Arsenal fans were starting to worry whether the same old problems were coming back to haunt us, but it looks like the trick or treaters doing the rounds for Halloween tomorrow will be the only horrors we need to worry about. As long as the Gunners can get to the international break without too much damage that is.
There are only three games to go for Arsenal before the players involved for their various nations jet off and after that our next game will be the trip to West Bromwich Albion on November 21st. By then Arsene Wenger says we could have Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain available again, as Sky Sports are reporting. The hamstring problem he picked up against Sheffield Wednesday this week is clearly not a bad one and his England international team mate Theo Walcott will not be far behind the Ox on the road to recovery.
Wenger said, “I still believe the quickest back will be Alex. Theo might be out of action longer. The gut feeling will be one will be 20 days and one will be a bit longer.
“We always have to answer the question of whether it is more than being unlucky when we have injuries, but we analyse every single case and every exercise.
“We have to not over-analyse when players are injured – this has always happened. It’s post-international games we always get injuries. Is it linked with that? I don’t know.
“We have two kinds of injuries, the ones coming back for or after Christmas; [Tomas] Rosicky, [Jack] Wilshere and [Danny] Welbeck. Then we have the short-term; [Mikel] Arteta, [Aaron] Ramsey, Chamberlain should be back after the international break.”
Having Ramsey, Arteta and Chamberlain back after the international break will give Arsenal a real boost in midfield and although our forward line is looking a little stretched right now, if Walcott is not far behind then I think the Gunners could get away with these injuries without too much damage.
So if Arsenal get past the Swansea and Tottenham games and not drop points, or at least not many, then there is no reason to think that our challenge for the Premier League trophy is not still very much on.