The Gunners have been without the presence of talismanic skipper Martin Ødegaard for the past three games now due to an Ankle injury sustained during the international break while representing his country against Austria in the Uefa Nations league. The severity of the injury was not yet known at the time of the incident but hopes were not high given the amount of pain our skipper was visibly in. A flight back to london for tests yielded bad news for the gunners with the scans showing significant damage to his ankle, this meant that he would be ruled out as a long term absentee with suggestions he could be out for around 2-3 months.
This was a blow to us especially for the fixtures coming right after that international break with gooners at the time disgruntled by the fact that we had to face Tottenham, Atalanta and Manchester City in the space of a week without our influential captain. As we may know now the gunners came out of that tricky run of fixtures with their heads held high due to us coming out of those encounters unbeaten and with 5 points won in all competitions. Even with this though the presence of our skipper was still felt, especially in the game against Atalanta where we were absolutely begging for a player of his quality to bring the game alive.
Those are the type of games where we’re going to miss our captain therefore his return to fitness earlier than expected will be a welcome boost considering the type of teams we’ll be playing in the weeks ahead. In fact our next four games are all at home and against relatively easier teams (any team is easier than Spurs, Atalanta and Man City away!) like Bolton, Leicester, PSG and Southampton. I am sure we can compete with them without Odegaard.
Therefore it will please Arsenal fans that Mikel Arteta had this to say about the time frame of Ødegaard’s injury when speaking to the Media in his recent press conference, he said: “I think it will be a matter of weeks, but how long exactly, i cannot tell”
The fact he said weeks instead of months is a huge boost to us considering how long those sort of injuries can take to recover from, this will mean he doesn’t miss a large chunk of the season which is crucial in this never ending search for glory!
Any thoughts on this gooners, what are the odds of us seeing Ødegaard return to full fitness earlier than expected?
KENNETH BENJAMIN.
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I’m not really worried, because Havertz, Zinchenko, Merino and Nwaneri just need a few games to get familiar with Odegaard’s role
@Gai exactly,👍 it’s this kind of cup game that Zichenko should have been tried in midfield but he is injured. Besides Arteta don’t seem to rate him in midfield, reason is yet to be clear. I hope Nwaneri, Skelly and some guys that played in pre-season would be given a chance tonight. They did well in pre season.
i think now we are past Spurs and Man C matches it is less of an issue with run of games coming up with Bolton, Leicester and Southampton at home, yes PSG in that run too but not the end of the world
it is Liverpool in the PL on 27 October that I look at and hope Odegaard is back for, and Merino too, field our best XI
White – Saliba – Gabriel – Calafiori
Odegaard – Rice – Merino
Saka – Havertz – Martinelli
Timber for White and Trossard for Martinelli
The Liverpool match we need our best fit and ready. That being said, Odegaard will remain out until absolutely 100% fit, they don’t want to risk a reoccurring injury, or risk losing him again further into the season.
A strange article based on an imaginary difference between “suggestions he could be out for around 2-3 months” (starting some time ago) and “I think it will be a matter of weeks”.
Well, 2 months is “a matter of weeks” and the 2 months was talked about a while ago, so some of those weeks had already gone by at the time Arteta said “a matter of weeks”.
Isn’t it obvious that there’s no difference in these two statements? 2 months, 8 weeks, same thing.
The bottom line is that it’s bad news whatever cover there might be. Odegaard starts every match for a reason.
OT: Rodri looks like he won’t be appearing for City for a while (some saying could be the whole season but I doubt it).
I never wish bad on anyone, but City are going to struggle without him and this can only be a good thing for us.
It’s amazing when odegard and Merino plus rice mancity sorry
This is our season and chance to lift atleast 2 trophies.