Arsene Wenger says he doesn’t know how long Olivier Giroud will be sidelined after the striker damaged his foot in ‘injury’ time of Arsenal’s 2-2 draw at Goodison Park.
The French international will definitely miss tomorrow’s game against Besiktas and the boss confirmed the 27-year-old will see a specialist in the morning to ascertain the extent of the damage.
“Giroud won’t play tomorrow,” Wenger told his pre-Besiktas press conference. “We’ll make an announcement after the game. We don’t know if it’s long term.”
Reports suggest a broken bone could rule him out for up to three months.
If Giroud is out until the end of November the pressure will be heaped on inexperienced Yaya Sanogo as the only player in Wenger’s squad with the physique to lead the Gunners attack on his own. The 21-year-old Frenchman has yet to score for Arsenal in a competitive fixture and has himself been regularly sidelined since signing from Auxerre last summer.
Other attacking options available to Wenger include deploying Alexis or Joel Campbell up front, although neither represent a physical presence, while Lukas Podolski is still (just about) on the books. Theo Walcott won’t be able until the end of next month as he works his way back from the ACL injury sustained in January.
On a more positive note, Wenger allayed fears of a long lay-off for Mikel Arteta who limped off in Istanbul last week. The Spaniard missed Saturday’s draw at Everton but won’t be out for an extended period. Kieran Gibbs who picked up a muscular problem against Crystal Palace should be available after the upcoming international break.
Arsenal face Besiktas at the Emirates on Wednesday needing a win to assure a 17th consecutive season of Champions League group stage football. It’s a cup final in all but name with our muscle in the final five days of the transfer window seemingly still tied to the securing of all that juicy UEFA television money.
It’s going to be a nerve-shredding evening.
So gibbs and arteta will be back around Christmas.
Giroud will be out for the season.
So the weekend’s result just highlighted how far off the pace we are at the moment. At periods in that game we looked absolutely shocking, we had absolutely nothing going forward, no bite, nothing, just a few pot shots from outside the area which the Ox hit well wide. If we had been playing a better side then Everton, we would of probably lost that game 2 or 3 nil. We will be in exactly the same position come the end of the season unless we get a top class striker, Sanchez doesn’t look to be anywhere near ready to… Read more »
All fine and dandy, but your talking about Arsene Wenger, he is a bargain basement buyer the old “Blue Light Specials!” We will be lucky if Welbeck comes in or Remy due to the cheap cost replacement, don’t you just love your Arsene Wenger people?
When will this terrible luck of injuries end? We truly are cursed.
I agree with you, but this idea of a curse…
Other teams all have injuries too, but the difference is that they also have the depth to cover it. Not so much a curse as an avoidable situation.
Of course it was a freak accident that took our HFB, and I wish him the speediest of recoveries, but we have been walking a tightrope on his fitness for a long time.
to summarise – we need another striker.
I agree to an extent, but we’ve got decent depth in most positions, but it seems even our depth gets knackered simultaneously. The only position I truly feel we really needed to build on was the obvious, an out-and-out striker. ESPECIALLY because we’re so adament on the lone striker formation. I laugh at Chelsea for how many strikers they have at their disposal with so many being average (Ba, Torres, Eto’o, etc.), but honestly having the options and backups available even when they’re average still is better than having what we’ve got…untried, untested, and still raw. We’re in a shit’s… Read more »
All other teams have injuries – of course but we are regularly consistently at the top of the injury league table. It isn’t just people’s imagination and self-pity; we get more injuries to more players and they take longer to recover. It’s a fact. Walcott, Ospina and Gnabry were already out of contention before the season began. We have played just four games this season. In those four games we have lost Gibbs, Sanogo, Arteta and Giroud and for at least a few games plus Koscielny is a slight doubt. Discounting Koscielny, that’s one a game which is about par… Read more »
A couple of years ago I remember working out that season we’d played a total of seven different players at left-back at one point or another, for at least some part of a game. Depth isn’t going to help you when you keep getting players crocked in the same position. (Do agree we still need a striker though)
Yeah I hope it ends on a high – Arsenal win and good news regarding giroud
Going to confirm the inevitable… At the beginning of the transfer window it really seemed as if this was going to be a different time for Arsenal, we identified targets and wasted no time in getting them. If you told me at the beginning of the transfer window that in the last week of the window I’d be fearful that we don’t have a strong enough squad to compete I would have laughed right in your face… It seems like we as Arsenal fans are in panic mode yet again, and you can’t blame us. Losing Giroud will be a… Read more »
I’m so worried about the baggage retrieval system they’ve got at Heathrow.
To be fair, if we listened to AW in his interviews, he did warn us all, once those initial 4 signings were made, that we were now into the part of the window when it is harder to get deals done as quickly. It’s kinda like the housing market where you may have a deal all-but-sealed but the sellers need to get their new guy in before they let it complete…and then there is always the chance you can be gazumped or the sellers raise the price at the last minute. He also warned that tomorrow night’s result would have… Read more »
@GU1TAR-D3MON: I share your sentiments, but instead of your wait till the end of the transfer window before pressing the panic button, I have decided to simply slipping into my “dont give a damn” shell, enough of the high blood pressure I get worrying about what we do or dont do. Even though am in Africa, I still love Arsenal with every fibre of my fan being and I can never follow or support any sports team as much as I’ve followed arsenal since 1996. But truth is, am simply just about tired of the fact that Wenger always seem… Read more »
Get well soon. Doesn’t sound to promising, hopefully the situation gets sorted one way or another.
Can I also point out that ex gooner Kenny Sansom looks in real trouble today and no one seems to helping the bloke out. Fuck gazza, he just pisses it up the wall every time someone attempts to help. Are Arsenal F.C helping him? Hope he gets himself sorted.
Sanogo & Poldi trained so I’m confident ahead of tomorrow.
Chezny
Debz BFG Kos MoneyManReal
Wilshere Flamini Cazorla
TheOx Sanogo AlexisTexas
Xo you mean Alexis “Fucks” and “Blows” our opponents up for “Money”? 😀
Not looking forward to playing without Giroud, Ramsey, Arteta, Gibbs or Walcott.
Hopefully Kos and Mert will be fine to play against Besiktas, and if they are, I reckon we should be able to keep a clean sheet with 4/5ths of our normal back 5. I also think with Wilshere, Cazorla, Ozil and Sanchez all starting that we can probably manage at least one goal. It will be tense and nerve wracking but we’ll probably take it 1-0. COYG
Leading by one goal at any time will be the most nerve-racking experience imaginable.
I say lead besiktas 2-0 at half-time and put our heart rates at normal beeping to watch the second half with ease, but knowing our arsenal will be difficult for our hearts wi will have heart attacks 2-3 times in the 90 minutes time.
We have to knick a goal early and then get another early in the 2nd half and then defend with all 11 players and never switch off for a second. I can’t seem to understand why everyone felt “ok, nil nil going back home is fine.” It isn’t fine, because of the god damn away goals rule and if these Turks knick one early, we’re in a fucking battle for our lives for the rest of the match. Doesn’t that mean we’ve got to score 2 just to even their goal out?
Sort of…….put it this way, WE HAVE TO WIN THE MATCH, plain & simple. ANY scored draw goes to them & a 0-0 goes to extra time (with away goals STILL counting) then the PK lottery.
definitely need an early goal, but we seemed to have reverted back to our old ways of gently trotting around for 60 minutes before we decide to step it up and have a game of football.
Even so I’m predicting a 2-0 win for us
Sounds like podolski is staying now
Oh NO! I was feeling so good before the season started and now this injury news make me deprssed. Each game we lost a player! I dont want to see the trend goes like that otherwise we will have no player keft at the end of the season!
Samuel E’too could be a short term solution but no Wellbeck please!
In Arsene we must Trust, best manager in the Premiership! Although we should find out Van Cuntings placenta contact because Shad and his staff are going to need all the stem cells they can get to get our HFB back to his best! Is it too late to try and purchase?
Dare I say, it’s time to unleash the Little Mozart!?
We all complain about Giroud from time to time but the prospect of a long term injury really bring his importance to the team into focus. Hopefully it’s not as bad as it seems.
Spot on.
It also brings into focus our complete lack of options for the lone striker role. Sanogo, although an interesting prospect, should not be leading the line for a club like Arsenal. He should be out on loan if he’s not injured. Too much pressure and expectation on him to perform and you just know the crowd will be in his case in Ebouesque levels after a some poor decisions/moves etc which wont help his confidence at all.
We either buy another proper striker (Cavani) or we move to a 4-4-2 in the short term and play two of Alexis/Pod/Campbell
Totally agree with you on all accounts.
In all of his time with our club, I’ve never once complained about him. Keep me out of it!
Giroud is a fine player, who should be considered an very good OVERALL player and does all the little things to keep us churning. The only thing he needed was a little extra support which he has when everyone is healthy, and add to it Alexis.
Honestly should have just bought Remy or Bony as a backup early on, now we can only pray something comes to fruition by the time the window is up.
we are set for a nervous evening tomorrow night. it’s already money time. so mesut alexis please come on stage and perform that’s why you have been brought you here! we go through then we can buy.
I recall Wenger trying Diaby as a centre forward a few times when he actually played. Slightly worried he may see this as a ‘creative’ solution to Girouds absence in the months ahead. I know it’s unthinkable to have any thought Wenger could put that much faith in Diabys fitness but he did play Denilson quite alot.
Nevertheless COYG!!!!
And then there was the Arshavin CF experiment. He actually put a few in the back of the net, to be fair.
would AW take a punt on Benteke…? OK he’s not quite fit at the moment but neither was Kallstrom, at least Benteke has premiership experience
I think we have to bring Jackson Martinez or Wilfried Bony or Loic Remy to fill the gap on our attacking side. William Carvalho or Luiz Gustavo will be a smart player for DM position.I am a strong supporter of AW and i really hope that he will make two important signings happen soon.Come on Arsene!!!!
3 signings = Another striker of which you have noted above. I’m a big fan of Bony. A Carvalho type. Finally, a CB.
If he can manage to do these 3 things, we are back in very good shape.
Worried about our readiness for tommorow’s game – the players we have available are not sharp yet & on top of that injuries are mounting!
Add the transfer dependencies to the game, then the pressure is also increased.
Though very very worried, I hope we get the right result.
Had injury occurred before the Everton game the reactions wouldn’t have been as dramatic. We have time to fix this situation. We will be fine if……. If……
… If Ozil starts to behave like a responsible player. As of now, a cardboard dummy can defend better than Ozil. And a paper doll can take a better penalty.
I have to give you credit, your attitude toward the players is perfectly captured in your username. I don’t even need to read all those little wordy things below it.
I’m so appalled that we have become excessively reliant on giroud who’s average at best. If wenger won’t bring in a new striker, why can’t he try setting up the team in a way to bring out the best in the other attackers we have? What exactly do they work in trainings?
“Excessively reliant on Giroud…” – you could replace Giroud’s name with Van Persie or Henry at various times in our past and the realisation has to be that this striking situation is nothing new. I’d say we’ve had no more than 4-5 top quality goalscorers in the last decade, and rarely have we had two at the same time. Will this situation ever change? Will it even change in the next week? I have my doubts but I remain optimistic.
that’s true….the difference is rvp and th14 were both TOP QUALITY
Feels like there’s an iron vice over my heart when I think about the game tomorrow. Still, Fenerbache beat those rowdy cunts by 12 points last season (so I heard) and we dispatched Fenerbache quite well… let’s hope we get a semblance of fluidity going tomorrow and score early. No going behind and scoring twice after 80 odd minutes bullshit. (I call it bullshit now, when it would obviously be awesome, but still, it’s awesome bullshit).
I don’t see why we can’t get in a decent stand-in striker from the MLS on a three month loan. Their season starts in January. If Man City can do it…
Rather us go for a proven EPL performer. Bony is seriously a fantastically solid option to try to grab.
yea bony would be great but wenger will not pay 25 mil pounds for him in million years maybe 15 mil if swansea agree to sell i think they knew that they will lose bony and bought gomis and now they are under pressure to sell and release wage and make profit. But the main question is , is wenger going to replace injured giorud, i’m not so sure even if he is thinking about buying striker let alone go for bony we will know more after the game tomorrow vs besiktas when he will confirmed that giorud is out… Read more »
I do not see Swansea selling for cheap as they will have limited time to look for a replacement. Especially after loaning Michu to Napoli
Man Citah can do it with Lamps because the owners of said club also own the MLS NY club that he is going to. We don’t have any ML clubs at our disposal.
That’s for why.
Isn’t their season still running at the moment? I thought the only reason City could get Lampard was because the team he’s going to is entering the league for the first time in 2015, but the MLS in general runs something like March to October.
Abracadabra
*does some SHAD(y) magic*
Giroud is good to go. Bring on the opposition. COYGS
#SHAD_OUT
O ye of little faith.
Let’s hope the players have more confidence tomorrow than you fickle lot of fans.
EVEN with half a squad Arsenal should be too big for Besiktas.
Is that so hard to understand, and simply throw all your support behind the team?
Shame on y’all!!!
Dont understand why it takes 4 days just to determine the extent of the injury,either its broken or not.
They frequently have to let swelling go down to do a proper scan and physical assessment.
Ok…so where is the report from the so called investigation done into why our players are injured more than most other teams?
We do suffer more than our fair share of injuries but it hurts us more due to lack of squad depth.
It is not bad luck or curse when our team is one injury away from having to play a rookie or without anyone at all to play the position. Overplaying the first choice player eventually leads him into the red zone which leads to injuries.
Bad news.
Particularly with CL against Besiktas looming and no Arteta either.
Not sure who we can get.
Falcao would be fantastic but likely in RM’s sights now since they got rid of Di Maria.
We really need to add quality and experience should we aim to add up top to our inexperienced duo of Campbell and Sanogo. It’s very thin in the market right now.
I wish Olivier well in his recovery, but he is not an Arsenal level striker, and never will be. This may push Mr Wenger into much needed action at the business end of the team. We need to splash out to bring in a proven goal getter to the club who will benefit from the quality ball we can supply week in week out, but do not take enough advantage of. And sorry Olivier, but the goal on Saturday against Everton, welcome though it was, masks – but does not make up for – the poor finishes throughout the rest… Read more »
DM is the least priority.
We need a Cback first and foremost and next to that a striker if possible.
As much as people like to bemoan our luck, we were VERY lucky last season in Cback and striker in not having any substantial injuries where our cover was thin at best.
We should not risk that this season. Focusing on ‘DM’ is completely the wrong thing to do.
As it was since start of the summer, we still need a Cback and a striker.
An announcement? Now I’m really worried. There’s no such thing as having an announcement regarding an injury unless it’s bad. If it looked even somewhat good, he’d just say so.
Chill out, motherfuckers. We’ll win this tie! 🙂
#COYG
With either Sanogo or Poldi surrounded by the likes of Alexis, Santi, and Ozil we should be able to score. Mozart, Ox and Campbell if subs are needed.
With Flamini and Wilshere, Mertescielny (hopefully), Monreal, and Debooooochy, we should be able to stop them.
Heads high, we should be able to win this match. And this team has shown spirit as its greatest character so far this season.
COYG!
The truth is it took RVP 8 seasons at Arsenal, yes 8 seasons to score more goals than Giroud did in his second season.
So much negative nonsense about our own players!
Crystal Palace is looking for supporters, you’d be happier there.
yeah but for at least 6 of those years he was a backup player, behind the likes of Thierry and Adebayor.
Giroud bless him is leading the line.
It’s not that we expect more from Giroud, we expect more from Arsenal.
And he only achieved beating HFB’s score it once! His last season when he left!
Who can we buy?
Maybe we should look into this Benik Afobe guy that just put a brace past Man U to make it 4-0 to MKDons in Capital One Cup 🙂
I think we pulled a Chelsea and loaned out one of our strikers to MK Dons in order to punish our rivals.