Even though Arsene Wenger put out a fairly strong Arsenal side for the trip to lower league Preston North End in the FA cup, it may have been stronger with the addition of some regular first team players like Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil.
So after the Gunners made hard work of getting past Preston at Deepdale it was inevitable that Wenger was asked about his team selection and that is when the manager slipped in the bad news that the reason our young Spanish right back Hector Bellerin was not in the squad was that he had joined the list of players on the Arsenal injury list.
Metro reports the Frenchman saying, ‘Bellerin was injured yesterday in training.’
The last time Bellerin was out we really missed him so this could be a serious problem, dependingh on how long the Spaniard is out for, which the boss did not say. Could the fact that he went with young Ashley Maitland-Niles instead of Jenkinson or even Gabriel at right back be because he is thinking of the youngster as Bellerin’s cover?
Maitland-Niles did grow into the game and he seems to be more attack minded than Gabriel and that could be vital as our next games are against Swansea, Burnley and Watford and breaking them down could be harder than keeping them from scoring.
What do you think Gooners?