought back again by the ‘great’ Mourinho for £89 million!! It’s easy to be a great manager when you have unlimited funds and no budget to work with and then be made to look like a stupid club with the world watching pmsl. Stuff like this reminds me what a TRULY great manager Arsene Wenger is – irrespective of how he often seems to fall just short of winning trophies.
We’re like the bloke who is looking to buy a used car, who let it slip that if he can’t get it today he has to walk 500 miles back down to London, then desperately tries to convince the seller he’s actually staying down the road.
Well done Arsenal!
The bigger problem with Gabriel Paulista is his lack of defensive ability. The fact that he wasn’t a particular improvement when used instead of the BFG last season said it all.Obviously more mobile (there simply isnt anyone still playing in the Premier League with less pace than Mertesacker)but often seen running around like a headless chicken.His pathetic hands behind his back flick of his foot as an attempt to block Sterling’s cross on Sunday was not what any fan wants to see.Whilst Chambers,Bielik and Holding could all prove to be a vast improvement they are not “Premier League Ready” at… Read more »
Exactly we are absolutely ‘reactive’ and not ‘proactive’ in the transfer market, Wenger referred to playing poker, well that’s not a good idea when you keep getting dealt really poor hands and all the other players know it!!.
Roll on end of this season and hopefully Wenger’s retirement swiftly followed by Stan Kroenke selling up.
We could have just as well stayed in Highbury and a few more titles.
Now, we are strangely (in football), sitting on money, with no top, top talent that can improve our squad at prices we are willing to pay.
Ashley Williams on the way to Everton by the looks of things for £12 million. Is captain at his current club, been pretty solid the last few seasons. Seems like a bargain. We must be buying another (better and younger) defender if we aren’t in for him. Well I hope we are
Um, great deal?
The guy is so old now, he might even retire after this season..
If we dont get Mustafi, i hope we get another slightly underrated german central defender, Benedikt Höwedes.
Not that this would ever happen, but why not go for Mangala?… Hear me out here. He’s available, has Premier League experience, and we could probably get him cut price. He was obviously a top centre back at some point for Man City to have paid £30 million — okay, fair enough, he was never actually worth £30 million (only in oil merchant £££), but he must have been fairly decent, surely. And when everyone returns, he would make an excellent third/fourth choice centre back. He wouldn’t be the upgrade we all want, but I’d rather this than nobody at… Read more »
Hopefully Wenger’s last season
No. Not at all. Excited and looking forward to it greatly. We have a good team. Yes some signings would be nice, but i don’t get the doom and gloom.
So many of our own supporters are looking for any reason to have a go at the board or at wenger. Neither of which are perfect. But the behaviour of our fans is more dissappointing to me than our lack of activity. That is not support, its the exact opposite.
The atmoshpere in our emirates is as consisently turgid as some of our football was last season.
Hear you out? the eyes can’t hear,Bro.
It doesn’t look like we’re buying anybody…..
a while ago i said that wenger was no longer helping this club progress. so far this window we’ve seen vardy, mkhitaryan, and now possibly mahrez turn arsenal down in favor of our competitors. it’s clear that even the players can see this manager lacks ambition and the ruthlessness needed to win the prem or challenge in champions league. this club will now pay the price for being so ambivalent towards wenger and his lack of ambition.
Oh look another long term Arsenal injury. Who would have thought this could happen to us.
Silly season isn’t over yet!
The biggest thing wrong with the club is the fickle fans. Can’t blame most of them are Brits and we all know, how the Brits love finding a scapegoat.
8 weeks but how many before his is match fit?
Pogba 89M, Stones 47.5M, just ridiculous sums of money.
I used to love football with a passion but the sums of money being thrown about now are obscene as is the cost to go and see a match plus travel on top.
Money has ruined the game for me, those ridiculous sums of money could be put to much better use …
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CGhtjgWUYAAPZqk.jpg
How this can have so many thumbs down is beyond me!!! People need to wake up! We have not challenged for the league for a very long time, we have not challenged for the champions league for a very long time, we have not been efficient and productive in the transfer market for a very long time (Ozil and Sanchez were great signings but should have been the spring board for bigger things) realistically it bought us two FA cups. The stadium, the very thing which was meant to project us and make us title challenges has hindered us and… Read more »
Ashley Williams would have been a perfect fit. Mangala is not a bad fit either, still young with loads of potential. Bony and Benteke have both proven they can score goals in the PL and both have something to prove. Not sure why it wouldn’t be a good idea to take a look at these types of guys…don’t necessarily need a guy who can score a CL winning goal, but we don need proven PL players who can do the job at Stoke, Sunderland, et al when needed.
Unfortunate
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3729288/The-Butt-joke-German-hockey-players-names-form-unfortunate-message-viewers-victory-Canada.html
I hope Pogba has a “Shweinsteigger” kinda season.It would make my day to shut up all these Man United fans resurfacing all over social media like a bad herpes infection
I never hear the name Alexandar Dragovic. He is available for a certain sum, tactically well educated, good game opener and despite his young age experienced even in Champions League. For me a long term solution to replace BFG..
Alexandar Dragovic would be the perfect long time replacement of BFG..
Well at least it is “only” six to eight weeks and not six to eight months.
What does everyone reckon to Virgil Van Dyke?
I think he fits the bill. He’s good on the ball, not too slow and very tall. He looked very good at Southampton last season, plus he has a bad ass name like an action hero from Fast and Furious or something…
Blogs you haven’t used the standard Arsenal Injury Calculation Equation:
=(Injury time initially quoted * Wilshere injury baseline (3 months))+LANS bonus (Back in time for April, aka mad rush for top 4).
We need a signing, a defender. we mustafit 😛
Worried Wenger has forgotten the PIN number to his Arsenal transfer account and is too embarrassed to tell anyone
bloges whats happening to your pages Im having even more troubles posting replies now
So can anyone player center back for a few months for free? Please?
Thats it??
Not too bad…of course its an Arsenal 6-8weeks?