Okay so the next game for Arsenal is only lowly QPR and it is at least in front of the home crowd at the Emirates stadium on Boxing day, but Arsenal fans were still hoping that Arsene Wenger would have a key player or two back from the lengthy injury list.
And while the manager does have three more Gunners to add to his matchday squad, as reported by Arsenal.com, it is unlikely that our second choice keeper David Ospina, young striker Yaya Sanogo or aging attacking midfielder Tomas Rosicky will make it onto the pitch.
The players we really wanted back, such as Aaron Ramsey, Laurent Koscielny, Mesut Ozil and Mikel Arteta are all still out of action. And the news gets worse, as neither Ozil nor Arteta are likely to be available for any of the festive fixtures coming up.
The news on Koscielny is a little better as Wenger is hoping the French centre back will be ready for the tough trip to West Ham on Sunday and that could prove vital with Andy Carroll fit again and finding form. After that the Gunners have a second tough away game against Southampton and Wenger says that Ramsey could make it for that one.
But with Walcott still not match fit and with the players who are fit struggling to cope, Arsenal’s injury situation seems as bad as ever.