Arsene Wenger has confirmed that both Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Santi Cazorla are back in full training and that the Spaniard could be involved against Norwich on Saturday.
Chamberlain, out since February after a clash with Javier Mascherano in the defeat to Barcelona, won’t be risked, but will be available for the final two games of the season against Manchester City and Aston Villa.
“Everyone is training, so that’s new for us,” Wenger told Arsenal.com on Wednesday. “That’s the first time this season.”
“It’s Oxlade-Chamberlain’s first week in full training now, so I don’t think I will select him this weekend.”
On Cazorla, who hasn’t played since the 1-1 draw against Norwich when he tweaked his knee ligaments, the boss added:
“Santi might be in the squad this weekend, I don’t know yet. He is available. Everyone is available, but maybe Oxlade-Chamberlain is not competitive yet.”
While news of the Ox and Santi’s imminent return may be a case of ‘too little, too late’ for Arsenal, it does give each man a last chance to turn the heads of their national team managers ahead of Euro 2016. Both players featured regularly for their countries in qualification.
First time this season……bloody hell!!
Ever-hopeful question here, but do you think Shad Forsythe’s appointment is finally having an effect? After all, it must take a while for methods and practices to show results.
I’m not too sure about his effect only kicking in now – I remember a period last season when we appeared to have few injuries, as well. Maybe the fact that we’re now only playing one game a week?
That being said, I do think he’s helped, as most of our long-term absentees this season (Jack, Santi, Coq, Chambo) have been impact injuries, rather than just muscle strains.
Our players only have impact injuries this year? Is that why Theo avoided impact in last game? Knew Theo was a very intelligent boy…lol
Rather first time this millenia.
First time since 2013, I read somewhere…
The prospect of Santi and Rosicky playing again should be enough to keep all fans watching!
Great news about Santi but I would like to talk about Simione. This is the manager we need.
Saying that, with the talent we have, a lot of the PL managers would have won the league with Arsenal, van Gal included.
LVG can’t get Man Utd into the top 4 with the resources they have available so I’d like to know which Arsenal team you think he would have won with?
I loved Simeone as a player and also as a manager, but I highly doubt he’d fit in here.
I think he’s just what we need.
Probably academic, as why would he leave, but why don’t you think he’d fit??
We, the fans, would love him (for the most part). It’s the board who would squirm uncomfortably
How exactly won’t he fit?
Atletico have one of the most impenetrable defenses right now. But they’re extremely boring to watch, for the most part. They’re on the other end of the spectrum in terms of soccer philosophy compared to what we have now. Wenger (and Arsenal’s) philosophy has been mostly possession based and walking the ball into the net. Simeone’s style is closer to Mourinho, which is the team is a defensive unit and feeds of off counters. Which some call anti-football. Both styles are too extreme and can be boring to watch. What we need is a balance of the two. Something similar… Read more »
Some think he won’t fit because admittedly he is the polar opposite to wenger, and for the whole club it would very much be a handbrake turn. Wenger is calm, and plays open, expansive, lazy football, whereas Simeone is intense and I think he’s a case of “Defend well first, play beautiful football second.” But I agree, I want him in charge ASAP
Except for the ‘lazy’ part, I agree with much of your comment. However, Wenger’s philosophy is anything but lazy, and it requires rapid formation transitions back to back in a game. It’s actually extremely physically and mentally demanding.
If any time our team looked lazy, I would have to peg that on pure managerial capability to bring out motivation and/or players’ lack of ambition. It has nothing to do with Wenger’s philosophies.
I thought it was posted a while back that Simeone barely had any grasp on the English language.
I would be equally surprised if we get Simeone as if we would get Pogba to be honest. Any hot managers in J League?
With the talent we have…. What do you mean by that ? Cech, Bellerin, Ozil and Alexis. Who else my friend ?
Simeone is pretty much the new Mourinho. Like Mourinho with Inter when the players would do anything for him. Simeone just talks less trash with the media. His tactics are pretty negative but seem to get results, especially in cup competitions where you can draw games and still go through. Doubt he would guarantee a title in the PL and it would be a too big change at once at Arsenal. Still, hope Athletico takes the CL.
Think Pellegrini would be a better fit at Arsenal, though wouldn’t be the most popular choice among fans.
Off topic…. Mr. Blogs… I really enjoy reading the first section of today’s blog. Apparently, I end up reading it again and again. I thought, I am the only one dreaming about ‘*Diego Simeone’s Arsenal*’. I didn’t even want to wake up from a dream in which ‘*Simeone’s Arsenal*’ was still holding on to the 1 goal lead scored by The Jeff in the opening 30 seconds of UCL final between Arsenal FC and FC Barcelona. It was 90+3:30 minutes on the clock with a 4 minutes add-on time before my alarm spoil the party. I quickly threw it somewhere,… Read more »
Santi, just what we needed, six weeks ago, plenty of creativity, passion and fighting spirit,great to have him back but alas far too little, far too late. (That goal in the final, still does it for me)
He’s not too little. In fact his low center of gravity helps I would venture. I’ll close the door on my way out.
Culture trumps strategy- peter drucker. We need it badly though
I hate when *some* Arsenal fans make everything about Arsenal. Yes, Atletico are an amazing team. Simeone is an amazing manager. I’m sure everyone would take him at Arsenal. But people need to realise he has built a team to play that particular style of play. As blogs mentioned in today’s blog, imagine him trying to get anything out of Theo. If he comes to Arsenal, there needs to be an overhaul in terms of players (which im all for), but it seems unlikely that our board would allow that.
I am disappointed with this season. I still think we will finish 3rd/4th (it is irritating this is in part because of Man City’s Champions League exploits). I am appalled that if we had beaten Sunderland St Totteringham’s day would still be realistic. After everything. But we didn’t. I am concerned that this narrative in terms of an overhaul of players has now taken over to such an extent. If we are 3rd/4th we do not need such a complete overhaul as you imply. Release aging players, yes. But what we really need are 2, maybe 3, players who are… Read more »
Any updates on Rosciky? I would love him to stay for another year and show his class.
I completely agree. I think we could do with a player with some heart and passion. Every minutes he’s on the pitch he gives nothing but his total determination. Wenger could use such a player
Would love to see him before the end of the season – but if we have any ambitions on the title, another year is too far for me.
As much as I love Roz, we just can’t carry constantly injured players.
Rosicky : The best thing about London is Arsenal. The worst thing about London is Tottenham. Make him the next manager please!
Good to see him back. I wonder if Wenger will bring back the Coquelin and Cazorla partnership.
This should be an easy win and I’m expecting us to give them a good hiding.
Our goal difference compared to other teams is pretty poor.
COYG!
No such thing as an easy Arsenal win, they always find a way to make it heart pounding stuff.
COYG… WELCOME BACK SANTI
Ahhh Santi how I’ve missed you. I know Ozil and Sanchez get a lot of credit and rightly so may I add, they are a joy to watch. But I have always felt Santi is our most important player. I didn’t think we could improve on Cesc when he left, but Santi came in and filled a huge void. Personally, although I think it’s important we get a backup/improvement on Coquelin, I can’t help but think the biggest reason our midfield malfunctioned/broke/collapsed/died was because we had no natural replacement for Santi. In fact up until the middle of January, with… Read more »
“In fact up until the middle of January, with Flamini and Ramsey playing, we got away with it and were top of the table”. That is such a brilliant line on so many levels. I agree with you.
Is this the part where we all say “Gawd we have just been SO unlucky with injuries! Next season everyone will stay fit and boy will we show them!”.
The loss of santi has been huge but those saying too little too late, well santi could help us to third spot which, although not what we would have liked, would be an improvement on our current situation!!!
If Santi hadn’t got injured, we would have won the league this year, i’m certain.
Massive loss this season
No, Wenger would still have found a way to fail.
@arseblog this page has been causing havoc in Firefox. It slowed everything to a crawl for about 10mins. I was tempted to report it as an attack page. Please sort it out, I’m a fan of the site and don’t want to re-enable adblocker plus to visit here.
Too many people prefer to see what they want to see. All the accolades heap on Coquelin (not that he doesn’t deserve it) was frankly a bit over board just like that currently with Elneny. When you analyse the period when Coquelin returned in conjunctio with first Ramsey and then Elneny, we shipped 14 goals in 7 matches With Elneny, Coquelin has presided in 3 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses. Hardly an improvement if not worse than the period with Flamini who had to partner with Ramsey. Simply put, as I have been saying all season, its all about… Read more »
Not sure how anybody can disagree too much with this, apart from the comments about the Liverpool game. If one of our unnamed strikers had managed to slide the ball in to an empty net from 3 yards, rather than knocking the ball behind himself (almost impossibly) I think our season would have panned out very differently. (I should point out that these things happen, so our season of underachievement was not down to one individual miss – unbelievable as it was then and now).
We have one of the “Top top” 3 players in the league in each of these positions.
Cech Gk
Bellerin Rb
Kos Cb
Ozil Am
Alexis Lw
Then we have a massive amount of talented players behind them and when everybody is playing well we win.
BUUUT once we lose that confidence we never regain it till too late and once the confidence goes the tactics and organization show there true colours.
I’m not even sure of the colour of the current team maybe brown mixed with yellow for this season
Interesting comment from someone about Shad, the fitness guru. Would he be able to have any impact on Wenger’s decisions about when to rest players though? As with Sanchez earlier in the season, didn’t Wenger come out in the press and say he was in the ‘red zone’ and still play him? I know rotating a team is hard, especially a winning one, but I do feel like this is most problematic aspect of Wenger’s management in recent seasons – his inability to rotate (and therefore put pressure on every single player in the squad to either perform or risk… Read more »