Arsenal have always been a team that has struggled with injures, especially under the helm of Arsene Wenger. Some will blame it on his tactics and style of play, as he likes to pass and move quite quickly, leaving players prone to late challenges. Others will claim that our medical staff do not always get the right diagnosis on first instance and don’t put the best recovery plan in place, but as someone who is not trained medical profession, who are they to suggest that!
Below is a full list of the injures that Arsenal currently have in their first team, before the season has even kicked off:
Per Mertesacker – Mertesacker suffered a knee injury during the first week of pre-season and it was deemed so bad that he is expected to miss at least half of the season. It is likely that he will not start full first team training again until Christmas and depending on the state of Arsenal’s defence, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he isn’t given the whole of December off, to ensure that he is ready to return to the pitch in the new year. Mertesacker may not have had such a pivotal role in the side this year, with the BFG more likely to have a bench role, however his presence in the squad will be missed.
Gabriel Paulista – Gabriel picked up a pretty nasty injury in last nights final pre-season match against Manchester City, so much so that he had to be taken off by stretcher. The extent of his injury hasn’t been revealed yet, but given the severity of the situation last night, it’s quite possible that we won’t be seeing our Brazilian defender for quite some time! Time for Wenger to dip into the market I think.
Jack Wilshere – normally when it comes to Jack Wilshere we expect to hear that the Englishman is ruled out for the remainder of the season. Although this has been the case in previous years, this time is different (fingers crossed) and the midfielder is expected to only miss the Liverpool game before returning to training. Let’s hope he doesn’t rush back and aggravate the injury like he has done in recent years.
Carl Jenkinson – Jenkinson is a player you may not have expected to see on this list, but the right back is in fact set to stay at the club this season and not only because he is currently injured. Jenkinson tore a Anterior Cruciate Ligament playing for West Ham last season and is not due to return until November. Once he is fit, I’d expect the defender to play backup to Hector Bellerin.
Danny Welbeck – Welbeck is another like Wilshere, who picks up long term injuries that keep him to the treatment table for the majority of the season. Welbeck was actually on decent form last season before he once again picked up a knee injury. The forward was ruled out of the England squad for the Euros and is now not expected to return to first team duties until February 2017.
Whilst the following are not currently injured, we will also be missing the likes of Giroud, Koscielny and Ozil for the opening game against Liverpool, whilst Santi Cazorla’s fitness also remains a talking point. Wishing all these Gunners a speedy recovery!
By AH
I’m glad Jenkinson has returned to the club, He should be better defensively for playing under Big Sam
EDIT: Yo Admin, Is there a forum attached to the site? Where we can Ballache to our hearts content and not upset the casual observer
Man City/ManUtd have spent big, they are out of big transfer market. Liverpool have spent too, and might buy 1 more if they sell Benteke. Spurs wont pay big for anyone, so only Chelsea and Arsenal are “capable” of paying big in this market. Buy someone Wenger, or leave.
wouldnt be surprised to see wilshere ozil ramsey koscienly giroud and sanchez playing this weekend.
Honestly this is terrible management from our club
mediocre players like jenkinson debuchy and walcott need to be sold
Chambers holding and bielik need loan moves.
Get rid of either gibbs wilshere ramsey giroud or mertesacker.
This will allow space for new players instead of keeping a long list of deadwoods or injured players
Are you insane?
We can blame injuries all we want but a lack of proper planning when it comes to our transfer business will be to blame for another failed season in the champions league as well as trying to be title contenders!
Actually the fans and the manager have no right to blame injuries as they occur EVERY season, Wenger should’ve seen the pattern by now and realize you can’t expect one player to be fit all season at a club with one of the worst injury records in the past 5 years.
I thought he said the club was looking into it?
Rock hard Plastic training pitches according to Rio Ferdinand!
Off Topic: I saw some pundits prediction on skysports on the team that will win the league. Majority predicted Manu or Man city for the league.. They said they doubt Arsenal will win it simply because they lack that extra bite and a striker and CB. Well said..
No body mentioned Chelsea. They said it will take Conte sometime to adjust to the league and team. Wonder why they didn’t mention the same thing with Pep as he is new to the league. Maybe because he knows how to win things with a new team immediately. Mourinho with a new team but he knows the league. With the likes of Pogba, Mthlrihkan and Ibra coming in, it is easy choosing them to win it..
Of course, they predicted a top 4 finish for us.. That seems to be our trophy.. Sad indeed..
fact is, is that Guardiola doesn’t have the same quality of players that he had in bayern and even barca, and not even thinking about that those player for years together now, soo it will be interesting how is Guardiola going to cope with that problem this season.
He is pretty tactically astute, his teams press ala Klopp then keep the ball and attack with speed and precision. I would trust his tactical game to get the best out of a squad over Wengers more laissez faire attitude to other teams strengths
Two of our first choice central defenders are out injured, yet according to ‘reports’, Wenger has bid £30m for riyad Mahrez.. well, I don’t have a problem with Mahrez.. but a winger isn’t a priority for us now, worse still, £30m for Mahrez at the current market rates is not enough.. or does Wenger want to convert Mahrez to play centre back?
Sky have said that there is no truth to this bid. It came from France, the same people who said Mahrez doesn’t want che he want’s AFC.
I read articles and fans who ripped into Arsene for bidding 30m. Laid into him they did. Then sky came out and say it’s total bs, all of a sudden the articles and fans were saying ..just when we thought Arsene meant business, by looking to improve, we find out he’s not even bothered!. Too many people set out to give a certain tone, and then write around that.
Very well said.
Trevor, i agree with you.
Basically about 95% of rumours are made up by the media to fit the facts or precieved concerns of fans. On here lots of fans were concerned about campbell not being played enough and being unhappy. We then get the rumour that wenger has told campbell to find another club. Then joel gives an interview saying how pleased he was with last season and the opportunities he had.
Generally us fans do not rate giroud so no transfer rumours about him. He then has a good euros and suddenly he is being linked with swap deals.
Someone also once said 87.3% of rumours are made up on the spot 😀
Ballards! I meant statistics 😀
sczsesny
jenkinson debuchy mertesacker gibbs
ox ramsey wilshere walcott
sanogo giroud
sell this xi to tottenham
lol!! then buy:
Nauer
Fillie Luiz Ramos TiagoSilva Marcelo
Ronaldo Modric Iniesta Messi
Lewandowski Suarez
Right?
Wenger won’t get any player soon.. He will access the team against Liverpool and Leicester…. If he will sign a player, then expect the signing on deadline day.. .Very sad but true.
In my opinion, of the injured players, it is between Welbeck and Mertesacker who are our biggest losses. I know allot of people are down on Per, but he is our second best CB, also, for some reason, Kos looks better alongside the big man. He has an odd mistake in him, but they all do, it’s just with his lanky awkwardness, it can look embarrassing at times. Sure, he’s slow, but unless he is the only man back, and chasing down man and ball, it’s not a huge problem. His presence steadies us at times, people underestimate this, it’s similar with good GK’s versus bad ones. I won’t lie though, we can do better, and considering the quality his three companions in defence, we need to get better. He’s a loss at the moment, no denying it.
Welbeck, we are short with strikers, so I think he’s a fairly big loss. Giroud usually plays better when his position is under threat. Last season, Welbeck played well at the end, I’d hope he’d carry it on, but we just can’t rely on some players fitness. Welbeck is one of our good defenders from the wing, his pace and aggression is decent. If he could improve his shooting, if only?.
Anyways, I think right now these are going to be missed. For me, I’d say Mert is the biggest loss. What about Ozil, Giroud, and Kos though, three seriously big players for us, and teams generally don’t have too much more than three big big players. Kos our no1 defender. Ozil our main man everything seems to go through. And Giroud, our only striker considered to being reliable.
Trevor, some good well made points there. With regard to giroud it will be interesting to see the response on this site. At the emd of last season, you would have been thumbed down and all sorts of abuse for suggesting that giroud was a big player for us. Perhaps the realisation that a top WC striker is not coming and girouds performance in the euros has mellowed some fans on here.
I never doubted Giroud’s ability. Yes he has certain weakness, but he also has some interesting strengths as well. Apart from his link up and hold up plays that many on this site seem to underestimate, he is very prolific at finishing off crosses. That guy will bury anything that comes from the wide areas. I haven’t seen any EPL striker that does that better than him.
Its no coincidence that his goalless streak last season came when our wide players (Ox, Theo, Campbell) were misfiring. I watched all of his goals last season, about 20 of them came from crosses. So as long as we have some decency in the wings, he is world class
His problem is we’ve never had a Greizman type up front with him to help him out
Gunnerphyte, girouds minutes played per non penalty goal in the PL last season was slightly better than kane and vardy. That supports your comment.
Aguero was significantly better though.
I would’ve agreed with you a few years back (reminding me of a tony adams at times) but Mert has picked up our injury virus of late and more to the point he ducks under balls coming into the box. He needs replacing and fast
Meanwhile, Gnabry is on fire in Brazil..
I think his contract runs out at the end of next season so we should either get him to sign a new contract or sell him.
Top scorer so far with 5 with another half vs Fiji and the top scorer of the tournament only ever scores between 4-8 (since 1972). Can’t believe West Brom never played him.
Hopefully Germany go far!
injury?? seasons not even start!?!!! What is Arsene DOING???? HE DON’T CARE!