GOOD news on Arteta but can Arsenal REALLY afford to wait?

It was all doom and gloom on the injury front for Arsenal yesterday, with the media reporting that the Gunners were going to be without the key figures of Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Debuchy for the next three months or so. But things are not quite as bad as all that, thankfully, as Arsene Wenger revealed in his pre-match press conference reported by Arsenal.com.

The Frenchman revealed that our club captain, who has had surgery to remove an offending piece of bone from his ankle, will not be out for as long as the French right back. In fact the manager suggested that six weeks was more realistic as a return date for the Spanish midfielder. He also spoke highly of Francis Coquelin and Mathieu Flamini who have been providing the cover for our captain in central midfield.

So let’s assume that Arteta is available to play for Arsenal in six weeks. He would miss Man City on Sunday, Brighton in the FA cup next weekend and then Premier League games against Aston Villa, Tottenham and Leicester City and the 5th round of the cup if we qualify and Crystal Palace in the league, which would take us about to his comeback.

That means there is a decent chance that he would be ready for Monaco in the Champions League on February 25th but definitely for the second leg and the rest of the season. I reckon that Wenger will now be thinking about whether he can risk waiting for Arteta or whether he has to provide cover for him in the January transfer window. There are rumours that Arsenal may have an agreement to sign Morgan Schneiderlin in the summer and so anyone bought now might be surplus to requirements next season.

What do you think Gooners, can Arsenal afford to wait for the return of Arteta at the end of February?

Tags Coquelin Flamini Wenger

11 Comments

    1. No we don’t miss the best we have at DM….we’re top of the league and look real solid.

      Criminally undervalued is Arteta. He’s not a Matic type, but he has everything except the athleticism a modern DM needs. He’s head an shoulders above anyone else we could play in the role and he’s been an obvious miss.

      13 points behind Chelsea, 11 behind City, but beyond that we have no leadership, no organisation, no stability in midfield, and a huge reason for that is because we miss Arteta.

  1. Francis coquelin has been great towards the arsenal cause, but i honestly still believe a quality DM and a CB is still needed!

  2. I hate to say it but the with the arrival of coquelin I’d kind of forgotten Arteta! Sounds disrespectful to say that of our captain and long time servant. I’m afraid to say he’s another one whos going to have reoccuring injuries espcially as he gets older, (Kos, Jack and don’t get me started on Diaby). When he comes back is not really the point as he gets older we need to be planning a replacement now, is this coquelin, bielek or an other?

  3. Also use the loan system ourselves its what its there for, Kim Kallstrom anyone ? 🙂 joking aside we didn’t really get a chance to see him much of him but when we did he wasn’t bad at all.

  4. “to remove an offending piece of bone from his ankle”

    How could a bone cause offence? :-/ That said, how was he able to grow back his knocked tooth? I’ve always wondered… Any chance for an article on that @Bob?

  5. Arteta is still a vital component in the Arsenal machine. I would play him and Coquelin as a defensive pivot in the difficult away games, where we won’t have much of the ball.

  6. The only thing I miss Arteta for is his passes other than that nothing! Oh,am I supposed to miss his sluggish attitude,his inability to intercept passes,his poor defending,his inability to protect our back4? I assure you Coquelin gives us all of that so i say Coquelin greater than Arteta.Seriously, what kind of leadership does Arteta bring? What we need most is leadership on the pitch and by example ( Sanchez) not off the pitch.

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