Arsenal may have finally got a bit of good luck in drawing French club Monaco in the next round of the Champions League, but we need that luck to carry on for us and help is out of the latest injury crisis to afflict the club this season.
It is not yet certain, but a report in The Mirror reveals that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is a real doubt for the trip to face Liverpool at Anfield this weekend. This would be a huge blow for Arsene Wenger and the Gunners, and not just because the Ox has been in great form for us this season.
The dynamic young Englishman was already our last decent option to fill the central midfield box-to-box role, which is now looking like a poisoned chalice, as Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey are already on the injury list. The next best option is the more defensive double pivot, but that normally means Mikel Arteta and our captain is not available yet either.
The manager said, “He got a knock. He’s got a pain in his groin. I took him off quickly. I wanted to take him off, and then he takes the ball and crosses the whole pitch and [after that piece of action] he cannot run anymore.
“We cannot afford to lose him at the moment. I hope it’s nothing bad. He had a little bit of inflammation before the game. I took him to Galatasaray and maybe two games [in five days] was a lot for him.”
So Wenger is hoping that an injection administered this week to the Ox to fix the groin problem that forced him off against Newcastle, will have the desired effect and allow him to play on Sunday. If not, how will Arsenal get round this latest injury problem?
The fire is rising brother. Spend some money.
I really dn’t understand……. One minute theay playing fantastically, next minute they are sidelined with injury……….. When/how did the OX get injured?
No, no, no, no!!! Please, don’t stress the young man beyond this. Let him heal naturally, don’t rush it.
It’s a big blow, but I hope it doesn’t affect us too badly.
what are they eating at the Emirates? ? Lolz
BIG trouble? Chill out for a few seconds. If there’s one position we’re overloaded in it’s the wings. This could pave way for Joel Campbell/Podolski to get a few games under their belt. Shame the same can’t be said for the defence.
My bad, didn’t even read the article. Regarding the midfield then we’ll have to go with Santi/Coquelin/Chambers to partner Flamini, there’s not much we can do.
When he got the chance to play in his real position, he gets injured….i guess it’s time for Zelalem to peep in
“He had a little bit of inflammation before the game. I took him to Galatasaray and maybe two games [in five days] was a lot for him.”
lol you gotta love AW… he could’ve played Campbell the whole time who was fresh and hadn’t seen a glimpse of a full match.
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Campbell in the middle? Hahahaha.
No, Cazorla in the middle and rotate the formation.
Well, maybe Theo is fit. Who knows.
Wenger said last week something to the effect of I only do trAnsfer business if there are injuries or if there are no injuries we don’t need any new signings (something like that)
It may be useful to get a player who can play well both on the wing and in the middle (ie Reus), with Ozil, Walcott, ox injured or not at 100%.
It won’t be a waste of money because we always have injuries
Another option would be to get a Top striker like Cavani, Martinez, Huntelaar. We could put Welbeck on the wing and make Giroud a supersub
Just a thought
My point is depth isn’t a bad thing, especially if Wenger plans to off-load players like Podolski, Campbell, Rosicky etc
I’m sorry but I’ve come to the conclusion our players are just weaklings. So many injuries to our best players, they are not strong enough and need to toughen up, we are the only team this happens to. Every game we get an injury. The players need to toughen up or Wenger needs to change the warm-ups or training methods. I swear as an Arsenal fan there is never a day of just pure good news, every time we win we get an injury and now we’ve got a decent draw in the CL we supposedly have another doubt for the Liverpool game. It’s getting beyond a f*cking joke.
Can’t wait for a time when all our first team players are fit at the same time…. just like Chelsea.
Never going to happen, injuries have ruined Arsenal football club, season after season after season.
This Shad Forsythe who was meant to help with the injuries who we brought in from the summer has done absolutely f*ck all to help the injuries by the looks of things, if anything it’s worse this season than last.
I might be wrong on this but I think he was bought in to cure rather than prevent injuries. The prevention part solely belongs to the players and the coaching staff in this regard.
Wenger promised a review into why our players usually pick up knocks, I wonder if that has been done and measures put in place to avoid them.
At the moment, things aint pretty, players are getting injured even while laughing during training.
Well, it doesn’t look like he did a very good job either in that department. I also suspect that we have mostly weaklings in our team. The medical state of our team is way below last year. If anything we went from bad to worst.
This is 100% wrong, we are third in terms of injuries this season; last season we ended as 1st by a mile with 289 injuries (1 player out for 1 weeks = 1 point) (about 80 extra weeks of injuries more than #2).
You can’t judge a fitness coach on his first 6 months because you can’t change the fundamental thinking of a club that quickly, he said himself that it would take him at least a year before he would even put a dent in Arsenal’s backward thinking.
Give him until half the season and then judge whether there is a difference until the end of the season. He still can’t fix Wenger who says a players has an inflammation before an unimportant match (Galatasaray) and then plays that same player twice in 5 days when he has another player needing game time (Ox/Campbell)
News at 11 : we are half season away.
16 matches played is not half season. Either way, I said START judging him after half a season for the remainder of the season because by now he should have changed things that will hopefully see benefits now.
I agree with @007.
Debuchy 3 weeks ahead of supposed return
Giroud came back a month earlier
Özil is ahead of his return by 3 weeks (he’s already training?)
Ramsey and Arteta came back from their hamstring injuries earlier than expected
I think that Forsythe is the one responsible for this. The fault lies at the training methods, not because our players are weaklings (Diaby is a weakling/injury prone for comparison). It isn’t a consequence that the second Fabregas left Arsenal, he went to be injury free for almost 3 seasons. Not a consequence that Özil didn’t have a single major injury during his stint at Real but the second he came to Arsenal..
United has faced an injury crisis this year and few of the ex-Manure players are blaming LVG’s training methods for this. Funny how he’s critized immediately but at Arsenal the training staff has been doing that for YEARS. It’s not about bad luck or about the players. It’s quite clear for a physio to see what’s the problem at Arsenal.
Özil made +50 appearances a season, for 3 consecutive years at Real Madrid. Last year he managed 40 with Arsenal, so far this season 7.
Fabregas’ last 3 seasons with us he made approximately 35 appearances per season. Then he went to Barcelona and played 52 games a season, for 3 years running. This practically means he played in almost every single game.
I know someone will say “‘yeah, but La Liga is a lot weaker and nowhere near as physical as BPL”, but it doesn’t matter because our problems are MUSCULAR problems (pulled hamstrings, groin strains) which 99% of the times are being caused without a contact.
Physio has little to do with the existing injuries. It is the medical staff (one who operates, one who takes care after surgery etc etc). Physio suppose to keep them away from muscular strains in the first place. If they already contracted one then is too late for the physio.
Yep, Diaby is the best example. If healing had to do with physio then he’d be out playing by now.
Yeah, that’s actually what I meant. We should be focusing on PREVENTING the injuries, especially the hamstring pulls and groin strains because they seem to be an every year problem (Ramsey, Walcott, OX, Arteta, Podolski last year..).
And they happen multiple times a season, even to the same players..
He said that the poor trying methods have taken toll and some problems can’t be fixed. I.e. Arsenal screwed players up and it’s too late.
Something along those lines.
So we can now hope new players won’t be getting injured.
Time for Leque to step up and take his chance. A fit TR7 would be a good option too.
LeCoq
At least you left out the word “BANG”. That’s some progress hahahaha
how about ‘bang arsenal get revenge at anfield’
or ‘bang arsenal sign schneiderlin and reid to make a solid case for CL’
or ‘bang arsenal through to the finals in CL’
Bazzinga¡¡¡¡, another injury blow…. LOL
I hope he’ll be fit in time for the champion’s league final next year..
Chambo… NO!come on; what’s up with Arsenal; good 2day, bad 2moro… Mehn… I dnt undastand anymore; our injury List is terrible; wat. can we do?? God heal all our players. In Jesus name. Amen ! Halleluyah
Dat hole in midfield will b taken up by cazorla, cazorla’s place to be taken by sanchez(behind d striker) welbeck to play rite, and podolski on d left. Giroud up front
. giroud
podolski. Sanchez. welbeck
. cazorla. flamini.
Pls wu can replace ox now? Rosiski? Or dis our new returnee frm loan.
This is chance for Cambel n podoski. Cazolar to Ox middle role.
and coquelin too, but who knows….
Is Rosicky alive???? He is more than decent fo me,, plus Pod 9 n Camphell are itching fo game time….. No need to fear… This Looserpool is soo bad, a loss will b unacceptable..
I saw him playing his guitar on this Arsenal Christmas mumbojumbo. Based on that performance it’s quite clear what he’s been doing while not playing!
he is injuerd, i think..
If it was a case of our players training too much well then surely they would bulk up, too many light weights for that to be the cause. I highly doubt its a case of not enough training. Next it could be Arsene not withdrawing them before they reach breaking point. Another reason for injuries… the expansive game we play encourages opponents to get over physical… also there is the fact that our players arent what you would call big strapping bruisers.
Arsene not withdrawing them early enough i can understand… like che most teams try to keep the same eleven starting as they are your best players.
The Expansive game we play… we are not the only team to play this way but our players/team seem to get more injuries than any others i see. In the Days of the invincibles if opponents targeted rvp freddy or any youngsters out there they knew they would have to answer to Keown and/or Vieira.
It could be a case of just having too many injury prone players and youngsters picking up injuries before they are even fully developed. Or all of these possibilities could add to the argument. Whatever is the cause whats worse is that Arsene and our medical team dont yet have an answer… sort it out boys.
Despite the ridiculous amount of injuries we can still field a strong team. Santi can easily drop deep, or Rosicky to partner Flamini. We could even play Flamini and Le Coq which would allow our full-backs to bomb forward (they do anyway) knowing they are covered. We are still extremely strong in attack and much of our team are versatile.
I think our constant injury worries could stem from the fact that we have overall had a young squad for a number of seasons, if young players are overplayed they pick up injuries more easily which stick with them. A lot of our players are also naturally lightweight, add to this the style we play which invites challenges. If only all our players were made from OG steel.
OT: Why can’t the authors proof read the articles they submit? I know it’s not a massive issue but it’s also not a massive issue to sort out.
Play Coquelin.
It seems that we are playing way better without Wilshere…
OX injured is a blow because he is starting to find some rhythm and momentum.
Carzola, Sanchez (who needs to be rested… Wenger needs not to make the same mistakes) and Giroud are starting to find some automatisms.
We got Debuchy back and Bellerin looks very good (finally given a real chance).
Wenger, OBVIOUSLY, needs to bring a CB and a DM… Would it happen? I doubt it (may be the CB).
The festive period will be drilling and tiring (as usual) and with our record with injuries, we need some kind of covers…!!
does wilshere have any market value? why not sell him and spend some more to get Pogba?
A dysfunctional combination of wilshere and ramsey is a disaster waiting to happen!