Arsenal have confirmed the squad heading Stateside for two friendly games and it’s missing Per Mertesacker.
The BFG, who is set to be named club captain, had been included in the provisional squad announced two days ago but has since picked up a knee problem.
It looks as though Calum Chambers and Rob Holding will play together in the centre of defence against the MLS All-Stars and Chivas de Guadalajara with Krystian Bielik providing back-up.
Gabriel also misses the trip as he’s infected with tonsillitis.
And here’s who you can expect to see at #ArsenalUSA! pic.twitter.com/5rQeQOoh0s
— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) July 25, 2016
Let’s hope Per’s knee injury isn’t too serious. We’re already short of options at the back with Laurent Koscielny likely to miss the start of the season after his long run to the final of Euro 2016.
Well, it’s the Arsenal curse.
We’ve lost our two senior CBs before the season’s even began -___-*
On the plus side very keen to see two potential England future CBs in action!
Making somebody captain is the kiss of death
Maybe Theo is interested 😉
He probably thinks he’s next in line because he’s bloody DELUSIONAL!
I’ve seen a few reports online suggesting it could be a serious knee problem with some time frames of 4/5 months being quoted..
If that is the case.. we definitely wont attempt to sign another CB, so looks like Mr Holding will be getting lots and lots of games – lets hope he’s got the pappaloons for it.
I have a feeling Holding might turn out to be a top signing. Hope so anyway.
BFG: We’re determined to keep up with stronger rivals.
Injury Gods: Nuh ‘uh.
?????
At least we will now see Holding in action and see if he’s the new Stones…
Hopefully he’s also good at defending…
I’d prefer he doesn’t start his Arsenal career with a failed dribble and a ridiculous own goal.
Lol. Does anyone remember Jenko’s debut with his awesome own goal?
He did score an awesome own goal, but it wasn’t his debut.
So long as he doesn’t have a debut as bad as Jonathan Woodgate’s was for Real Madrid. I think a player would have to spontaneously combust to even approach being that abject.
I’d much rather he be the new tony Adams or dare I say it – the new John terry (without being a racist Cunt)
No, you shouldn’t have fucking said it.
John Terry, minus most of the things that make John Terry John Terry. You could sum it up quite nicely with “I hope he’s a good defender”.
Or you could just stick to your original pick and say the new Tony Adams. He was a pretty decent defender.
Debuchy and Monreal can also play as CB, like we have seen in the past. The concern is having the regular CB not having a proper PreSeason before the Season starts.
I agree they can do a job at centreback, but Koscielny and Mertesacker are both over 30. Why shouldn’t we be finding future replacements that are experienced and can be allowed to settle at the club in half a season? We have 3 young(ish for Gabriel) CBs that are all potential replacements for the Koscielny role. None of them are over 6’1.
Debuchy seems to be on his way out. It’s interesting wenger said were still trying to get one more attacking player and one more defensive, and that was after we signed Holding. Not sure if he meant a debuchy replacement or a cb that’s bigger than 6’0 and can become a commanding figure, one that would complement koscienly, chambers and holding.
You will see Debuchy as CB for the first two games. That’s my guess.
This should push Wenger to get an experienced, or competent CB. The remaining options will be torn apart by the BPL Forces …
GUTE BESSERUNG BFG
I saw Bielik listed as a defender in the squad that was announced a few days ago. Would like to see him get a run out. I feel as though if we are not going to give young guys like him a chance in the pre season, that those of us that don’t watch the reserve side will never get to see players like him which is unfortunate. He seems a decent prospect with a good build, and having been on the team for over a year or so now I would like to see him in action!
His passing really impressed me. Instead of choosing the safe ‘out to the fullback’ option, he pushed the ball vertically to the midfield. Didn’t look extremely confident, but that will come with experience.
Also comes from not being a natural CB.
Much prefer him at DM, but the competition for DM is now choc-a-bloc (unusual considering just a few years ago our only options were Arteta and Flamini).
Yeah honestly he’s no CB really. He could be a great box to box midfielder though.
I agree. He looked very confident against Lens, and did very little wrong.
I agree and think we will see him out there for preseason. But you just have to think about our game against Liverpool with Gabriel and Chambers at CB!
ANYTHING BUT THAT AGAIN pleaaaaase!
My take on this is that knowing that we’ll already be without Koscielny for the start of the season, and given how proven Mertesacker already is, there’s really no need to jet him out to the States and have him run around in the heat. Without Kos, we really can’t afford to lose Per as well, so let’s hope it’s Wenger simply being pragmatic and giving Chambers and Holding a chance to prove themselves.
It’s not that hot in California.
It never rains in California
But girls don’t they warn ya
It pours, man it pours
George Costanza is that you?
As I’ve explained to Arsene ‘It’s not a lie if you believe it.’ Trouble is he’s passed it on to Ivan whose now running hog wild with it.
The daytime high temperature for San Jose on Thursday is forecast as 93 Fahrenheit (33 Celsius). A mere 81 (27) on Sunday in Carson, against Chivas. Pretty warm.
It’s usually in the low 80s this time of year. Of course Arsenal, being Arsenal, managed to hit the mini heat wave. It was 15 degrees cooler last week and will be 10 degrees cooler the week after Arsenal leaves. Go figure.
He’s been left behind because of his comments about not signing players. Or am I speculating a bit?
Honestly, this was my first thought as well. But it seems that he’s really injured.
Saw him leaving Barnet hospital on Saturday with it strapped up. Was walking ok though
it’s not that i don’t believe you. it’s more that i would have expected his diagnosis/treatment to be undertaken by the arsenal doctors, medical team, and physios.
Get well soon BFG! We’ll need our captain when the new season starts.
We should at least be winning respect for our midfielders’ names.
A Xhaka – Cazorla – Reine-Adelaide – Oxlade-Chamberlain – Zelalem axis is quite formidable…
We certainly win the X and Z derby.
If Scrabble points were goals..
Remember welbeck having a “knee problem” too. Getting really worried now.
Oh well. Without Koncielny, this is exactly what we needed (sarcasm). On the bright side, more play time for both English u-21 internationals, as well as perhaps a run for Debuchy as a center back, we’ve seen that before.
As one door closes, another one opens…
I’ve never understood this phrase. Usually, when a door closes, that’s it. Another doesn’t automatically open.
It’s metaphorical, so…..
It’s true, I never thought of that.
Metaphorical or not, it’s a half metaphor at best!
Revolving door?
They often do in video games. And you have to get the timing right or you can’t get to the next room. It can be very stressful, you know.
Actually, the one that opens is called a window.
And it was already open, actually.
As one door closes, a nose gets broken
everytime god closes a door, he also opens a bra
Let’s hope the curse of the armband isn’t strong and this isn’t a long term injury. In the meantime we get a taste of Englands future as the Holding Chambers partnership get’s a test run!
Well the season has not even started yet and last season is already happen players are fall like fly,the we have a chief executive taking us we are going to sign and player because we have a team that can win the league when they didn’t do it last season and didn’t show any sign that they can do it in a very poor season, and a manager that think spending club money will send home to jail for doing so.I was happy that we beat spurs to second place that shower they are in more shit then us but… Read more »
Suggesting we have a team capable of winning the league is ridiculous.
Hmmm. Per publicly hints at his frustration regarding the lack of transfers, then suddenly he gets left out of the preseason tour with a “knee problem”….
Rumour has it Calum Chambers stole his cartilage whilst he was sleeping…
Wenger with the baseball bat again. What a joker, that guy.
Every year. Same shit. Nice Wenger real nice. But he can be forgiven because we rarely have these kind of injury problems…
Season going tits up before its begun….
If we lose to Liverpool first game, expect a poisonous atmosphere and Wenger to be pilloried.
There is no way our squad can compete for the title. Wenger must of course know this…..which in turn must mean he isn’t bothered about winning the title.
Offer Wenger 3rd/4th position now and he’d bite your hand off.
if arsenal beat liverpool there will be a lot of disappointed arsenal fans,
While I am sure it will be a ton of fun regardless I think I made the right choice not to invest too much money on getting out to California. Many players missing and I think most of the state is on fire.
But you could’ve gotten to see Theo as a striker
THEO AS A STRIKER.
You missed out, dude.
No need to travel to California, you will see Theo as a striker in the first several games of the actual season.
Why the fuck do we do this to ourselves every year?
What, break our own knees?
Well judging by his latest comments he could be out with depression. As we all know too well there’s nothing quite as depressing as an Arsenal transfer window
Center half crisitunity!
Why on earth are we making him captain? There are far better options who’ll hopefully play way more
As one door closes behind you another slams in your face…
I guess i won’t be singing the BFG song later this week in San Jose. Bummer.
So…probably no senior player coming in (as wenger doesn’t react to injuries with panic buys because Mertesacker will be back sometime during the season) and one of Chambers/Holding will have a significant role this season. Exciting to see but this has all the same signs that previous seasons: being one player short and blame injuries for not winning the title and forget that we had the chance and money to actually buy s decent back-up for that specific position. This time CB, previosly CF and DM?
Per, Kos, Gabriel, Chambers, Holding….I was expecting a strong centre half signing rather than a developing signing. If we don’t strengthen in this area how do we expect to improve next season and for those who say it’s the offensive part of team we need to improve…..where’s the progression in that! Sorry folks I know we should be more optimistic but so many previous pre seasons have followed suit. Only reason Xhaxa was bought so early was due to departures of 3 senior midfielders so we’ve not exactly improved the squad thus far.
Happy we got Holding but I completely agree
Hopefully we’ll miraculousy unearth our new Adams and Bould on this tour!
The Daily Star quotes Kike Marin saying that Mertesacker could be out up to 5 months.
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/532734/Arsenal-Per-Mertesacker-five-months-reports-rumours-gossip
Luckily there is plenty of time left in the transfer window, so we have lots of time to not bring anyone else.
That’s too logic for Arsenal. Remember that season we went into with 2 available center backs?
The one with Kos also having Achilles tendonysis and we continued to play him with injections where we almost Vermalean’d him?
It’s preseason, but this just shows you can never really have enough cover at the back. Same way this happens before the season starts is the same way something similar could happen midseason and we drop vital points as a result. This BFG thing would be much less of a story if we had already signed a proper fcking first team CB.
Wonder if Wenger will work Debuchy or Monreal in at CB at all as he did a couple of years ago when we had a number of CB injuries.
Cue the manager saying:
a) we’re short in that area now, so we’ll be active.
b) we have chambers, holding, even monreal can cover. we have enough cover.
Yep, all bollocks.
“knee problem”.. You sure its not his recent talk with the press that got him grounded? It certainly did not put Wenger in the best of light with what essentially was obvious critisizm disguised as positive expectations ahead of the new season. You know with not many signings and many young players 😉 We are surely winning the league and challenging for the champions league now. 😛
It’s as if ppl don’t know how it work.
No good/decent who is not a leech will be happy to come to a club where they are not guaranteed to start/play. A motivated unplayed player become a bad egg for squad harmony.
Chambers-Bielik at the center of defence imo