That daft red card that the Arsenal and France international striker picked up for losing his rag and throwing a headbutt in the QPR game is starting to look more and more costly to the Gunners. We did manage a plucky away win at West Ham in the first of the centre forward’s three games of suspension, but Wenger had to shuffle his squad and use players that could have done with a rest. And we may have killed the Hammers off earlier with the Frenchman leading the line.
And now Arsene Wenger, as reported by The Mirror, has revealed in his pre-match press conference that Danny Welbeck has picked up a minor (we hope) thigh problem that could keep him out of the starting line-up for the tough test of Southampton away on new years day.
So the boss will have to shuffle his pack again. Wenger has not said much about Yaya Sanogo lately but the fact that Chuba Akpom was on the bench instead of him on Sunday suggests that he is not fit to play. THat leaves Arsenal with Alexis Sanchez, Lukas Podolski, Joel Campbell and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as possible forwards that have featured this season.
But hold on Arsenal fans! The boss also revealed that our long term absentee Theo Walcott is actually fit to play and by saying that, I think that Wenger is seriously considering throwing the speed merchant on from the start against his former club. That would almost certainly be on the right, leaving Wenger the decision of who to put up front. My choice would be Alexis, with the Ox on the left. But we also have Podolski and Campbell and the Ox could be needed in the middle.
How would you deal with Welbeck’s absence?