Arsene Wenger says that Alexandre Lacazette’s injury is a massive blow for Arsenal, after the French international was ruled out for 4-6 weeks following keyhole surgery on his knee.
The former Lyon man was expected to lead the line in the Europa League this week against Ostersund, but will be sidelined, leaving the door open for Danny Welbeck to take his place as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is cup-tied for the European games.
Speaking to beIN Sports, the Arsenal manager shed some light on the situation and injury that manifested itself after the North London derby.
“Lacazette, at the minute I speak to you, has had a knee surgery and will not be available for the Europa League,” he said.
“Unfortunately he got a surprising swell of the knee after the Tottenham game, and he needed surgery, very quick surgery, and will be out for the next four to five weeks.
“It’s a massive blow for us, but we have to find a solution. Nobody could predict it, but football is as well to do with unpredictable things and it’s always a good opportunity to find someone who steps in and does well.”
As for how the 26 year old was feeling, Wenger admitted he was down, and perhaps hinted this might have been the culmination of an ongoing problem.
“He is down but he recently must have felt something in his knee,” he said.
“Maybe that’s an explanation as well as to why he wasn’t scoring as many goals as he’s used to.”
NOBODY could predict it.
Hmmmmm…ok. This is Arsenal.
Mslintat bought a cup tied striker and sold a very good option who provided us something different.
Would have done that deal over and over again. Aubameyang > Giroud. Besides, we have a perfectly fit striker in Lucas Perez who we can recall if we need another body.
Lol! Wenger doesn’t rate him.
AND
Wenger hardly ever recalls players from loan
You cant recall players outside the transferwindow i think.
You can if both clubs agree
Perez who is struggling for form back at his old club and hates our guts.
A little off topic, but indulge me this. What gets me is that suddenly ‘the messiah’ Guardiola’s team has received a few bad tackles and injuries, it’s headline news. Yet every other team has been maiming, crippling and down right targeting Arsenal for 15 years. Ramsey, Eduardo.. the list goes on. It’s ridiculous double standards, with years of the likes of Roy Keane labeling Arsenal week and spineless for having the temerity to have their legs broken in half and throttled by the Stokes of this world – charlie adam. Yet as soon as oh holy fashionable man city get… Read more »
We’ve already registered our squad for the 2nd part of both the PL and the Europa Cup, so even if we can call Perez back (unlikely), we can’t play him…
Aubamayeng is good in the air, has pace and is a better finisher than Giroud
Lacazette has great technique, can link up play and is a better finisher than Giroud.
Giroud could’ve stayed but we needed Aubamayeng more. Simple as that
I would contest that Lacazette is a better finisher than Giroud.
Lacazette is a better finisher than Giroud. One game won’t change that
Feel for the bloke, maybe he was carrying the knock who knows, but his lack of goals and therefore confidence is more down to the fact we can’t play to his strengths or haven’t found a way to. We are a very poor side with a manager who has no answers, it’s hard to blame any player in this squad. I have no idea how good some of our players are as they don’t seem to be coached or are devoid of a plan when they walk on the pitch. This could be a great squad of players but not… Read more »
Yup when Auba and Laca have scored 100 goals in red and white we can discuss. But all the arguments about better are moot. The point is the difference. Giroud was a different option. He’s gone though so lets move on.
The point is he was our back up and in his wake is one player still adapting to the PL (now injured), another player with no PL experience who is also cup tied and Danny Welbeck. THAT is the point!
Contest it all you want. You’ll still be wrong.
How many times did we hear people saying that Giroud misses too many chances? I loved the bloke but he missed a lot more clear cut chances than people seem to remember. Laca hasn’t had that many clear cut chances provided, at least not ones you would call bankers, until Saturday. If he has been carrying a knee issue then that might explain stuff. Who knows?
we didn,t need him anyway
Always the optimist.
Come on Danny boy! Super hatrick against the mighty Swedes will do! Lesss goooooooo!
Still sore we didn’t buy Mahrez for £50M, Santori?
I think it might be good for him in a way. Gets him out of the spotlight and he will hopefully come back more determined.
He is an excellent player and can be a great asset for us. People are writing him off way too quickly.
A voice of reason .. On the internet , regarding Arsenal.
Now I have seen it all.
Agree Lacca is a real asset and a very good footballer , has been in a bit of a slump but deserves way better than the turncoats that label him shit. I think we will enjoy the hit outta Lacca and Auba in days to come .. change is in the wind.
Has anybody stopped to consider the fact that we actually have TWO 50million pound strikers in our squad? Think back to the Giroud/Sanogo days and how much we cried out to sign a big striker. And yet, we can’t seem to handle having both of them so one of them has to be labelled utterly shit. It’s very frustrating. Get well soon Laca!
well that’s down to the manager
lacazette has show he can score in the epl, but aubameyang has yet to prove himself, so no one can say he is good or not
Yeah, nobody who saw him score 141 goals in 201 games for Dortmund could offer an opinion as to whether or not he’s a good player
Hhhmmm….
Victor Valdez won every cup and title a footballer can win when playing for Barcelona and Spain, yet couldn’t get a game for the worst Man Utd team of recent times. Almost the same as Claudio Bravo at Man City.
Football is littered with players who have won everything in one country only to absolutely bomb in another.
I’m not writing anyone off by the way, just saying that so far, Laca has been underwhelming and Aubameyang hasn’t played enough for us yet.
Wrong example mate. Even I would look good in THAT Barca side. The few times an opponent managed to break through the press usually resulted in goals as Valdez wasn’t exactly De Gea.
A good player will always shine in the long run once he acclimatizes with the weather, pace, style, language etc of a league.
I agree but Valdez isn’t a great example.
Valdez joined Yanited on a ‘free’ after major knee surgery at the age of 33 (I think), so he was never going to reach the same level as he had done at Barca.
@Andy Mack
Downvoted you by mistake, sorry.
Probably not the best example but that doesn’t deviate of what i’m trying to say. Even when going from one club to another some players suffer (Torres?).
@kinghenry
I watch Barca almost every week and Valdez was outstanding in most matches. Every player in that team was at the very top of their game, but the narrative is that it was Messi carrying 10 other players.
Tosser
Aubameyang has also scored in the premier league. It’s positive all round
Absolutely
I’ve had 3 of these operations on my knees. This didn’t happen overnight they knew for a while. The injury can have a very significant effect upon the ability to strike a ball and move comfortably
You have three knees?
Wele your time is now!
Yes! The time is now to confuse the opposition with your aimless athleticism and goal-scoring body parts!
We have Welbeck, Iwobi and Nketiah. Time to show their worth.
Could it get worse? we should have sold Wele and kept giroud or walcott. You will know what I mean in the coming weeks.
Giroud and Walcott sold, Lucas on loan, Aubameyang cup tied, and Lacazette injured. This is truly the Arsenal. Now awaiting some inevitable calamity to befall Danny Welbeck, to pave the way for the return of Alex Song to the lineup as our starting striker.
Bobby turns up to training everyday. He’s a capable geezer…
Do we still have Joel Campbell?
Injured at his loan club.
You couldn’t make it up could you. Eddie up front on Thursday?
what about nelson, he was flavour of the month at one time, no he is in obscurity
Nelson is still highly regarded, but he’s not a CF.
Apart from scoring goals, he doesn’t really suit the CF role in any way.
So Wenger favorite Ramsey is forced to play in the red zone casing injury but the second a player that Wenger didn’t want comes up with something he gets instant surgery ?
1 – You think he made him have surgery he didn’t need just because you think he doesn’t like him despite the fact we really need him for the Europa League?
or
2 – Dammit, we really need the sarcasm font around here.
Visions of Monty Burns telling Smithers at gunpoint to “Get In” to his miniature Spruce Goose. If you don’t get the Simpsons reference I don’t care. You made me think of it with your ridiculous suggestion.
Welbeckio to get an imperfect hat trick in the ‘not champions league’, right shoulder, left shin and chin.
Face
Arse
Back
Chin
Penis
Eyelid
Our own Hans Moleman ‘man hit in groin by football’ goal of the season to win it.
Eyelash
Toenail
Armpit
The welbz treble.
Penis
Scrotum
Taint
Always bein fucking sports
Happy to criticise man city for their wealth and investment but happy to do every interview with the owners of psg and until recently take the pay check for tv work
Or maybe he simply trusts them not to misrepresent his words , or try to use every opportunity to get him to say something controversial, or maybe just had a gutsfull of the British media circus.
Maybe use arsenal tv then
Can’t argue with that. But it’s a bit piecemeal at best with its activity, and availability.
Never seen it add stuff out of hours.
Bein based in Paris?
Laca is a genuine favourite of mine but I think this is the perfect float or sink opportunity , to finally unleash Eddie Eddie Eddie !
Anyone seen how well Spuds played against Juve?? How can you watch that and not want Wenger out?
Pretty easy, actually. I’d prefer Trez out.
i’m mortified to learn that a gooner could watch a sp*ds game not involving Arsenal
I watched it, cheering for Juve. I felt a bit dirty, but I can always get behind Szsz.
I was (slightly) cheering for Sp*ds. I want all the English teams to stay in the CL as long as possible so they are distracted from the league. Hopefully they have to go to extra time with Juve next game and Kane gets injured when the ball gets stuck in his mouth.
Obviously I don’t want any of them to win it!!!! Citeh is probably the only one to have a chance.
Slightly… Oh dear.
Regretfully their team is both very strong and on a great run, but it’s taken them a fucking lifetime to get there, and they haven’t reached the financial problems that there new stadium will give them, yet.
It’s quite amusing to think that they’re playing the best they’ve played for over 50 years (probably more) and they still won’t win the league…
If you believe the media at the moment spurs are the new era defining ‘busby babes’, winning the league is apparently irreverent these days ?
They didn’t win though did they?
Over to you then, Danny…
Amazing how spurs manage to turn out their best 11 each week and we lose a bloke who has played 10 minutes.
While at the same time Citeh can’t fill the subs bench as half their squad’s crocked.
It’s not just us….
Unfortunately that is the ONLY thing we can compare with them at the moment. With half a team as you say they are 27 points above us, still in the FA & CL and the CC…And they have a big chance of winning all of them…
That’s partly their own fault as $iteh don’t have a full squad because they won’t use ‘Home Grown’ players. They could have another 4 home grown players but Pep prefers to buy in non-home grown…
It is what it is and we can only hope all goes well with his recovery and that the team pull their fingers out and get some decent results in. Often in the pass wenger has stumbled on a formation or personnel that temporary works, hopefully Danny will produce the form he showed at the start of the season before his first injury, might be clutching at straw’s but it’s a big chance to win a trophy and that’s what its all about. Coyg
This is fucking disheartening…
“nobody could predict it” maybe a bit of sarcasm aimed at his bosses.
If this is the kind of strategy the club is using to catalystic our future, then I don’t think it matters who our next manager is.
Oh well there goes the Europa League chances. He may be a nice guy but a player with Wellbeck’s obvious deficiencies shouldn’t even be in the Arsenal squad…
Man, c’mon, give the guy a break! wellbeez is definitely a ‘different option’……guy can score with every part of his body, including his you know what, according to earlier comments, so, what else do you want?
At the very least, should confuse the hell out of their defense, in my opinion…..I say unleash the wellbeast!
It an arthroscopy – a simple clean up probably to remove some cartilage.
Nothing major. I’d be surprised if he’s out for the whole 6 weeks.
We have cover in the league. And If anything this may give Welbeck some peace of mind knowing he’ll be guaranteed a starting birth in the short term in the EL. He can go out and just do his thing.
Or not.
Welbeck wouldnt even be the starting striker in Östersund. Hes just not good enough.
Play Eddie from start, put some faith in him.. he did what Walcott, giroud and iwobi couldnt, against Norwich.. Did i mention he was subbed in at min 85? besides.. he´s dominating U23:s.
Welbz got some pace and a heart, but he couldnt score even if his life depended on it. Sell him… get him of the wage-bill.
Sell him even though the transfer window is closed. Right.
Imagine the fury on Conte’s face when We offered him Danny instead of Giroud!! The gasket would’ve melted.
Come on then Danny prove all these doubters wrong. Face shoulder bellend, get in.
He could go to China or the mls!
I mean if we were offered 200m for him hahahahahah
Sell him in the summer ofc. in the meanwhile, he and xhaka can do something usefull for the club (for once) and cut the grass.
well if you played him more often he would score more, but he wont get many sat on the bench, and as for Welbeck, as long as he has got a hole in his backside he will never be a good player for arsenal
I note that no one is mentioning that it’s er, United reject headless chicken Danny Welbeck that is replacing Lacca .So what’s all this nonsense about Perez returning about ? Lacca looked shot anyway before he injured his knee. I don’t buy the’ he had been injured for awhile’ line that Wenger is peddling and that this might have stopped him from scoring. He looked fit enough and quick enough on Saturday a player with a dodgy knee can’t produce the sort of spin-off and run at pace that he did against the spuds defence. Shame about his end product… Read more »
On the bight side it will feel Laca new signing when he returns.
I’ll get my own coat…