Joel Campbell has earned his chance in the Arsenal First XI by AT
Arsenal have been dealt yet another blow on the injury front as Gunners boss Arsene Wenger confirmed that Alexis Sanchez has suffered a minor setback in his recovery from a hamstring injury. The news comes on the heels of Jack Wilshere and Danny Welbeck also suffering setbacks in their rehabilitation from their respective injuries.
Speaking after Arsenal’s win against City, Wenger said: “Sanchez I think will be back around the 10th of January. He has had a slight setback two days ago. We had planned to put him on the bench tonight.”
Now while I’m very disappointed to see that Alexis will miss at least the next three games, I cannot help but be happy for young Joel Campbell, who has grabbed his opportunity with both hands. In fact, the news of the Chilean’s setback is a lot easier to take for Arsenal fans given that Campbell has stepped up to the plate.
Now while he may be no Alexis Sanchez, the Costa Rican international has proved that he can come into the side and play his part. With incisive running and shrewd passing to go with relentless work-rate, the 23-year-old winger has established himself as a first-team player, even stepping ahead of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the pecking order for the wide positions.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, Arsenal fans need not be too worried about Alexis’ injury setback. If we can beat City without him, then surely we can beat Southampton, Bournemouth and Newcastle as well. In addition, we have two in-form wingers in Joel Campbell and Theo Walcott who are hungry to fill the temporary void left by the former Barcelona man.
Anurag
Some might focus on the last ten minutes, some might focus on the goals we should of scored, I think it’s fair to focus on Arsenal Winning.
In a week Mourinho losses his job (and his credentials in my opinion) and where Arsene can reflect on winning that war. Some might say Mourinho has won X in the time Wenger hasn’t, but Wenger has build much more and hence why he has a job, because Arsenal now have a system build for the future.
But today, our focus today, we win in a manner that reminds us that more work needs to do done, more 3 points need to be won.
Man U look like they are losing their fight for the league title, top four even. While City, losing today against Arsenal also need to address their balance; sure they have a squad, but lack balance. Now Leicester, a win against Everton that means they are a threat, a three horse Title race with City with Auego and Silva back and a soon fit Kompany.
Have a good Christmas, and let’s get focus and back on it against Southampton.
I don’t believe Wenger when it comes to transfer news and injury come-back dates …
Alexis is the heart of Arsenal right now, I hope we can survive without him in the next games as we did against City last night …
Southampton are a wounded animal nowadays, we shouldn’t underestimate them …
Wenger, you should keep an eye on Mane, bring him with you to the Emirates in 1st of Jan …
Joel Campbell came to the party just about when the bell was about to ring on his arsenal career.
keep the fire burning Joel
Sadly, however, that was never his fault. He was always overlooked and farmed out. As his confidence returns and he hopefully completes his first full season with Arsenal perhaps everyone will see how wonderful Joel could become. It beggars belief that we kept Sonogo and loaned Joel one season lol.
I don’t think so, Wenger planned on using him last season but not as a 1st team player, and as a result he publicly complained. Wenger basically punished him for his attitude which sounds like something Fergie would do. Although it’s harsh, I think the manager’s true intention is to instill Sanchez’s mentality in the young Costa Rican. I said it before and I’ll say it again, I think Wenger is grooming Campbell to be Sanchez’s replacement in the future.
Yesterday was probly the first game in a long long time where every single player showed that fight,commitment and desire to win. Honestly of we had lost I wouldn’t knock the lads as that is what majority of fans ask for, just give ur all & on that note what Iv been extremely impressed with about Joel he does gives 110% week in week out the boys on his last legs when ever he’s substituted. Outstanding from can’t speak Highley of him at the moment, I’m just abit worried about the turnover to Saturday becuase I can’t see us rotated and the boys gave it thier all yday and will surely be feeling it for a day or 2. Southampton and keoman may be on a bad run but I’m absolutely certain he’s gna go back to basics and park the bus come Saturday, every game is a final treat it like yday and I’m sure we will win but drop off and we have seen this league will come & bite you in the backside.
Today I will be able to relax and watch the full game n enjoy
Have a good day peeps 🙂
We would be in serious trouble without Campbell. The system doesn’t really work with a midfielder playing as one of the front 3 so Campbell coming through has at least meant we remain dangerous.
Alexis setback is not GooDnews…….. But good Luck and game time for campbell
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I won’t be surprised if all these setback talks are not cover-ups for Sanchez to take a well deserved Rest going into the 2nd half of the season……plus Take a Look at the next four fixtures….southampton, bournemouth, newcastle and then sunderland in the FA cup……. Looks Like sanchez will not be so dearly missed (dn’t get me wrong , i do miss his presence)……. But not to worry, we have campbell and walcott….we can do it…… We showed we can from Last night’s showing!
Anurag, good morning to you, and how are you? Alexis injury setback can only be good news for Joel Campbell if he can become discipline in his goalscorig attempts. He missed 2 sitters in last night match against City at the Ems with Jeo Hart begging him not to score and he obliged by skying over and latter passed the ball to Hart’s right foot then fell down, looking for what? a pen? That’s not how penalty is won. By the way, have Ramsey and Campbell realised that Barca must have started to watch every Arsenal game since they were paired to knock one of themselves out from the Ucl knockout stages? By watching our games, Barca would have started to plot the graph which they will evetually used against us after they are done with plotting. In the light of these watching & plotting advance game graph, I hope d Boss & the Gunners too have started to watch Barca games and start plotting d graph for their downfalls. Goals win matches and not missing sitters. Missing sitters against Barca won’t knock them out.
and u don’t think we’ve been watching Barca too?……..y’all can say all u want bout messi, neymar or suarez…… But on our day, we are more than capable of pocketing the trio
@SAA
It’s easy to sit at home watching the match and say what a certain player should have done. Like maybe if Petr would have went for that Toure “floater”, instead of thinking it was going wide, he might have overtaken James’s record.
Being out on the pitch, under pressure is another thing in of itself. They do what they can, for the most part, to get the result. Sometimes it goes their way, sometimes it don’t…They get an “E” for effort from me, nonetheless…
Happiest day of my life.. We beat manchester city and i just had a baby girl
Whattaday!!!
wow…….congrats…….. I guess u should name her “Happiness”
Nice one Malayali congrats
make sure you play the lotto to this week 🙂
@Malayali Gooner
Congrats Gooner on the birth of your Goonerette…
Congratulations my friend.
Really liking the look of Campbell – even when he doesn’t have a great game he works hard enough by tracking back and covering Bellerin whenever possible. Good passer, and I think his finishing will improve with the chances Arsenal will get him, and hopefully we’ll get a few goals like his goal against Man Utd when he was playing for Olympiacos!
Does say a lot about Sanchez as well though that he’s being covered by both Walcott and Campbell, brilliant player
I see before the game the Arsenal lads pumping each other up. There is a togetherness with this broken team ( injuries ) I’m saying. One game at a time lads COYG
i thought Flamini’s man marking was exceptional last night and he deserves recognition for his hard work of late.
with yesterday game we all see that our back 4 is great!!my only hope is wenger to buy kanté of leicester.this guy is a beast at dm position with a good technical and physical quality.with him and coq in midfield against barca we can hope for anything special to happen.with finally olivier giroud slowly becoming WC striker,walcott most efficient and campbell who is a revelation this season,the return of alexis we can be dangerous against any defence.our only weak position is a dm position and wenger won’t have any excuz this mercato bcoz there are players available that we can buy if we want.plz wenger go for at least one of this:kanté,wanyama,w.carvalho,l.bender,krychowiak,biglia,neves,l.gustavo,rabiot… if we try to sign s.roberto he will be a good addition with great quality.gunner for life!!!
@Koktafo
Man, I really like Kante too. He breaks up play way up the pitch and keeps his forwards in your face constanly. Do doubt though that Ranieri will sell him in Jan. Think we should try for him in the summer if LC drops way down the table…
yes i’m also doubt that LC will sell any of their major player.
I think it’s fair to say that Wenger was lucky to have such a young talent as Joel in his rank when he has had injuries to key players like Alexis and Theo, rather than it being good news for Joel. That said, I can’t see AW selling Joel now. I think he has finally realised that he may have just found himself a real gem.
Why does AW never get credit! He put Joel out on loan to get him game time.
At the beginning of the season AW specifically said he would keep Campbell at Arsenal this season.
Yes, Joel got his chance because of injuries, and he took that chance big time, which is why AW said he sensed something special about the young man.
Game-by-game he has improved his performance, with 2 goals and 2 great assists in key matches. He tackles back, he is competitive and he’s still improving.
With Theo now back fully fit, with his electric pace and Ollie giving all the moaners a big slap every time he scores, we don’t have to rush Alexis back.
COYG
P.S. Agree that Flam is doing a great job too!
Because, a) he never signed Joel Campbell for Arsenal. b) he kept playing players like Sonogo et al over Joel Campbell even though Campbell had proved his ability at the World Cup and c) it was clearly obvious that Campbell was unhappy with continously being loaned out as he kept asking to be sold., and at the World Cup Dixon said that Wenger told him that heforgot that Campbell was signed for Arsenal and he intended to sell him.
My apologies for the rant, but it is what made me think that Wenger needed someone to assist him. Campbell’s breakout year should have been after the World Cup. He came back to the UK and bossed the first game in the Emirates Cup, only to never be played again by Wenger. Sonogo, however, was given chance after chance after chance. Also Ox always took priority over Joel, lets be frank if it weren’t for the injuries Joel would be behind him now.
I think even wen everybody is fit, campbell will still get games because of his workrate. For a while now i have been wishing for a player that can do a defensive job against dangerous wingers and also attack at the same. I think Joel Campbell is that man.
He is young and ahead of Oxlade
Campbell improvement means danger for Welbeck who is out injured. If Campbell progress continue, this would effectively bring Welbeck brief 16 million Arsenal career move to a conclusion.
I personally connot see Welbeck sitting on a bench at Arsenal for long, since he spent five years at Man U as a squad player primarily on the bench. Belerin has also ended Debuchy Arsenal career.
Mr Wenger will probably have mix feeling and wish he had send both Campbell and Belerin on loan, because at this present moment they are proving to everyone that the 16 million and 12 million Mr wenger spent on Welbeck and Debuchy is a waste of money.