Arsenal’s medical team have confirmed that Henrikh Mkhitaryan has fractured a metatarsal in his right foot and will be sidelined for six weeks.
The Armenia international, who has four goals and three assists in 20 appearances this season, suffered the injury attempting a shot that was blocked by Lucas Moura in the first half of the Carabao Cup defeat to Sp*rs on Wednesday. He was replaced at half time.
Given the number of matches coming up, it’s terrible timing and puts further strain on a squad that has seven other players on the sidelines.
Nacho Monreal, who went off during the win over Burnley, has a tight hamstring and probably won’t be risked at Brighton on Boxing Day. He’s still being assessed so that’s not 100 per cent confirmed.
Unai Emery hinted that Shkodran Mustafi (hamstring) could be involved at the AMEX Stadium, however, the latest bulletin from the medical team has stopped short of declaring him fit. Instead, it says he’s due to return to training.
The German is joined on the sidelines by Hector Bellerin, who is likely to miss all of the festive fixtures with a calf problem.
Emile Smith Rowe, Dinos Mavropanos, Rob Holding and Danny Welbeck are the other casualties.
Unlucky for him, at a point that he was finally getting a prolonged run out in the team. Saying that, he was hardly setting the side alight. Hopefully this means we will see more minutes of PEA and Lacca togethor.
Could be good timing for young Saka to have a go cutting in from the right wing.. sometimes an injury crisis can bring us something different and change our momentum for the better. However, here’s to a speedy recovery for one of our most diminutive players (and hopefully we will see a more refreshed version on his return too).
Maybe controversial – I’m wondering why let Ramsey go while keeping Mkhitaryan.
I’m not Ramsey fan and in fact I was looking forward to Mkhitaryan swap in the hope that we’ll find the BVB version rather than the version made out of him.
Just Ramsey seems to have a better connection with the club and possibly a bigger contribution as well on the field.
However I hope Mkhitaryan recovers quickly and finds his BVB form and rediscovers his on field chemistry with PEA.
I would imagine that finding a suitor for Mkhi (and his wages) would be pretty impossible. Those wages and his current form, or lack them of, make him a pretty undesirable player.
Maybe what Ramsey wanted in terms of wages was much more than Miki perhaps. It does seem odd.
Because Ramsey’s contract is up at the end of the season. He can negotiate terms in January to a non-PL club or wait until June to negotiate with a PL club. We have little to no leverage in this situation.
Mkhitaryan’s contract still has another season, which we are obligated to, unless they are able to sell him to another club.
Sounds like Smith-rowe back Very soon, maybe he can take advantage of mkhitaryan being out, and start getting premier League minutes
Yeah this kid has potential and of all our options on the right he tracks back the best
Can we bring Nelson back?
End of the fairytale about our apparent improvement on fitness/injury front.
To be fair Mhiki’s injury is a contact one. Hard to legislate for players kicking other people’s feet when you’re the medical staff!
I thought it was a fail when his injury happened but the ref was told by VAR to play on .
You can’t stop contact injuries part and parcel of the game , Arsenal had influence in his injury
I guess a couple of typos has completely changed the meaning, you probably meant…
“I thought it was a foul when….”
“…Arsenal had no influence in his injury”
Nothing apparent about it, we’ve been covering the most distance of any team this season.
Injuries are part and parcel of football, I’m not sure why people were expecting us to not have injuries (and we’re not the only ones). The difficulty ofcourse is that our squad really isn’t as large as many thought (our squad is pretty small), and the more injuries we have, the more likely some more are going to happen.
Overall bar our freak defensive injury-crisis, we’re actually ok-ish compared to seasons past.
We’re unlucky with injuries compared to other sides is a great excuse. It’s up there with the referees are against us & the media hate us. None of them of course are true but that never stops anyone. As Faisal says our squad isn’t strong ..but we have to find a way to cope. It’s that simple. Over to you Unai.
He said our squad isn’t large, not that our squad isn’t strong
Well done Pedant 2.
I think we all cursed ourselves by constantly saying how we have improved on the injury/fitness front
We have been cursed by Robbie fking Savage!!!
Now I see why Ozil is back in the squad. Guess now Ramsey will be used more too.
Good observation. People see what they want to see. Özil Had 1 good pass and one good run in a whole game and he is a super hero. Mikhi has been super consistent linking the game for us and people keep on undermining him. Say what you want but Emery confirmed Trez comment.
Mkhi has been super consistent in not playing well. I’d rather have Ozil shine in ‘moments’ than Mkhi being average/missing consistently.
Laca Sead, Emery confirmed no such thing. He thoroughly complimented Ozil on the match. Stop making shit up. People are calling him a super hero? Get off it. I’m so sick of that kind of intentional slant. Try to pretend he did nothing else the rest of the fucking match. Pfft.
As a starter I’m happy….. As a squad player I’m unhappy
I don’t like it when players get injured because I’m a human but sometimes i have to be honest
I think anywhere else on the pitch moura gets booked or worse, didn’t matter that he nicked the ball, was a high chellenge stud up
Can’t put my finger on it but we seem to hold our shape better when he is playing.
He still turns over possession with a loose pass way too often though. And struggles like everyone else on the right side to track back and help the right wing back.
Still, unai seems to trust him. So I guess we should hope he comes back soon and hopefully stronger.
Fucking pointless cup…
I like Mhki but lukioy its the only position where we have adequate cover
I like him too. I think he is underrated. Less likely than some to take an extra touch to avoid using his weaker foot. In my view Ramsey and Ozil (and some others) sometimes slow down a potentially promising situation by taking an extra touch (or two) to get the ball onto their stronger side meanwhile a defender has had more time to recover. In addition some players lack the confidence to shoot with their weaker foot. Mhki does this less than many players. Fair play to him. I also think he tracks back more than he is given credit… Read more »
Good point. He’s got a good left foot
Really looking forward to Ozil playing week in week out
Looking forward to Ozil deservedly playing week in week out
If you had had of said to me three years ago that we would have Mkhitaryan & Ozil feeding Aubameyang. I would have thought wow, surely we would walk the league every year scoring 80 goals.
Funny how football works out.
80 goals yes, walk the league.. no
Yeah, that whole defending nonsense sure can put a wrinkle in the sheets. But I’m still feeling the progress.
If our defence was better we would seriously be in the challenge for the title but our goal difference is killing our chances of top 4 right now!