Granit Xhaka and Pablo Mari will miss Arsenal’s clash with West Brom at the Emirates tomorrow evening.
The Swiss international dropped out of Thursday’s 0-0 draw with Villarreal after sustaining an unspecified injury in the warm up. TV pictures appeared to show someone stamping on his foot in a pre-game drill, but in the latest update from the medical team on the official site, it seems he has suffered a groin strain.
Meanwhile, Mari twisted his ankle during the game, and although he carried on after some treatment, he won’t be available for tomorrow.
David Luiz continues to receive treatment for a hamstring strain, and beyond that there don’t appear to be any other issues for Mikel Arteta to contend with.
A win for the Gunners tomorrow would condemn Sam Allardyce to relegation, so for those saying there’s nothing left to play for this season, think again!
Struggling to care tbh . Burn it down.
Next game of importance is in Mid-aug, if there are significant changes in the club, in the playing squad, as well as in the hierarchy.
I just can’t wait for The Emirates Cup.
Highlight of the season. Relegating Allardyce. How sad is that…….but good.
Not even good for AMN. Would give him a sense of failure.
We’ve got four games left and whilst finishing as high as we can is important I’d hate to think that Arteta will just play the same old tired faces and not give a few opportunities to one or two of our youngsters, even from the bench.
Players who I dont think should be in the squad – Bellerin, Luiz, Ceballos, Willian, Laca, Nketiah.
I would still keep Laca.
But Laca himself won’t care for that. Would you stay in this tire fire?
I keep seeing all this who would want to come to Arsenal type of shit everywhere. Well, I would, too bad I m not good at all. I agree opinions differ and that the ownership and leadership at the club, including the manager and the players are to blame as many are saying, but as fans we must look at eachother as well. We have greatly lost our class too. Envy and wish for the rise of teams like Liverpool, but take notice of the fan backing all through. I actually think we might have been as bad or worse… Read more »
You know he will
I want to see Balogun given some game time, will also help to decide a plan for him next season (ready as a backup, or loan?)
Agree. For me he’s a back up now, I’m a bit disappointed that he hasn’t been more involved since he signed, the kid has that knack of scoring, why would you not use that?
Can’t care less about Allardyce. UK fans please organise and boycott next season tickets and all games till Kroenke caves. Only way our club survives.
4 games to go and we’re only 5 points behind Liverpool. I’d have taken that at the start of the season.
Yep. Who knew!
Still 31 points behind the leaders — we knew that, of course.
Certainly – if Liverpool were top. I suspect that a lot of us thought that there was a fair chance (no stronger than that probably) that we could have been in that position now, given expectations at the start of the season.
I think most of us would agree that Liverpool are better placed to improve on their current league position next season than we are though.
You were still saying up to a month ago that this team was good enough to get top 4 and had a good chance at it. Look at bit silly now dont you.
Pedro I still do think it. And I don’t that’s at all silly.
Our squad is good enough to be a top 4 squad – no weaker than Leicester, West Ham, Spurs or Everton. Our players don’t lack quality, they’re just weirdly apprehensive.
So we’re theoretically good. Yeah… That’s one of the most arsenal things I’ve ever heard.
Well they’ve got a much better manager for a start
There is always something to play for. Relegating Allardyce could well be the season highlight.
As we can’t win anything or be relegated now it would be nice to see some ‘fuck it’ teams. Plenty of young players and some attacking play. I know, I know… 🙁
Nothing going to change. Arteta, edu, Stats, Venkatashem, owners will all likely stay in place…blame will be apportion on the squad (which is the least of the problems frankly) And will be the wrong focus only bc we won’t have the experience or finds to work the market again properly… Look at Chelsea. Brought in Tuchel and transformed the team immediately. So much more dynamic. Everton may not be much higher than us but considering the state they were in when Ancelotti took over, still punching above their weight. Then there’s Leicester and Leeds arguably even Villa. Good enough for… Read more »
Exactly, well said. Especially the last part. This is what I regret the most from arteta, he should have worked with what he has, not add unnecessary players such as willian, give new year to luiz etc. Play saliba, torreira, guendouzi, nelson, develop them and show them full support. We’re letting so many of our players rot and giving chances to has beens and players who have let us down so many times. For me, arteta needs to go immediately, vinai is no leader as well, needs to go, he’s useless, edu is the same. If arteta really cares about… Read more »
Arteta will just serve up the same shit sandwich we’ve had to stomach all season. Can’t be fecked to watch it.
Boo hoo me.
I’d like to see the likes of Nelson, Azeez and Balogun given a game from the start.
Seems at least Azeez and Balogun played last night to keep the U-23s from going down, so don’t think we’ll see them tomorrow.
Let’s send the lads out to play in their little boxes on the pitch adhering at all times to laid out tactics whilst we all say “‘told you so” for the next 4 games !!! The. club I’ve supported for 52 years is dead in the water ! I hate what we have become
Calm down ffs
Calming down ain’t happening while Stan & his merry bunch of serfs are at our club ! Perhaps if our manager sent out a set of players pumped up to win a game instead of with a coaching manual tattooed onto their arms we’d actually be achieving summat ? Just a though ?
I feel exactly the same mate. Hope we all disengage completely, boycott to the point of killing Kroenke’s precious brand and see if we can rebuild out of the ashes when he finally fucks off.
I reckon we’ll see Chambers partnered with Gabriel again. We need to sell at least one of Chambers and Holding this summer. If Chambers can strike up a better partnership with Gabriel than Holding has been able to, he’s got a chance of staying, otherwise he is probably the first to go.
Why do we need to sell one of chambers or holding?
Some dumb narrative those two wet wipes on the arsecast started. The sheep mearly follow their lead
Holding and Chambers are squad players at best. We need to trim the squad if we’re not playing in Europe. We also ought to do what we can to improve, though that might be difficult. I don’t think we can lean too heavily on Saliba as an instant savior.
I know we’ve been underperforming, but honestly, how many teams above us can you say we have a better central defense than? Leeds and Tottenham maybe? It’s hard to argue that we’re superior to Everton, Leicester, Villa, or even West Han in this department, and we’re miles behind the others.
Maybe “squad players at best” is a little harsh. They are fairly solid squad players, and the money we could get from selling either of them could be reinvested to strengthen the first eleven.
Chambers has a few half decent games at right back and some on this page think hes prime maldini.
Holding has been pretty decent this season.
Our problems lie more with chance creation and the lack of any clear style of play than our defence.
Seems Arteta will be given more time from the look of things. My heart says “yes” to that, but my head says it’s postponing the doomsday.
I hope my heart wins; but he must be backed in the summer.
The remaining four games should be the backdrop for next season: play those who have a future in the club, especially the midweek at Stamford bridge.
Why should he be backed ?? Look at last transfer window. He made misses: auba new contract miss, Cedric contract miss, bringing William miss, selling Martinez miss, sending torreria miss, gounduzi miss, runarson miss, oh my God the list continues even sending kolasinac on loan was terrible
Sadly I think you are right and he can’t be trusted. If Edu and Arteta blow a huge transfer kitty, where will that leave us come November?
For me this is good, the season is over anyway, give their chance to youngsters.
He’ll probably play Ceballos or Elneny over Xhaka in midfield and Cedric or William at LB.
Gabriel will play at CB now, when it doesn’t matter, rather than on Thursday.
God, I’ve gone from being largely ambivalent about Arteta to fucking hating him.
Nothing left to play for. Not sure how else Arteta is going to motivate these players given the situation we are now. Mid table, no European nx season and no one cares anymore. Pressure is totally off but I just want them to play decent football again, that’s all Im asking for the remaining of the games.
For what it’s worth – we can still mathematically make top 4.
No we can’t.
He couldnt motivate them for a european semi final what does that tell you?
Are we still “clashing” with any team?
Asking for a friend. 😔
Unfortunately at this point nobody cares about it. Just flipping start our youngsters for the rest of the season I couldn’t care less
Actually, Sam is more suited to manage Arsenal.
Oops, did I just say that?
I feel for you Blogs, having to write all these articles.
> there don’t appear to be any other issues for Mikel Arteta to contend with.
Blogs optimistic as always.
Can’t believe the fans on here saying there’s nothing left fight for. There is. A little thing called pride and finishing as high as possible. We fight to the finish to get above the Spuds
Finishing above spuds is no solace for me anymore. Coz if one season they finish 20th then we are doomed with them
As a wise man once said: “Pride only hurts, it never helps.”
Fuck pride.
If Arteta or the players had an ounce of pride, they would have played differently on Thursday.
Beating West Brom shouldn’t be a matter of pride anyway. It should be “non-negotiable”.
But I guess the only thing which is non-negotiable anymore is Arteta keeping his job no matter how badly he fails.
Please play Reiss Nelson and Balogun. Nelson has 314 minutes total in his age 21 season. Unforgivable lack of player development.
Carlos…. much as I agree with u…… standby for another 90 minutes for Willian
Arsenal are now the London Newcastle. And like Newcastle, the fans couldn’t give a damn about the fixtures left. Kroenke has killed people’s love for this club. Mock Allardyce at your own risk, because we aren’t far off from being relegated. Kroenke stays, the club continues to spiral and we end up in league championship within the decade. I don’t think the violence of the Man Utd fans was a good look but I’d love to see people be disruptive, not attacking police and rioting but being peaceful and disruptive to the club. The pressure on Kroenke is already going… Read more »
From majority of comments on this page, pretty obvious fans still don’t get it. The players are the least of the problems. Kroenke, Arteta and Edu are the problem and as long as they remain, we will continue our steep decline. The meek responses on this site indicate these men will very well continue supporting this mediocrity and will keep giving their money to Stan. Talking about youth saving us! What a spineless bunch of supporters. Do the needful, boycott this club and force change. Force it! Blogs has a lot of sway with is readers and can’t even be… Read more »
You talk about “spineless supporters” and boycotts, so what will you be giving up in the cause? What will you be getting off your arse to do, as you put it, in a practical way (and I don’t just mean demonstrating). Are you a season ticket holder? If so, will you be refusing to renew your ticket? If you’re not, do you actually attend any games at The Emirates? If so, will you stop going? It’s often the case that the most vociferous proponents of boycotts, or those who castigate their fellow supporters for lack of action, are people who… Read more »
So sending wesbrom to relegation is now our priority? Smh
Hey, better them than us.
#nonnegotiables
Think blogs made an interesting point about the style of play we should adhere to, at the moment we are going with Arteta’s very rigid style of play – not what we have come to expect following the free flowing glory years of Wenger!!! We need to have that philosophy as the club philosophy permanently – so buy players that will lead us to this not tripe like Willian and other slow sideways and backwards passing players!!! The problem against Villarreal was lack of transition from defence to attack – remember goals under Wenger being scored within 20 seconds of… Read more »
I wonder how many Arsenal fans are going to miss the West Brim game too.