Just a couple of weeks ago, Mikel Arteta was in the enviable position of having nearly a full Arsenal squad to choose from, but with this afternoon’s game against Rock-Bottom Sheffield United coming up, it has now been revealed that two more players are now unavailable for the game.
We found out in midweek that David Luiz had had some knee surgery which may cause him to miss the rest of the season, and Kieran Tierney will be sorely missed as well. His knee won’t need an operation like Luiz, but he will still be out for most of the rest of the campaign.
Martin Odegaard is still suffering from his injury picked up on international duty, and Emile Smith-Rowe twisted his ankle against Slavia Prague but was expected to have recovered for today, but according to David Ornstein he will also miss today’s game.
The most interesting new problem is that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is suffering from flu, which I thought had been practically eliminated by our masks and social distancing rules. Our captain has been very out of sorts for a while and has continued his poor form after being dropped for the North London Derby. He was only brought on for the last 20 minutes in Prague and was castigated by Mikel Arteta after the game for missing a “tap-in”.
Maybe this is similar to one of Wenger’s famous imaginary illnesses?
There is one little bit of good news…. Calum Chambers is back in the squad…