Arsenal get BIG injury boost for Southampton clash

Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal fans will be hoping to get more good news tomorrow on the fitness of some key players, with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Wojciech Szczesny, Yaya Sanogo, Kieran Gibbs and Nacho Monreal all due to be assessed to see if they can feature for the Gunners against high flying Southampton on Wednesday evening.

The Spanish left back seems certain to miss out with his knee injury, but there is a good chance for all of the others, which would be very handy, especially Gibbs. But that is not the good news that I refer to in the title od this article. That comes in the shape of one of our transfer targets Morgan Schneiderlin.

The Frenchman has been absolutely vital to how well the Saints have done this season under Ronald Koeman, but he was forced off at halftime in their game against Man City today with a muscular problem in his thigh. And I do not think it was a coincidence that Southampton started to lose the midfield battle after Scneiderlin was replaced, with Yaya Toure able to break from deep and shoot unchallenged for City’s opening goal.

The Saints defence, the meanest in the Premier League, has been the main reason for their success and Schneiderlin protecting the back four has been a major part of that defensive solidity so for him to miss the game at the Emirates gives us a much better chance of scoring and winning.

And although they have only lost two away games so far, they are weaker on the road and have conceded most of their goals away from St. Mary’s. But can Arsenal take advantage of their injury problem and their dented confidence?

Tags Gibbs Schneiderlin Szczesny

31 Comments

    1. Articles like this were written before the Man United game, and at the end , we Lost… I Hope we dnt go into this game wit the initiative of outrunning them, cus I’m sure if schneiderlin is not available, there cld be other people willing to prove their worth…
      I hope we play our game , and come out successfully with 3points. #coyg

      1. Who are they? Why are you worrying about Southampton?. We are the Arsenal. We are a far better team than them. Fact. Lets have a bit of belief.

  1. We’ll beat them…thay played their full strength team in the cup game and didn’tlook that good we were just really bad on that day ppodolski and everybody favorite saviour jeol camble didnt show up…..but can we show up this time…that’s the million dollar question….I really have the feeling thay will

  2. With or without morgan, all i want and pray for is 3pts. Dotmund taste defeat again.i just pray they dont relegate cos they are at the bottom of their league.

  3. Everyone can beat us, but we cant beat everyone. Southupton is a nice team to play against, but knowing that we are already out of competition it makes everythingso much less entertaining.

  4. Same old shit. For every player for us that comes back from injury, three more get injured. For every player on the opposing team that gets injured, 3 or 4 of ours get injured. Same old story every season and everyone thinks if we can keep players fit then we have a shot at the title however whenever the season starts, we already have half the squad out injured so we start appallingly. Injuries have literally ruined Arsenal football club every season for the last ten years.

    1. Besides wenger abysmal transfer record, injuries are the #1 reason for our subpar achievements for many years.

  5. I know the proper response is to say we shouldn’t be happy to see key players from other teams hurt before they play us. I know that’s the sporting thing to say. But, and I’m a tad disappointed with myself for saying it, I’m a kind of hoping that Schneiderlin will miss Wednesday’s game. However, to show I’m not a complete dickhead, I hope he makes a full recovery for United on the weekend.

  6. Shneiderlin is a hell of a frog. Class player.

    Schneiderlin Dm
    Coleman RB
    Hummels CB
    Reus ( If non German teams cant get him out of Germnay in january, he will be a Bayern player next year).

    Nice chance for the CL ( DREAM )..

  7. I honestly haven’t underestimated Southhampton since they ran us to the ground in that 2-2 away draw last season. They are also one of the few that beat us on our home turf this fall. Then Monday they almost lost to Aston Villa on and today they embarrassingly lost to MCFC with an extra man on the pitch. Now they may look to our squad as a chance to redeem themselves.

    I hope we win, but I dont think it’ll be that easy even without Morgan. But we can. Ah a win against them would be huge.

    1. Well there’s one or two ways the Man City loss will affect them. Either, like you said, they look at the Arsenal game as a chance of redemption, or they begin to question whether they’re really good enough to belong among the top teams in the country and take a hit in confidence.

      1. Yeah Mick, you make a good point with the latter. I actually questioned that possibility watching their match today.

  8. Southampton have Arsenal
    Utd, Everton, Chelsea+away
    trips to Palace and Burnley
    and a league cup tie at Sheff Utd
    before the new year.
    So they could drop a lot
    of points while we pick up a lot.
    WestHam we can beat also.
    Arsenal / United 3rd /4th by Dec 28.
    Normal service resumes.
    Ultimately it will be the battle of the managers
    Mourinho Pelegrini Van Gaal and Wenger

  9. SchneiderLin (sorry Southampton) was forced off……. Once again we are depending on an injured midfielder to get injured in order to succeed!….. Oh! So we realize how tough and solid he is…….oh! so we see him as a threat capable of breaking down our plays……oh! So we won’t talk of winning even with him present…….Oh! So we knw how important a kinda person like him is…. Today southampton suffered humiliation by a 10 man team and are badly wounded by it…..do i think they will Love to suffer back to back defeats twice in a row?…..only our perfomance would justify that….. But, what’s a perfomance without a preparation and a proper mindset……. 4 christ sake! This is southampton who Lost half their players + manager….. And we are already depending on their injuries to succeed….. How low could we stoop to conquer? ….we are a Top 4 team people would say……but know this….”if we are not (ready to be) kings, we can’t (ever) dine with kings” …….I REST MY CASE

  10. The table is finally taking shape. The likes of Southampton and West Ham will slip down and down (maybe 1 row per week 😛 ). While the likes of Arsenal and Utd will move up and up, till we have the familiar top 4 of Chelsea, City, Arsenal and United.

  11. Wow.. Dortmund are now bottom of the Bundesliga. 11 points from 13 games. 22 points away from Bayern, yet all the Dortmund fans still back Klopp all the way. 6th after 13 games, 20 points and Wenger is feeling the pressure.

    1. Yes, you’re right, but I’m not sure if we can compare fan bases. The managers have different tenures of coaching. And Arsenal have a more global recognition, which means Wenger will always receive more pressure.

  12. I think its time to get revenge for the cup losy and start pulling southampton down to where they should be.Its a team i like, but i think their manager has become too arrogant and not humble, so its time southampton recover their memory and status in the league.

    I really dont think that we will have much more injury worries and are merely mild knocks that will not affect them playing wednesday, if we use the same three man attack for this match i dont see how southampton can stop us

  13. Scheinderlin is undoubtedly a top class DM at St. Mary’s. But one thing that has surfaced in the match between the Saints and Citizens is, City overcame Ref Mike Jones sinister decisions to swing the outcome of game in favour of Southampton. City kept their cool and went ahead to score 3 undisputed goals to win the game and shamed the Ref. If the Gunners have been playing as City ignored the Ref partiality today and did not allow his negative decisions to down cast them as often done with the Gunners. The Gunners would have been winning their games by negating the Ref decision that were deliberately taken to deny us victory. I am inclined to believe that some Refs have clandestinely been hiking up the Saints in the table by their questionalbe decisions.

  14. I thought we’re class, I can’t believe we are waiting for an opponent key players to get injured before we can win games.

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