Arsene Wenger was extremely agitated about Arsenal having to play against Bournemouth just two days after the win against Crystal Palace and the biggest gripe he had was that his players didn’t have time to recover from the tiredness and knocks that were sustained in the first game.
These little injuries have obviously been aggravated and added to, with Koscielny and Coquelin the most affected. Arsene Wenger has given us a provisional diagnosis of Coquelin when he said: “He is out for three or four weeks now. He has a hamstring problem.
“I say three to four weeks because he came off, but he has a scan today.”
He revealed also that Danny Welbeck may make his long awaited return against Preston on Saturday, because (guess what!) we may have another forward out injured! “I haven’t decided yet but he could be. It depends on Perez a little bit.”
Ah so what is wrong with Perez? “We might have a problem with Lucas Perez because he injured his ankle. We will see how he responds to that.
“Coming back, the closest is Walcott but he is still not ready. Kieran Gibbs is not ready, so I don’t think anyone is coming back. Coquelin and Ozil are out.
“We play with 90% of the squad. We rest Koscielny because he came off with problems in his thigh.
“Ospina will play, but maybe Sanchez I will rest as well, but everyone else will play.”
So is Ozil just being rested or is it something worse? Wenger continued: “Mesut Ozil is coming in today and will be assessed by the doctor. He has been in bed for two weeks.
“I cannot imagine we will involve him on Saturday.
“It’s a flu he has had – a throat infection. I don’t know exactly.”
Well I guess the good news is that our FA Cup match is against lowly Preston, which we should be able to handle whichever reserves we use, and then we have a whole (much needed) seven days in which all our stars can recover (except Coquelin and Cazorla of course) before we resume our title chase at Swansea.
Let’s hope everyone has a good rest and recovers well….
Admin