FULL Arsenal injury update including Giroud surgery

As expected from the initial scan, Arsenal will have to face a long time without our first choice centre forward Olivier Giroud. Arsene Wenger revealed the news after the Gunners narrowly made it into the group stage of the Champions League.

The boss revealed that his fellow Frenchman has already had surgery on his fratured Tibia and that he does not expect the striker to be fully match fit again until the end of December, so that is a massive and damaging four months of football without last season’s top scorer.

Wenger also suggested that the Gunners have plenty of options up front, mentioning Alexis Sanchez, Walcott, Sanogo, Podolski and Campbell. None of those, however, has the same skills and attributes of the big man so I am hoping that Wenger will bring in another top class forward this week.

The rest of the injury news is pretty good for the Gunners. THeo Walcott is due back in full training very soon and he should be back in action shortly after the international break. Maybe Man City on the 13th will be a bit too soon but we will see and he should definitely be ready for the trip to Aston Villa the following week.

We should also have Arteta, Gibbs and Gnabry back after the international break, while the new keeper David Ospina is expected to be in the squad for the trip to Leicester this weekend. So apart from Giroud, it looks like Wenger is going to have a full squad to choose from very soon.

Tags Arteta Gibbs Walcott

52 Comments

  1. After the win last night, a few of Arsenal players decide to go out on the town to celebrate. Upon arrival at the nearest club, club policy each person is searched before entering. After searching Laurent Koscielny, security find what seems to be a dark blunt object in one of his pockets. They question him about it, and he replies “It’s only Demba Ba.”

    1. Striker required – need a clinical finisher
      Defensive midfielder required – need some muscle
      Centre back required – need quality cover
      Left back required – Gibbs should be back up.

      1. And what is wrong with Monreal as a backup leftback? We are talking of a Spanish national team player here unless you want more than 3 players per position! I concur on the DM but I think once we have a new DM then automatically Chambers is the backup defender!

        Wenger is not a fan of substitution, so Arsenal bench is so painful because in most cases all players complete 90mins unless one is injured!!

        1. Couldn’t disagree more. So what if Monreal is in the Spain side? They got mad efools of at the World Cup. He isn’t good enough for Arsenal IMO. Has his moments but Gibbs is better. Shame he’s made of glass though. Sell Monreal, have Gibbs as backup and sign Baines! Hahaha!

      2. Just wonder what 6 players you plan to.leave out of the champions league A list to accommodate your 4 signings us Theo and ospina?

    2. Bring in Falcao…he is what we need. Just spend 50 million on him.

      Falcao 50mil + carvalho 24mil = BPL Title and champions league semis at least

  2. Wayne Rooney had a near death experience the other day when he went horseback riding. Everything was going fine until the horse started bouncing out of control. He tried with all his might to hang on, but was thrown off. With his foot caught in the stirrup, he fell headfirst to the ground. His head continued to bounce on the ground as the horse did not stop or even slow down. Just as he was giving up hope and losing consciousness, the shopkeeper manager came out and unplugged it.

    1. We need a clinical finisher soon badly. Been missing one since Van Poopsie left. She scored over 30 goals for us in his final season. Desperately need that again because we are still creating the chances but haven’t got the quality to put them away. Giroud missed so many sitters last season that his team mates must get pissed off. We could have finished higher, if not win the league last season if he had put those sitters away. Need a clinical finisher!

      1. Easy said then done. Everyone cried out for Cavani saying he is the perfect striker. Watch his World Cup he missed a lot of chances as well. And to be fair to Giroud what kind of sitter he missed this season? He is no top striker, who can ‘score when he wants’ like Van Persie but he is decent and deserve credits for what he did for us.
        There is just not enough top strikers in world football right now. I rank the top strikers that available this transfer window

        1. Suarez
        2. Lewandowski
        3. Diego Costa & Alexis Sanchez
        4. Balotelli

        Alexis can play striker as he did it all the time for the Chile team that performed so well in World Cup. Wenger sees him as striker as well. We beat the competitors to get the 3rd best striker available. The only thing debatable is whether we should have gone for a more traditional Costa or not.

      2. RVP, the one we won absolutely FA with?.
        Same for Fabs, Clichy, Nasri and Song, and benchwarmer Sagna.
        Great players, that won us nothing.
        Please move on and support the players that wear the shirt NOW.

        1. I don’t support him! I called him ‘Van Poopsie’ for crying out loud. Just pointing out the fact that we need another clinical finisher. And ‘ethangooner’, do not judge players on one World Cup where they play only 3 games!

  3. Sadly, it seems that the only way AW will get forced to buy a striker in the final days is if Arsenal lose at Leister
    A striker and a defensive player is minimum requirement for any type of success. doesn’t he get it?

  4. Walcott posts a top, top performance against Spurs – injured
    Bendtner scores a crucial last minute goal against Cardiff, injured
    Giroud scores an important equalizer against Everton…. injured..

    1. Quite right, Mon not good enough need a backup for Gibbs at left back, + CM and CF. Without these now, we will be scrapping around in January to fill these positions, and failng miserably like last season. Still UTG

  5. Pay £2M loan fee and get Remy!! End of.

    Very cagey performance last night and if AW really thinks he has enough options he is as deluded as ever.

    On a side note Debuchy looks a liability with his discipline. Wilshere still shouldn’t make first eleven and we desperately need physical presence in midfield. And wtf happened to Abou? Out for the season I take it.

    1. Viera, Adams, Keown, Bould, Lauren are known for their dirty ways…..

      they got sent off many times…………

      1. Apart from stating the obvious what’s your point? Mine was that his discipline looks suspect for a new signing.

        1. I think he’s point was that a guy gets two soft yellows and you want a new right back! He actually had a good game!

          1. Good game?? What game were you watching?? Debuchy struggled big time. He got terrorized on the right and was easily passed by the opposition. Luckily Koscielny came to the rescue. He gave the ball away plenty of times and was lucky not to give away a penalty after he clipped the guy in the box.

  6. It will be crazy for AW not to bring in a striker. None of these people is an out-and-out striker. The deadliet finisher in the team, Podolski is not a favourite of Arsene.
    Even with the presence of OG, we were crying for a better striker, why not now.

  7. News in Portugal that Sporting Lisbon have dropped their asking price on William Carvalho from 37m to 24m. It’s a green light for us. Go get him Arsene.

    1. One thing is for sure:
      With our qualification last night, the following 4 or 5 days are gonna be really exciting in the transfer market. Either we are gonna be going after deals or clubs are gonna be approaching us with deals.

  8. I sort of see why Wenger always stuck with Arteta now.
    He provides that link up play between defense and attack.
    We were not good enough in our transitions.
    Flamini can not provide that as he is not as good of a passer as Arteta. Having said that he also has attributes Arteta does not have. We miss you captain!

    In our current set up Girould is the best striker we have. Yes he does miss a lot of chances and he may not be WC yet but the man offers us steal up front and he has a good understanding with our star midfielder Rambo. Without him in the starting 11 crossing high balls is just pointless and we may straggle playing teams that defend too deep. We have players who can fill in while his out but he is a good player to have even on the bench and he has good work rate. We miss you OG!

    Theo, well how should I begin this, we miss him badly, his deadly speed, willingness to run in behind the defense, his eagerness to score goals, his ability to play different positions (switching flanks and ST), his assists, and his fight in his game. I can only imagine what he would be able to do having a full injury free season. We miss you Theo

    Gibbs – Monereal is better than last season no doubt, but I feel Gibbs is still our best LB currently both offensive and defensively. He made a good partnership with the other defenders we have last season and his game has been maturing steadily the past seasons. Only wish he could remain injury free aswell so that he is rotated accordingly with Monreal. We miss you Gibbo

    Diaby – Men get off the medical bed already. We miss your drive, your flow, strength, passing, and coordination in that midfield. Give us atleast one good injury free season and boss the midfield. His got all the attributes and skill to become our own Yaya Toure. We miss you Diaby

    The key is rotation Wenger and don’t be afraid to make changes during the game. This will ensure our players are kept fresh and we would avoid some injuries.

    1. we can always have a new yaya toure…..

      bring in the fans fav…..Capoue.. Mvilla, Mbigwa, Sissoko, Tiote, Diame, etc…

    2. Bony would be the perfect (see better) replacement for Giroud, stronger and with better finishing and great in set pieces where he score a lot of goals with his head.
      He would slot right in and has scored against top teams with a mediocre midfield behind him, with our midfield expect 30 goals.
      What is wrong with Wenger: FFS spend on a striker.

      1. Exactly. I’d be happy with Bony/Giroud as target men and Sanchez as our top striker choices. In the best of all possible worlds we would have already spent 70 million or so on Cavani or Falcao and Vidal or Martinez. But Bony, Carvallo and another CB would work out nicely too.

        Someone else also said the key word, but it bears repeating. ROTATION. I will add the word NOW. Against Leicester City rest Wilshere, Cazorla and Sanchez (keep them on squad). If we are serious about rotating, this squad rests the people who gave the most yesterday. If we can’t beat a newly promoted team with this squad something is horribly wrong, even given Leicester looked good for a while against Chelsea and drew Everton.

        Campbell
        Poldi Ozil Ox
        Ramsey Chambers
        Monreal Kos Mert Debuchy
        Schez

        Bench: Cazorla, Sanchez, Flamini, Sanogo, Ospina/Martinez, Wilshere, Bellerin???

        Maybe swap Poldi and Campbell, don’t honestly know which would be better.

  9. I hope those rumours about Nikola Zigic are going to stop… That is just ridiculous and he is not what we need…!!

    Again, Koscielny was immense (amongst the best in the world no doubt)… As far as Monreal is concerned, I knew a run of games will bring back his Malaga level… Her was immense too.
    Gibbs would have not been able to cope with the physical challenges the game provided… Just impossible…!!

    Ozil needs to play behind the striker… That is why we pay £42millions Wenger !!!!

    We still need a CB (not holding my breath for a DM) because we cannot go the all season with only 6 defenders. You can be cheap, but not suicidal…!!

    Arsene Wenger must now ensure Bayern Munich are not waiting at the end of the high-wire again come the Spring…

  10. I hope those rumours about Nikola Zigic are going to stop… That is just ridiculous and he is not what we need…!!

    Again, Koscielny was immense (amongst the best in the world no doubt)… As far as Monreal is concerned, I knew a run of games will bring back his Malaga level… Her was immense too.
    Gibbs would have not been able to cope with the physical challenges the game provided… Just impossible…!!

    Ozil needs to play behind the striker… That is why we pay £42millions Wenger !!!!

    We still need a CB (not holding my breath for a DM) because we cannot go the all season with only 6 defenders. You can be cheap, but not suicidal…!!

    Arsene Wenger must now ensure the Germans are not waiting at the end of the high-wire again come the Spring…

      1. If you do not want Zigic, then you better hope and pray against it. ‘Cos this was how the Kardalstrom rumor (similar circumstances by the way -Ramsey injury, Giroud injury) all started until it became our REALITY!

    1. @LoCkAy.

      “Ozil needs to play behind the striker… That is why we pay £42millions Wenger !!!!”.

      I do not entirely agree with that statement for many reasons.
      1. Wenger (the coach who bought and plays Ozil) is a seasoned PL manager for 17 years. I trust that Wenger is in the best position to know EXACTLY why we bought Ozil.
      2. No matter which position Ozil plays on the field, he will always play it simple and “under the radar” while he provides those 3 or 4 potentially game-changing key-passes (like the one most people watching the game yesterday -including me- didn’t notice). He is genius because he can effect the game from anywhere on the pitch.
      3. Ozil is a great No 10 (or what you may call a CAM), but most people seriously under-estimate his versatility. Many do not even know that Ozil has a well-documented history of playing on the wings (right and/or left) pre-Real Madrid. He is a natural left-footer as well. He rarely crosses the ball. But when he does, his crosses are accurately timed, precise and powerful most of the time. Again, he is genius because he can effect the game from anywhere on the pitch.
      4. Do not completely judge him now. He is still in off-season form like most of the other players are. We expect him to be fully adapted to the team in what will be his 2nd season with us, and rightly so. But he may need a bit of game time and training to get into form and adapt himself to this new formation.The same applies to other members of the squad.
      5. I have a hunch that Ozil will eventually flourish in his position on the left. He will assist plenty of goals and he will score plenty of ’em.
      6. The attacking upside to this may far outweigh the defensive downside!
      7. All I have said may just be pure nonsense after-all.

  11. the only reason why we should get some additions is that we should stop panicking in every injury we have…(and we have a lot..!)
    and this occurs now with Giroud again.. we saw Sanchez can fill hiis boots in central role BUT this might be the only critical spot that will eventually cost us the PL if not sorted asap..
    i think the rest spots are all having worthy replacements.. even the n10. role of Oz can be filled for couple of games (with his todays working ratio and form ofc)
    DMF can be cover by Arteta/Flamini/Chambers/Coq/Even Diaby although hes a more B2B player
    CMF by Rambo/Jack/Diaby/cHAmbo/Zelalem
    AMF by Oz/Santi/Roza/Jacky/Rambo
    RWF by Theo/Alexis/Chambo/Campbell/Gnabry/Ryo
    LWF by Poldi/Santi/most of the above
    CF by Gir/Alexis/Theo/Poldi

    looks like a strong team but a PURE ST is a MUST!
    btw i think that Nacho did and does very well in LB , he shows that he just needs games to maintain his form .im sure he will have a call up in Spain and the same goes for Chambers!

    well done lads
    good morning and what a good morning it is…

  12. A “world-class striker” scores important goals in important games. A “world-class striker” almost never goes missing in the big games. A “world-class striker” can take up any “shape” and any “form” (i.e position on the pitch) just so that he can create space for himself to influence the game. Looking for an example of one? Look no further than Alexis Sanchez. So YES, we do not lack a “world-class striker” at the moment.
    However, we would not be hurting us and our title chances if we get another “world-class striker” in the mold of a Center Forward, would we? Our main rivals sure have more than one “world-class striker”.

  13. When he is back and fit I’d rather theo plays up front than Sanchez or at least give theo a nice run in the team there, he can finish, score goals and can stretch opponents, like Sanchez can but theo has more of an understanding currently

  14. Right Wenger players have delivered, fans last night delivered also. Now its ur time……

    For me its still strengthen the defence, A D.m is a must who can cover c.bk aswell, my choice carvalho,khedria both available. A striker also not a winger a out/out striker, in dreamland id say were gna buy 3 players st,cdm,cbk but reality and wenger tells me we probley will buy 1 or 0 im sensing a kallstrom saga coming on sadly.

    Were soo close to the finished article in regards to actually challenging on all fronts lets c wat joys the nxt few days bring.

    Coyg

  15. the problem i see with sanchez up front is that the current form of the team will run sanchez dry and gt him injured.

    were against besiktas, which isn’t known to have a very physical defense line, yet Sanchez still suffers to win the ball and have a good touch at it.

    his work rate is no doubt a+, and his technique and everything else is all great, but if we still play with the kind of off sync mentality we have, then no matter WHO is playing up front we won’t score.

    the problem is, whenever we attack, it’s always only 1 player is making that final stretch, all the way into the penalty box. if we have players like Ox, gibbs, monreal, debuchy who likes to drop deep and cross, we’ll always been found out because the target is always whoever is in the box.

    ozil, cazorla always stays outside of the small box, and only wilshere, ramsey, ox sanchez makes those kind of penetrating runs.
    when you think 4 players should be enough, we still have a problem. wilshere, ramsey don’t play well together at the moment, and if one goes forward, the other usually stays back. Ox is usually on the wing crossing, more than he cuts in running into channels, and that’s 1 less.

    so, that’s how we get this Sanchez running everywhere up front situation.
    I say give campbell a chance on the left while sanchez and ox plays cf and RW respectively, and see what cazorla or ozil can do in CAM with these options.

    it MIGHT just make a difference.

  16. If we bring in Carvalho, this is how I would wish Arsene setups the team:

    -Debuchy—Mert—-Kosc—-Gibbs-
    ———-Carvalho——-Ramsey——–
    -Walcott——–Ozil———–The OX-
    —————–Sanchez—————-

    Else if we bring Cavani, this would be my wish:

    -Debuchy—Mert—-Kosc—-Gibbs-
    —————-Arteta——————-
    ———Ramsey—-Mesut———–
    -Walcott——————-Sanchez-
    —————Cavani—————-

  17. Like I said the other day we nerd a double act in attack ala bergy and henery I think given time to wrk on it we could make another with ozil and Sanchez no 10 and no 9 respectively they are potentially the perfect pair for it the master passer and the nimble skilful forward I say we should persist with this going forward and get reus in for the left wing goals galore there I think coyg

  18. OFF TOPIC:

    Özil got an assist, and he was horrendous? Which match were some people watching? He tracked back a lot, and made some tackles. His baby facial expression may be deceptive… Not denying he’s got to improve.

    1. @Tyno.
      “baby facial expression”. Touche. Really touche man. You’ve got to copyright that phrase because it perfectly describes what most AFC fans see in Ozil most of the time.
      Yes, Ozil can have bad games (even in succession), or bad patches in an overall good game. He had these many times last season (he even admits this himself). But let us be careful not to let his “baby facial expression” (oh sorry, copyright issues) or “lazy facial expression” or “wasted-looking appearance” or even his “about-to-fall-down-to-ground type of running” fool us into thinking that he does not influence our game. How many of the fans noticed that it was Ozil that gave that delicate final ball to Sanchez to finish? Honestly, I myself did not notice that. What we all saw was Wilshere doing “all the work” (dribble and flick 1-2 pass) and Sanchez’s shot. We just missed that little part in-between where Ozil squeezed that all-important-pin-point-accurate final pass to Sanchez. We did many times last season and we will do same many times this season.

      1. I think with players like Campbell, Sanchez and Chamberlain up front we will see the best of Ozil. Last night he played better than he has for a while. Coincidentally, we had pacy players up front who can actually run onto his through balls. Go figure. People are always saying but Giroud proved us with something none of our other strikers do not have. True. He is tall, good in the air and provides some physical presence up front. But why settle for a one trick pony when we can buy someone like Cavani or Falcao who does all that, PLUS have pace and acceleration to make good use of our midfielders through balls. On top of that, both of those CF’s can dribble and score incredible solo goals.

    2. @Tyno: Dude which match were u watching???? one assist and u go nuts..there is Zelalem in the subs who can make that assist as well..we paid 42 million for him to boss the final third and not to go missing for 89 mins.

      @Usmanov: Not many people are blind. We noticed that and we also noticed that he “many times” fumbled where a simple “correct” pass could have led to more goals and Arsenal would have been out of sight by the 75 min!

  19. How great is it Alexis got the winner and put us through and giving the gunners a cool 20 odd million in change from the 35 we supposedly payed and on that note when my matez ask me how much AFC payed for Alexis do i tell 10 million or 35 million thumbs up 10 thumbs down 35….

    1. Hahaha! This is like one of those rare cases where you can directly equate a player’s performance to the amount of money he was bought for! Looool.

  20. It is sad to which our team bad luck in order for our manager to sign a player…It is sad but the truth.

  21. Hope Wenger got something for Campbell cos since like he will be another poldi that not Wenger favourite.

  22. If he want to play Sanchez, Campbell or Podolski as a striker it means we will miss Giroud’s ariel presence especially when defending set-pieces which makes signing a very tall and combative DM a must!

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