Wenger full of bad news ahead of West Ham v Arsenal

Arsenal fans really thought that the Gunners had finally got through Nasty November without being beaten, including tough draws with Tottenham, PSG and Man United, but we were finally undone on the very last day of the month with the defeat to Southampton.

So now we move to our first game in December on Saturday at West Ham, and Le Prof is full of bad news in the press conference. We were all shocked when we heard the rumour yesterday that Santi Cazorla was more injured than we thought he was, but Wenger started off by confirming that the Spaniard needs surgery. “For me its very bad news,” said Wenger. “I always try and avoid surgery, it creates a lot of anxiety and rehab.

“This time it’s unfortunate that we have to draw that conclusion. He’s out for at least two months, but that could go up to three.You have the date for surgery, but not the date for his return.

“Santi is desperate to play, he’s only happy on the football pitch.

“He wants to get out of this vicious cycle of being in and out of the side.”

Let us all hope we play better without him this season than we did in the last campaign…..

So then Arsene proceeded to tell us that Elneny will not be available for tomorrow, and neither will Olivier Giroud. Maybe they can play in the no-point game against Basle on Tuesday….

Wenger then announced that Debuchy’s hamstring injury is severe and he will be out for at least six weeks. “It’s frustrating for me but even more for him. He has an exceptional attitude and overall he is absolutely disappointed.”

We know that we are also without Hector Bellerin and Per Mertesacker until the New Year, and it seems that Danny Welbeck will not be back before then either as Le Prof said he is “at least four weeks away from playing again.”

But don’t worry! Wenger also said: “Apart from that, everyone should be available.”…..

Ah… that’s alright then!

Darren N

24 Comments

  1. Come on its not as bad as usual!
    We have Jenkinson and Gabriel ro replace Bellerin and Debuchy.
    We have Xhaka and Elneny and Ramsey and The Ox to replace Cazorla.
    We have Perez back to replace Giroud on the bench
    No worries!

    1. I’m afraid that’s really bad news. Without Cazorla title chances drop massively. Ozil, Cazorla Alexis. these guys are three pillars of Arsenal’s beautiful football, and when one of them is absent, we dont seem to be able to support the same standard of football. In addition without Bellerin on the wings are attacking the threat is dampened, and with no magic card to draw in the form of supersub Giroud, we look rather one dimensional. I was looking foreward to December. Not anymore.

      1. Totally agree without santi we are out of the race.

        We knew.about this injury and how it will affect him.last season
        No replacement brought in. No excuses.

        Wish u well santi

        1. well seemingly the boss thought that Xhaka could perform in that role, he said himslef he wanted to see Xhaka copy cazorla. So we cannot confirm that he didn’t try.. But if you’re asking for an exact replacement, like for like then I think your underestimating the unique skill of Cazorla. To my way of thinking he is almost irriplaceable, players with that much balance skill, and technique in both feet, dont come around too often.

          1. Don’t count elneny (the headless chicken), Xhaka comes close to Santi though still Santi is irreplaceable

    1. as much as i love Iwobi but the young star started to hold the ball for too long now as do some of our other players like Sanches, we are not fluent in our game as we was before the international break and we are desperately missing Bellerin

    2. Wenger did say that would be his position in the future.. Mind you he once said the same thing about the Ox…..

      1. i think Xhaka would do a good job there with his passing skills and shooting skills outside of the box, he just needs to tone down his aggression a tiny bit

    3. If u are going to risk any young player in there it should be zelalem. For me he is the closest thing we have to Santi.

      So with bellerin, Debuchy, Mertesacker, elneny, cazorla, Welbeck, akpom, sanogo and giroud, it’s just the 9 injuries????

      Leaves us with
      Cech, ospina
      Jenkinson, Gabriel, holding, mustafi, koscielny, Monreal gibbs
      Coquelin, xhaka, ramsey, ozil
      Walcott, chamberlain, iwobi
      Alexis perez

      That 18 should still be too strong for wet spam, though I would prefer not to have 3 defenders on the bench. Perhaps maitland-niles or adelaide instead?

  2. Jeesh, all you need now is the dog to die. At-least this time we have some players to try out in Cazorla position, and we have a jan window still to come so it shouldn’t be the end of our season. It’s a huge worry all the same, even Wenger must be worried.

  3. ………………….Cech
    Maitland..Mustafi..Koscielny..Monreal
    …………………Xhaka
    ………….Ramsey..Coquelin
    …Walcott……Alexis…….Ozil

      1. Because with Coq and Xhaka there, Ramsey doesn’t need to stay disciplined, and something like this could be the only way of recreating his Wales form.

        1. I get your point about having Ramsey further forward to hopefully recreate his Wales form, but Wales don’t play how Arsenal play. Ramsey cannot do tiki-taka football, as he spends too long on the ball, and hasn’t got that passing accuracy either. Also, moving Ozil onto the wing is a big mistake. Early on in his Arsenal career Wenger tried him on the wings, and it didn’t work at all!

      1. I was thinking about that, but then thought about how Pirlo looked so well with two defensive/b2b players in front of him pressing the opposition, Coquelin is one of our best pressers.

  4. Cech
    Gabs/Jenk…kosc….mustafi…Monreal/Gibbs
    Coquelin….Xhaka
    Walcott/Ox……Ozil…….Iwobi/Alexis
    Alexis/Giroud

    1. Nice seeing Chambers look strong and comfortable in defence. At Arsenal though they don’t get the full run of games and it can be difficult to come in for 20 minutes trying to impress, I think the loans were in both of our interests. We might have to start thinking about some more, Holding, Martinez, Bielik, Willock.

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