Every week we seem to be losing more players, andespecially members of the Arsenal defensive line-up. This week we have lost both Sead Kolasinac and Hector Bellerin, and although Kolasinac may not be proved to be a long term problem, Bellerin is definitely out for at least another couple of weeks. Henrik Mhkitarayan also injured his right ankle and we are waiting for him to be assessed.
But yet again it is our defence that we need to worry about, as we are down to just four proper defenders in Laurent Koscielny, Nacho Monreal, Sokratis and Stephan Lichtsteiner (I am not including Carl Jenkinson on the official list).
Mustafi was also lost to a hamstring problem in the game against Huddersfield and won’t return to training until next week, and it is worrying that Mavropanos has still not returned to training yet after his groin injury and he is yet to play one game yet this season.
And of course we all know that Rob Holding will not be returning this season, and we are still waiting to see exactly how long Danny Welbeck takes to recover, but I think we are unlikely to see him on the field again for Arsenal in this campaign, if ever.
Emery seems to prefer playing with five at the back, so i guess we could use Sokratis, Monreal and Koscielny and Monreal as the middle three, with Jenkinson and Lichtsteiner on the flanks, but would you be feeling confident with a line-up like that? I certainly wouldn’t!
Darren N