Arsene Wenger admits he’ll wait until the last minute before making a decision on Olivier Giroud’s involvement against Marseille and revealed that Mesut Ozil is still struggling with illness.
The French striker has a swollen knee following Saturday’s win against Sunderland and could be left at home for Wednesday’s Champions League opener as a precaution.
Should the hitman, who has been in good form this term with five goals in six games, not make the trip, the Gunners would have only Theo Walcott as a viable striking option with Lukas Podolski and Yaya Sanogo already sidelined. The Greatest Striker That Ever Lived doesn’t count.
“We have a few problems,” Wenger told Arsenal Player.
“Some with Ozil but the main one is Giroud, who has a knee problem.
“He will have a test tomorrow and hopefully he will be fit. But it will only be decided tomorrow.
“I have not really thought about it that much [who’ll replace him] but the obvious solution is Walcott. We’ll see.
“Ozil was ill and has some tight muscles after Saturday. But I think he will be OK. We are optimistic.”
In better news Per Mertesacker has recovered from sickness and will slot back into the centre of defence alongside Laurent Koscielny.
hello
The greatest trick you pulled was to prove to the world you ever existed.
After this my guess is that you will never hear from him again, and like that, poof. He’s gone
Like what poof?
Hey, no homophobia on this website! Read the rules.
kevin spacy, he poofed and disappeared 🙂
I like films.
What’s up?
Player says i am fine.. Arsene says he has a problem and might be ok..
Arsene says player will be out for 6 weeks.. Player says i will be out for 3 months.. 😛
So in the absence of Poldi and Bendtner (lol), it would have to be Theo through the middle.
Such a shame as he is a) not very effective in this role and b) starting to look consistently dangerious from the right.
Only other option is Akpom which is highly unlikely.
Lack of depth up front is insane.
He is consistent in patches. What don’t you understand? How many more times does he have to say it. On a serious note, I hope he starts scoring goals. Those missed chances that Ozil set up for him were annoying, mainly because I am feeling very self conscious and don’t want anyone disappointing Ozil.
Why do people keep referring to Theo’s missed chances that Ozil set up? He had 4 good chances. 2 were set up by Giroud, 1 by Wilshere and 1 by Ozil.
Easily done, you see a sumptuous pass coming off a left foot and you instantly assume it’s Ozil.
I think Walcott received two passes from Ozil and one each from Giroud and Wilshere that put him clean through.
What’s Rosicky’s status?
Offline.
But single yeah??????
Chill, I got this
that is the problem Nicky boy!!!
I don’t want to sound like an asshole, Wenger, but you had 90 days to get a back-up for Giroud.
TGSTEL, Park, Chamakh, Gervinho – all backups. We didn’t want a back up. We wanted higuain, or a suarez (though I’m still very happy that didn’t go through), etc. We wanted competition. Lack of depth we could’ve settled for, but we got Sanogo, we have apkom up and coming, walcott, podolski is injured. Honestly I really expected podolski to be used as either LW or replacement striker, considering him and Ozil have worked quite a bit for his goal tally.
I think you merely sound like an asshole by this point.
Any news on Sanogo? Honestly he won’t be a bad option against a French club.
Arteta is due back when?
Arteta is roughly a week away now. Awesome!!!
Could be eased in by the Cup game perhaps.
Great news!!
His fitness test should be a breeze.
‘Hello Olivier, hows that knee?’
‘A bit sore, I’m not so sure if I can play’
‘OK, can you walk to that table there for me please?’
*Giroud limps to the table*
‘Fantastic, you can play sir’
Tv5 as a holding midfielder….Ramsey wilshere pushed further up front….
I dont get why people think TV5 can be a holding mid…just because he can supposedly tackle. Is that all a holding mid does? What about passing, what about keeping the ball under challenge and pressure from 2 or more opponents, what about being able to use both feet for short and long passing? If you want to see how a holding mid does when he is not comfortable under pressure and with the ball at his feet, just watch the swansea vs liverpool game that just happened today.
I know many of you have shown your disapproval of the player, but honestly believe Arsenal should try and fetch Ciprian Marica as an emergency purchase. So as long as his salary demands are not extraordinary, I think it might be smart business at this point in time. Come January, we can go make a “real” purchase.
Why not Mertesacker up front with Vermaelen back at CB…Haven’t we tried that before..
But in all seriousness.. I think Walcott can do a job for us with the plethora of creativity he will have behind him.
Should the worst happen
Flamini – Ramsey
Wilshere
Ozil Monreal
Walcott
I’d personally rather have Gibbs as the left winger and have Nacho in the back. Gibbs played left winger as a kid and I think he’s great going forward.
Gnabry? Akpom? Ryo?
If Giroud don’t make it and with all the midfielders we’ve got I think we should actually try the Spain-formation with no striker. That could also be useful in matches in the future if both Giroud & Podolski are out.
Also, maybe we should have held onto Chamakh afterall :/
I agree
The cunt did you in my friend. We should have taken notice after he left that you had scored some beauties before he came back from his holiday err I mean injury.
I don’t think Chamakh was doing anything for us even when he did play and he’s doing great at Crystal Palace. Let’s be happy for his new life, new confidence.
I’m available
Giroud’s knee has set? Very worrying. Very worrying indeed.
Giroud getting injured will happen, every player in a season will miss a few games for whatever reason thats just natural.
So the issue is can we cope when he is out?
Im not convinced with Theo atm and i believe we are unlucky to have Podoski out as well its a shame he could of stepped in and really gave Wenger something to think about.
Chuba Akpom should be given a chance if Giroud doesn’t make it. I believe he will do well.
I think Walcott up front will do well with Ozil putting him in, constantly.
Could be Giroud on the bench only bought on if needed. Could be Gnabry on the wing and Theo up front.
If Giroud doesn’t make it then it will have to be Walcott up front. Let’s hope he doesn’t play like he did on Saturday.
‘I told you so’ doesn’t quite cut it. The Giroud situation had been going on for the 2nd season now, with AW having made up his mind about all the other natural forwards last season itself (Chamakh, Park, TGSTEL).
It’s no surprise that AW walked away from the Higuain deal on principles but surprising that he choose Suarez & Ba/Jose as alternate targets.
I’m not suggesting him for a CL game (unless it’s a “dead rubber”) in the same way that we shouldn’t have to rely on Akpom or Sanogo, but Benik Afobe is a striker and anyone that remembers him from the reserves/u18s etc should feel he deserves a run as much as Sanogo or Akpom. His loans have been on and off with injuries and playing out of position but when he’s fit and played as a striker elsewhere they always speak of his potential. He’s still young.
Just because he’s English doesn’t mean he should be forgotten.
I wouldn’t start both of them. Way too important for us. We have enough to beat Marseille.
Don’t risk Giroud. If any doubt it’s a long sesson. Not worth the risk for one game when we are so short up front. Knees are doggy things to mess with
I know, both of mine are titanium!
Walcott will perform well upfront, sometimes all a player needs is confidence and support from his manager and fans respectively. hand him the chance and sing your heart out for the Arsenal.
players need the ability and I’m not convinced that Walcott is striker material
With Podolski out till December, would it not make sense to try and get Iaquinta (currently unattached to a club) on a year long contract?
Even Bendtner got more playing time than him in Juventus, last season
Just imagine if we had got Suarez. I’m going to pretend we had for a while.
Well, fuck..
Can´t believe we only have one bloody striker in the squad. All the youngsters looks exciting, but throwing them up top from start in CL away game? Lambs to the slaughters..
Since Theo isn´t in a scoring mood these days I really don´t have a clue what to do. Let´s just put Flamini there and see what happens!
I think we will be fine guys, whoever plays that role. Let’s be fair, Marseille are not bad, but also not great. With the amount of creativity we have I could put my nan up front and stll expect her to be on the end of a tap in. I would go with Chuba, it is good experience for him, and then Walcott continues in his best position.