Mikel Arteta has hinted that Alex Zinchenko will miss Sunday’s match with Manchester United. The Ukraine international still hasn’t recovered from the knee sprain he suffered in training ahead of the Fulham game.
“Unfortunately with Alex, it’s still not the case [that he can train], he missed two games and he hasn’t been able to train with the team yet,” revealed the boss.
Arteta was more hopeful about Aaron Ramsdale and Martin Odegaard. The former required treatment in the closing stages of the 2-1 win over Aston Villa while the latter took a “big kick” that meant he had to be substituted.
“Those two they’ve been assessed, we will see more tomorrow, hopefully, they will be available to train with the team,” said Arteta.
As has been well-documented, the Gunners will also be without midfielders Thomas Partey and Mo Elneny. It’s still unclear how long each will be sidelined but it sounds serious for the Egypt international.
“With Mo, it’s probably a bit easier [to put a time on it], we’re talking months. With Thomas, we’re talking weeks but maybe shorter than that, I hope.”
On managing Partey’s fitness: “We have tried to manage him, a lot has happened since he joined, obviously. We are trying the best possible way to find the reasons why that happened, unfortunately, the body and the mind are too difficult to understand and put a finger on a single thing to prevent something happening.
“The attitude of the player is there, his willingness…he’s really disappointed as you can imagine, so we need him back.”
Given his impressive performance on Wednesday, it seems likely that Sambi Lokonga will be asked to anchor the midfield again for the trip to Old Trafford.
Why did we let AMN go? Could have kept him until January when we hopefully get Danilo……
Not brilliant but can play all across the midfield and fill in at wing back, all to a decent level
only an absolute bellend would give you a thumbs down for this
Why keep him? He’s such abad player, and never in his career he prvod that he can play as a midfielder at thia level.
I much rather see Sambi in the squad.
Well…here we go again, bottling when we got opportunity to make something serious of our season
First comment on the thread and here we go!
Gawd! Why you’s again? We don’t really need enemies outside do we?
Yes, those hamstrings and knee knacks are all a ruse. The players are actually afraid of playing football and will do anything to stay in that treatment room.
Explain bottled in the context of our start to the season?
We will revisit this comment after the Man Utd game
Classic sing when you’re winning merchant !
Why would we need to revisit this comment after the United game? If we lose, we lose – you don’t win them all and it doesn’t mean we’ve ‘bottled’ anything. Injuries happen and we can still put out a good looking back four and midfield even without those players. Hopefully Odegaard and Ramsdale will be back.
What, because winning 6 leagues games in a row, especially a match at Old Trafford, is such a certain thing? If we don’t win the ManU game it somehow redeems your shit of an analysis about the team being bottlers?
Whenever we play Manchester United at Old Trafford, whatever time in the season it is and whoever we have played immediately beforehand, we never, ever seem to have a full strength squad to pick from and there are almost always very prominent and important players who are unavailable.
I think we have been crap many times at Old Trafford over the past good number of years even when not affected by injuries. And even when they have had much worse injury problems than us !
Time to put it right.
And we never, ever get a result there. No matter how shit they have been. Even Moyes turned us over there. And honestly, with our absences, it’s going to be bloody hard yet again.
Y’all surprise me (and I’m a young fan)
Below are our recent results at Old Trafford;
Man U 2 – 2 Arsenal
Man U 1 – 1 Arsenal
Man U 0 – 1 Arsenal
Man U 0 – 0 Arsenal
Man U 3 – 2 Arsenal
Considering the context of the last leg we lost there (Odegaard giving away that penalty), we have recently always gotten results at Old Trafford and will do so this Sunday. They’ll play more openly than they did against Pool and we’ll punish them.
Another guy who relies on facts. Stop doing that. Next thing you know, you’ll be defending Xhaka who, we know, has cost us Champions League for over fifteen years now.
I’m not relying on facts. I’m responding to the fallacy that Arsenal have struggled at Old Trafford of late.
We haven’t.
I think he was agreeing with you. The sacarstic tone is for those who claim that we’ve been doing badly at Old Trafford and have been blaming Xhaka without facts.
I make it 1 win, 5 draws & 9 defeats in our last 15 league games at Old Trafford. (open to correction on that but if I’m wrong, it’s not by much)
Maybe the facts back up those who say we have been doing badly at Old Trafford ?
Ah! True 🤦🏽♂️
I think you completely missed the sarcasm in his response. He agrees with you.
I think that 0-0 was at home. So our last 5 visits are actually 1 win, 2 draws & 2 defeats…it’s not that great.
And before that we had zero wins in 10 visits in the Premier League.
To be fair, it’s understandable that people view our results there with caution….
Do some research
We will be good this time around playing against them! I just have a feeling.
Historically, given these kinds of start they’ve had, The ‘feeling’ going into this game has always been good but we always seem to fall short. And In the most dramatic way too!
I hope we’ll re-write history tomorrow. I’m not confident though 😬
They have won three games on the trot but if you watched them play, there really hasn’t been anything special. Yeah, they beat Liverpool but Liverpool hadn’t won a game too at that point. If they think their new Anthony is just going to jump in and blow us away, then good luck to them. See I do fancy our chances.
Watched their last two games and they look well organised now. We’ll need to take our chances. If we do I’m confident we’ll come away with three points.
But do they have the flair like we do would be the question? As you say if we take our chances, we will run riot.
they havent played against a Jesus calibre player yet (please dont dare compare this season’s Salah to Jesus)
They definitely look better organised than before (when they looked like eleven players, some quite talented, randomly thrown together without any plan whatsoever). Varane has looked especially good, free of Maguire. Martinez is a good ball player, but all the doubts about him as a centre half are still there. Their attackers run fast, as they always did. But I am unconvinced by their midfield–Eriksen can pick a pass, but he is not difficult to cover; Fernandes (as a sometimes 10, I guess) also makes fine passes but only about one-third of the time, and only if no one tries… Read more »
And we invariably get hurt by one of their unfancied players. I remember Rashford became an overnight star after his brace against us back when he was an unknown.
We could be going there without Ramsdale, Odegaard, Partey and Zinchenko. Four of our most important players. Not to mention they have found form and have a whole bunch of new signings who will be itching to score a debut goal (before disappearing to obscurity). Also I don’t trust the officials one bit. And we are typically crap at OT. All in all not confident and waiting for all of the idiot fans and pundits to spout their mouths off when we drop points because it’s the first ‘big’ team we’ve played (ignoring the fact we are missing half a… Read more »
** Lloyd Christmas from Dumb and Dumber **
So you’re saying there’s a chance
😂. I’d love to be wrong. All of the egg is welcome to go all over my face
Rise young Sir Lokonga!
He had a good game last time out. I think man utd will not relish playing us with the form and confidence we have at the min. I’m going to go with a win for us.
Over to you then Sambi
Shame about Partey but I’m glad Sambi is getting his chance. This is his big opportunity and we’ll get to see what he’s made of.
Hopefully better than his performance against Liverpool last year which earned him a complete demotion from the team!
I think we should go about our Europa league team selection in the classic Wenger style, i.e. a completely different 11 even if it means fringe players. We will probably still progress and our absolute priority must be the premier league.
Indeed. There is still time to get reinforcements in the winter window if we progress in the EL. And we might see some young players coming through!
What we need is a really catchy sambi song (a sambi samba?)
Sambi de Janeiro ?
La la la laaaa la la laaa la la
La la la laaaaaa la la laaa la la….
Sambi… Da Belgi’hero!
(Too much red wine already tonight😅, but it works….)
Do do do Albert Sambi Lokonga!
(to “Come on and do the conga”)
Don’t get why this one hasn’t happened already.
How about “oooh sambi lakongaaah” sung to the tune of “ooooh Santi cazooorlaahh”…it fits!
This just a litle Lokonga
Duh duh duh duh duh duuh
With all the usual drama….
Duh duh duh duh duh duuh
it’s not that good, but Ugly Duckling immediately came to mind.
Shame we will be without Zinks on Sunday. I still fancy us to win by a couple though
Still hoping Zinks was kept out intentionally in a war-style spying-movie technique from MA!
Will definitely win these encounter. Our firepower is superior to the teams which ManUted played against.
Call me a pessimist, but are we not one injury away from having to see Xhaka at CDM again?
Absolute madness from the club.
All summer it was clear as day we needed another midfielder. And two of them who perfectly fit our age profile and transfer strategy, and who are in the final year of their contract, Tielemans and Luiz, we’ve just left them at their clubs for others to pinch them down the line? Has nobody told the club that we have 4 competitions and 400 games before November to compete in.
Absolute god damn raving lunacy.
I imagine Ben White is getting some practice time at CDM as another option. I’m not sure Tielemans is a better defensive mid than Xhaka and with Luiz, they tried to buy him. Massively overpaying would have been the only chance and comes with long term implications. God damn raving lunacy seems a bit harsh IMHO.
Tielemans is as much of a defensive midfielder as Xhaka is. I think we all agree that Xhaka isn’t one
I said the exact same thing regarding White in the AMN article comments. He has the required skillsets for the position.
I didn’t realize until this morning that we basically have 6 players as back-up for the front 6 positions of which 2 have never played a match for us (Marquinhos, Vieira), 1 is for from the required level (Nelson) which leaves ESR, Sambi and Nketiah…only 10 weeks to play until the WC and it all could go well but we are dancing on thin ice here.
(meanwhile our defence is basically as well manned as you could dream of).
The problem is the central midfield- a number 6. We are obviously short in that area. This should be addressed in January or next summer.
You can’t expect us to go from the squad we had, to a squad full of all that we need, in just a few windows
Unless of course, you’re Nottingham Forest…
Utter madness not to have 4 defensive midfielders to stop Xhaka playing there? Is that what you are saying? Name me a club who has 4 defensive midfielders?
Apparently Villa do now?
Not 4- we need a like for like replacement for Partey. Sambi is still learning the trade- he would come good though. He did marvelously well against the Villans.
I read Ross Barkley is available on a free transfer.
We could sign him outside the transfer window. But we already can do that with Jack, who might still be better.
We went into the season with 3 players for the single pivot: Partey, El Neny and Lokonga. We also had a couple that could do a job there: Zinchenko and White. So 5 players for one position. And we didn’t ‘just leave them at their clubs’ – we refused to pay the inflated prices being demanded for them, particularly with both Luiz and Tielemans being in the final years of their contracts. Overpaying for them would have been a worse crime. If the same XI that started against Villa play again, and at the same level (with improved sharpness up… Read more »
and 2 injuries away from having an unproven player in goal! Madness! We need to buy a few more keepers just in case they all get injured!
Come on mate, it’s super unlucky to have 2 players in one position both injured. And we do have a few other players who could fill in. Hopefully Partey is not out too long and then we’re basically all good.
We all knew Partey needed a like for like replacement in the mold of Bissouma and Caicedo, but Arteta thinks otherwise. He obviously trusts the personnel he has at his disposal. We move. COYG!!!
If you bothered to listen to Arteta then you’d know you’re talking crap. Arteta has made it very clear he expected or at least wanted 1 if not two more players in.
We’ve lost both our first choice and back up DMs. Even Man City would struggle with long term injuries to Rodri and Phillips, let alone the rest of the league. We’ve just been unlucky but still have options there in Lokonga, White, Xhaka.
It’s not luck if one of them is injury prone. We found an alternative to Tierney on the same level and we should have done so for Partey. Hopefully we won’t pay the price.
What are you on about?! We’ve got two players in that position and unluckily they are both injured at the same time. The back up, who is usually very robust and has rarely been injured, is out. That is plain bad luck. And yet Sambi STILL came in and the midfield STILL looked good. How many players do you think we should have for one position? Four?! You are aware of the squad size restrictions I assume? Four players for every position would be 44 players!! Get real. Douglas Luis is bang average and Tielemans isn’t even cover for the… Read more »
Kinda agree. Although I’m more worried we did not add a striker…Jesus goes down then we’re fkd. I still don’t think Eddie gives us anywhere near Jesus quality. And of course if Eddie is also injured then we’re really fkd!!
This is quite insane. Partey was famous at Atletico for never getting injured. He comes to us and suddenly becomes fragile and injury-prone. Is there something in the way we train? The field? The weight room? Something in the air around the Emirates?
Or the fact that he only had to play 4-6 high intensity games per season in La Liga – whereas in the UK you’d be lucky to get away with 2-3 low intensity games per season.
It would be interesting to know what is going on with him, but more to the point is what we do to mitigate his absences. We did it with Tierney, but haven’t with Partey.
His been here 2 years & apparently the most games his played for us uninterrupted is 9, 9! Wtf? I know players get injuries but his always seem to be the same area. Is it the improved physicality of the Prem compared to La Liga?
It’s called playing in the Premiership rather than La Liga.
High intensity games every single match.
It’s very frustrating. Becoming apparent the guy cannot handle the physicality of the premier league. We always talk about how injury prone KT is but TP takes the fkn biscuit. You only need to look at him funny and his out for 2 months with yet another fkn thigh injury…seriously think we should punt him next season.
This does not sound good considering the fact that Partey’s “two-week” absences seem to be on some kind of loop.
I was really hoping on Zinchenko being fit for Sunday!
If we lose, United will be only 3 points behind; that shows what this season will be all about. Consistency will be key to top 4.
I hope our inactivity in the in-coming side of our transfers yesterday won’t come back to hurt us badly.
Letting AMN go on loan seems a bit odd given the news re Elneny. I’m not saying he’s a long term solution or a world beater in CM. But he was an option at least wasn’t he?
AMN was an option, but clearly Arteta felt it was best to keep some kind of promise to let him leave, either on loan or permanently.
The injury situation in midfield will certainly test Arteta’s management skills,
so let’s see how he & the team do until we can reinforce the squad in January
2023.
Can we all get over this AMN nonsense. He wasn’t good enough before, and isn’t good enough now. ASL is the option we should be using for these matches for when Elneny leaves
It’s not nonsense, he’s an England International and an experienced player who wants to play mf. As I said it’s interesting that he was allowed to go, yes he hasn’t shone when given the opportunity, but he was definitely an option. I’d rather he was in the squad as a midfield/Rb cover than Cedric.
Magneto has probably hit the nail on the head that he had been promised a move.
There is a reason Big Sam advised him to play any position he was given. There is a reason Mourinho kept him on the Roma bench bar few minutes.
AMN can’t be the go to man in a team that has Albert Sambi Lokonga.
It’s nonsense mate, he won’t get a game in midfield or right back for Southampton. They will use him as a right or left wingback, the position that suits him.
He’s an option sure, but he’s not a better option than Lokonga, White, Xhaka etc.
A guy who has barely kicked a ball in anger in over a season…I dont think he would have provided us with anything worthwhile frankly.
Would def rather rely on Lokonga regardless of his experience levels. At least Lokonga has something to play for. Niles would be like bring Auba back. pointless
At this point, irrespective of performances, I feel like the Partey transfer feels more and more like a bust.
The majority of the performances have been nothing to rave about either. I actually prefer Elneny
Yes, it seemed like a good idea at the time and he showed flashes but it just hasn’t worked out. It makes not getting a cm in this window even more annoying when you think about it, because we’ll need 2 cms in the next couple of seasons now.
Just this morning I reasoned with myself that not signing a CM yesterday must have meant that Partey’s injury can’t be a bad one and he should be back very soon. “Weeks” sounds a bit scary to me (especially with his injury record), but hopefully he’s indeed back sooner rather than later. With Zinchenko still out, at the moment we have no direct/adequate backup at LB and CM. Generally if no new signings yesterday means that we will rather wait a bit and pursue our number 1 targets in January, I support the decision, even though it is a bit… Read more »
As long as his back for Spurs, we’ll have to make do this weekend but we should be able to see off Everton & Brentford without him
Weeks does sound scary – the North London Derby is in four weeks.
I thought edu and arteta told us they were ready and alert for any eventuality? It’s always good to stay positive, but when we needed kroenkes more, to make that sacrifice, they failed, I learnt zinchenko was asking G.jesus if we would get a midfielder, so even the players know this was important, real shame, we would be very lucky to get top 4
Arteta and Edu have built a squad where we now have two decent options in every position.
It’s just hard luck that our two DM’s got injured the same week. Lokonga is a capable plan C.
What actually happened was Zinchenko was asked if he heard anything about Douglas Luiz joining Arsenal. Zinchenko said he spoke to Jesus, but Jesus didn’t know anything.
This scenario seems familiar already. I really hope we get past this phase without regrets.
Well, not really a surprise but now that the window has closed we’ll have to go with what we’ve got until January. With these two players out and other injuries seemingly coming fairly thick and fast now, we’re going to need everyone in the squad as we enter a really busy period over the coming weeks. The game against Utd is almost certainly going to be the toughest so far as, unfortunately, they appear to have got their act together just in time. If we have pretensions of winning the PL this is the kind of game we need to… Read more »
We don’t have pretensions of winning the league.
Let’s be honest, even WHEN Partey comes back he won’t last more than a month before he gets injured again. Certain players are just injury prone like Tierney and we have to take that into account. Zinchenko was a great buy to fix our LB issues when Tierney gets injured again but a replacement for Elneny and Partey was a must. We should have already kept AMN as cover till January or bring in another player even on loan. Hopefully Sambi and Xhaka stay fit.
Why this is getting downvotes I don’t know, because it is spot on.
So many ostriches in this fanbase with their heads back in the sand.
Its easy. We needed signings. Didnt get them. Man u needed signings and got them. We got injuries and now we will get steamrolled against them. The team i dislike the most. Happy days.
A bit disrespectful to Tierney & Sambi. They showed in midweek they can get the job done. Man U’s signings were scattergun at best and they paid way over the odds for underwhelming talent. I dislike them as much as anyone but I doubt very much they will steamroll us. Our back five are a tight unit. Our front three will give them fits. This will be a very close game. I think we can edge it.
Exactly! No opposition coach is going into a pre-match brief with his team & going “Ignore their front 4 lads, it’s crap”, those 4 lads are giving the opposition managers nightmares in how to stop them, you might be able to cut one of them out the game but not all 4 at the same time
Well, Tierney isnt really a central midfielder and Sambi, he did alright last time but that was willa. At home. This will be a harder game and he is still young. I hope you are right and im wrong. Sure they did pay more than they should have but at least they did business. Our defenders are great, but its the central midfield in concerned about with Partey out and if Jesus get injured…well then we are really in trouble.
You have recency bias because we didn’t sign anyone this week.
When actually we now have Jesus, Zinchenko, Saliba, Vieira, and a new goalie added to the squad.
That doesn’t count, because we did it at the beginning of the window. We cheated by getting players who could bed in, play pre-season friendlies, and look like they had been part of the squad for years. It’s not fair: We should have gotten Gabriel Jesus on transfer deadline day, and none of the goals he scored before that should count.
If there’s any Recency Bias to be had, it’s because of where we were in April and May. We all knew what needed to be done during the summer regarding DM. To bring in the other signings we have made in other positions into the argument is neither here or there. I’ll speak plainly: we’ve had all fucking summer to source and sign a decent backup for Thomas Partey – and we haven’t. That’s like landscaping your garden and building a swimming pool and a conservatory whilst ignoring the glaring hole in the roof of your house. It’s now September… Read more »
When Elneny signed a new contract in the summer, it became fairly clear we wouldn’t sign a third DM.
Mikel likes tight squads, no more than two in each position.
We weren’t even linked with – or bid for – another DM all summer until the two injures happened.
That said I suspect we’ll go for Luiz again in January as Elneny’s contract will expire at the end of the season.
Well here we go again ! Me ? I’m proper excited by this game & I bet the players are too ! Sambi will be just fine ! Ben White would be just fine ! F**k me we’ll be just fine ! We’re different gravy this year so get a grip peeps & get on board with the Jesus wins us the league season FFS !!!
Love the optimism.
We lost more times to the referee than we actually lost to Man U at Old Trafford. I thoroughly hate that place. Always be prepared for red cards, penalties and other weird referee decisions against us when we go there.
Paul Tierney is ref, he always seems to have a shocker when he officiates us
Weak ref–influenced by home crowd more than most. (Wouldn’t mind him for a home game.)
Hmmm, any relation? It might help us out!
Well Sambi will get a run of games and we will really see if he is ready for the responsibility. Hopefully Marquinhos and Viera step up as well.
I’ve always needed prayers supporting this club I love so much. Here I go again with prayers on my lips as we take down the devils on Sunday at Old Trafford in spite of our injury problems.
BBC website – Arteta said Tomiyashu injured the same muscles again and will be out.
So that’s the Ben White option in midfield out? Plus the back 4 are now going to almost have to play every game, twice a week for the next few weeks. Gulp!
Peter, are you sure about the BBC report about Tomiyasu? Had a look but couldn’t find it.
It seemed like Arteta said “Partey injured the same muscle again” not Tomi
It wouldn’t be Arsenal
Without an injury crisis before a run of games
So it’s Sambi Vs Casemiro this weekend 😀
I suppose we will be fine. Our pace and pressing up top should be enough to trouble them One I’m worried about is Odegaard – if he is missing, I’m afraid we might struggle.
Sambi won’t be playing directly against casemiro . It will mostly be bruno in his area of the pitch. In the Leicester game he done absolutely nothing off the ball.
It would have been nice to have signed some depth yesterday with Luiz, but I guess flip side of the coin, Sambi needs games to develop and a signing yesterday would not have helped him mentally.
I have high hopes for Sambi, and I’d happily see both him and Marquinhos get game time to blood them for long term gain – even if it involves some element of short term pain
True, but you have to be careful how players are introduced so you don’t put too much pressure on them too quickly which can backfire. Sambi is certainly a prospect. That said, and assuming he plays, I think he’ll find an apparently resurgent Utd at Old Trafford to be, what shall be say, a much steeper learning curve than a pretty average Villa side at The Emirates. We’ll see though.
Yeah agree 100%, we saw what happened with Nuno last season (he looked a world beater on his cup debut vs West Brom). My feeling is that Sambi has a resilient mentality – you don’t become captain of Anderlecht under Kompany at 21 if you don’t have something about you – but the PL is much more unforgiving. He had some tough moments last season and the stadium was unforgiving – and he showed some nervous moments at the end against villa hacking at clearances – but hopefully with this new found support in the stadium with the fans fully… Read more »
Not that worried. Sambi has been really good against a very aggressive Villa side. Absolutely trust him to do a job. And we got Granit as well, who could drop a bit deeper. Plus Oleks and Benjamin, who’d be able to play as a dm for a certain period.
When the going gets tough the tough get going…
Given our recent results there, I would take a draw right now. Especially our current injuries that are an annual occurrence and have not been adequately addressed. On top of all the fringe squad players that have been loaned out!
A draw at Old Trafford would be a decent result.
After that it’s Everton at home and Brentford away so we should be getting back to winning ways with those fixtures. That will set us up nicely going into October.
Wouldn‘t say a draw is a bad result giving our recent record there and the fact that they seem to have found some defensive solidity but I’d absolutely play to win and think it‘s absolutely possible to get 3 points from them.
Will Mikel get his Coq out?
What can I say?
Actually, this time, I’m not going to say anything – I can’t be bothered – because even I’ve had enough of me moaning about squad depth and using the transfer window time constructively to address the main areas that needed addressing – one of which was to have signed a decent DM.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll just wait for this post to be permitted and then I’m going to down vote it with the rest of you….
😊
Keep the faith Mr Q. If sambi and esr have to play we will still have too much for utd. Ive seen they’re last 3 games, they are an ordinary team.
I have every faith in our lads.
It’s Lady fucking Luck, the bitch, who worries me.
Or, more to the point, that mutant necked worlds biggest three year old tosser who only has to get of the fucking Utd team bus and the ball is in the back of our net because of him.
Oh well, we did beat them at the Emirates last time out…..
Paul Tierney is the only thing that worries me. He shouldn’t be allowed to ref utd games, his brother is a season ticket holder. He supposedly claims that be an Wigan fan.
*Arteta voice* Sambi you fockin go ou’there and fockin kill them!
Bring back Jack, jk!, we will do fine. coyg!
I can see a reverse of the Man United 3: Arsenal 2 feature played at OT on Feb 28, 2016 where we underestimated United squad because they were missing like 8 first team players. We thought we could roll them over but Rashford gut his debut goal and a brace against us.
This time around, United will think we are also a push over because we are missing key personnel in the middle of the park.
This is the game that will bring ASL to limelight. I see an Arsenal victory here.