No manager could possibly have planned for the amount if injuty problems that Arsenal have had to cope with already this season. We thought that last year was bad, but so far it is shaping up to be an even heavier injury list for Arsene Wenger to deal with.
Aaron Ramsey this week became the latest Gunner to head for the Arsenal treatment room and his little hamstring tweak could hardly have come at a worse time for him and us. Not only was the young Welshman just rediscovering his form of last season and starting to find the net again, with Arteta and Wilshere already out, it leaves our central midfield looking paper thin.
But somehow the Gunners keep managing to cope. With Monreal, Chambers, Bellerin and now Debuchy, Wenger has somehow managed to keep a back four on the pitch, although it has been touch and go at times. Those problems seem to be easing at last and that might actually help our midfield situation as well.
It looks like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will be the direct replacement for Rambo and the young England international looked like he could do the job very well for us. And after the game against Liverpool next weekend, we should have Arteta back. But that still leaves us short for the festive fixtures and maybe that means that Wenger will give Chambers a chance to show what he can do as a defensive midfielder.
He has played there before for Southampton and the 19-year old has great ability and adaptability. We also have Francis Coquelin back from his loan deal, so Flamini and the Ox will soon have enough cover to get us through until the new year at least. Then hopefully Wenger will have no choice but to sign a player or two.
So are the Gunners going to be alright despite this injury nightmare?
We are ahead of the schedule for run in towards target fourth place…yes we should be ok end of the season! Finishing 3rd would be a real bonus…heck I might be even the first one to renew my season ticket!
The good news is that these injuries happen annually so we are used to these circumstances. But coping with these injuries is not an option. We have to. We got a difficult run of games ahead starting away at Anfield where we allowed Liver to score 4 goals on us in the first 20 minutes.
If we play with the same energy we showed in the second half against Newcastle, I know we can beat them. But the Gunners have gotta have that mindset to do so.
We should smash Liverpool. I don’t care if it’s at Anfield, they’re just terrible..
Yes they hit us hard last season, but there’s a difference – they have no Suarez and no Sturridge. We on the other hand have something we didnt have last time – pace, and lots of it. Liverpool won’t be able to press us the same way as they did last time, they know we’d kill them on the counter. Plus they haven’t scored a set piece so far this season.
We also have more options in attack. When we last went to anfield we had no one but Giroud that was really a recognised goalscorer, now we have an abundance. So long as we don’t give away any silly set pieces, I think we can win comfortably. But there’s also a feeling I have that Balotelli will find his boots next week, considering we don’t exactly have the most physical defence to deal with him..
I hear you @Mick. I watched Liver’s match today and they are totally a different animal without Suarez (pun definitely intended). But I’m always nervous before matches like these…
I fret about our injuries but then am always struck these days by the quality of the front 5 we always put on the park these days even with a horrendous injury list – worth remembering the Newcastle performance came with Ozil, Walcott, Arteta, Wilshere and Ramsey injured, Podolski not starting and with Rosicky, Campbell, Gnabry not even on the bench. Our patched-up defence is another matter though. RB position looks flooded; Debuchy, Chambers, (a fast improving) Bellerin, Jenks on loan and Flamini as a 5th choice emergency. Need a decent (preferably) left-sided CB ASAP though. In truth I would like another top quality LB to cover for a fragile Gibbs. Monreal OK but not great – but good squad player to have. And reckon we have 3 good quality GKs – reckon we would have a worldy if we could clone them in to one taking the best qualities of each. All pretty young though as goalies go – would like to think a top, top GK will emerge from that group in the next 2-3 years.
Play thomas rosicky in “rambo’s” place! Coyg!
Is Rosicky still an Arsenal player?
the media wants wenger out…
the fans wants wenger out…
juz go wenger….its time…
wenger out!
Yeah right, it really matters what the media want. What sort of world do you inhabit son?
The last wins have been different – Alexis wasn’t carrying us, other players have finally hit some form.
A shame that Ramsey is injured, worryingly his hamstring again, but the Ox did a great job in central midfield and is playing well at the moment too, so hopefully we can cope. Arsenal have actually looked like scoring with Giroud back – he offers us something a little different with his style of play. Giroud Welbeck and Alexis look a decent front 3 – they all have a great workrate too. With the likes of Walcott, Özil, Wilshere and Ramsey to return, Wenger will have quite a few selection dilemmas on his hands.
The attacking side of our game is the good side – I’m still not confident whenever we have to defend. We’re really missing Koscielny, but Debuchy returning gives us that little bit more depth at least. Who knows what we’d do if Mertesacker got injured, I’m glad he’s not injury prone.
I doubt wenger will bring anyone in during January and to be honest it’s probably the right thing to do. Even if we went out and signed a couple of world class players to fill in the positions where we most need it we still won’t catch Chelsea or city this season. Yes we have players getting injured but we have good players coming back from injury too. I think our squad can certainly cope for a 4th and maybe even a 3rd place finish. COYG
I don’t think we need to bring in players in response to the amount of injuries we’re getting. I think we need to bring in players that we should already have regardless of injuries. Every team needs a third centre back, for example. I also think we need a defensive midielder.
A speedy recovery to you “rambo”! Coyg!
what if Flamini and Coquelin get injure( thought not praying so) what will happen..? but all this injury issue with our team is a foreseen thing, now tell me for the past 4 to 3 seasons on now it has been same injury problems and I can tell you the coming season we surely have players injure as well it has become a trend…
my point is that, if you are telling me that management and our grate manager not seen this coming I will be angry with you because you can check the trend for about 4 seasons now. I can say they are at fault because injury is part of the game and when no notice sure what to you do you..? you plan for it which is making provision for cover which they(the management) did not
Well if all of our holding midfielders got injured, I’d stick Chambers in there. Thankfully we have that option now with Debuchy back.
But we have Arteta, Flamini and Coquelin to play as defensive midfielder, if they all get injured there’s not really that much you can do as manager – you can only name 25 players in your squad at the end of the day, it can’t be an endless list of backups. We’re covered in terms of numbers in the defensive midfield role, though I’d like to see the quality improve.
At centre back however, you have a point. We started the season with just two centre backs. That is bad management, for which we’ve been paying the price.
* when you notice that what do you do.
I agree theses players should of been bought in last summer but buying expensive in January won’t win us the title this year lets not panic and get in who we need next summer.
I’m not overly confident we’ll make it to the end of the season without another centre back, not in the top four at least. Perhaps my wish of a defensive midfielder can wait until the summer, but I think a centre back is urgent, even if that does mean paying more.
If it’s a quality player and the deal can be done then I’m all for improving the team because we need to improve to compete for trophies. I just think more value for money in summertime.
i think we will cope quite easy without ramsay my concern is with Kos, now i think i heard some where wenger saying he needs 2-3 months rest for the injury to clear up, but i fear that is not possible the injury he has definitely needs surgery, i think its best Kos forget about the rest of the season, do the surgery and recuperate for the next season.he still has about four more years in him.
If that’s true then sod it spend all the money we have on a world class defender this window haha!!
First time I have heard Wenger respond to a direct question about recruiting a CB in January with a pretty direct answer. His post-match interview after Newcastle appeared fairly unequivocal on the matter. As to who and what sort of quality then I am not sure. I agree with much of the criticism aimed in Wenger’s direction in not getting a comparable Vermalen replacement but it is impossible not the be struck by the problems everyone is having in sourcing a proper top class CB. Man Utd didn’t manage it with an open cheque book, Man City coughed up £32M on what could be an overpriced dud, Liverpool got done with Lovren and even Chelsea will be in a bit of bother if either Terry or worse still Cahill gets injured.
We do need another quality cb in place for the start of next season and a dmf as well. I think we have good options in our other position as it stands. Maybe we can think about contending if we get those positions sorted.
I just heard Ox is injured? Is this true?
Ot on previous article ‘arsenal score 4 and wenger praises defence’. I think they deserve some praise but collectively. Bellerin played really well and debuchy deputised at cb well. Gibbs was gibbs, mertesacker made some headed clearances. Generally the defence wasn’t overly tested due to the work from the front players, ((and ox) working hard together to press and chase the ball to get it back, it took the peessure off the back line. I don’t know who or what was said but I love this energetic style of play and haven’t seen it from arsenal for some time 🙂
Hopefully Theo will make the squad for the Liverpool game.