Gabriel injury to see Arsenal sign defender this week?

You could not make it up, but for Arsenal fans who have become used to the terrible bad luck of the club on the injury side of things, it was somehow typical that we were hit by another blow. The fact that it was Gabriel, when the defence was already so thinly spread after Mertesacker’s knee surgery and Koscielny’s late return from Euro 2016, just rubbed salt into the wound.

Right in the last minute of the game as well, how unlucky are the Gunners? We do not yet know the extent of the injury or how long it will keep the Brazilian centre back out of action, but from the words of Arsene Wenger after the match, reported by Arsenal.com, it is clear that the boss is not very optimistic.

Wenger said, “We have not even made a diagnosis in the medical room with our doctors or physios yet. I can’t tell you more. He’s in pain. Let’s hope the pain is not a sign of bad news. The only thing we have to know now is how big the damage is with his ligament.

“I’ve never seen an intelligent accident, they always look stupid. We have to take that. He played the ball 100 per cent and I think he rolled his ankle, but I don’t know how it happened. It’s part of our game.

“Yes. We are very short [in defence].

“Maybe he was a bit tired, I don’t know. Was his coordination a bit weaker, I don’t know. Was he locked in the grass with his studs… I have to speak to him. He’s just come out of a medical room and he’s not in a better state because he couldn’t even talk on the pitch.

“I don’t think he’ll have a scan tonight because we come back at midnight. I don’t think so.”

So we might find out more today about Gabriel but if it is an ankle ligament and judging from how bad it sounds I think we can expect to be without our player for a long spell. This a problem and gives Wenger a huge selection issue for the opening game of our Premier League season,

Can the Frenchman really rely on the two young defenders Holding and Chambers? Even if he does it leaves no room for error as there is no back up unless you bring in an academy player or one of the full backs, so surely the need to sign a properly experienced central defender is even more pronounced and perhaps Wenger will be forced to move fast and sign someone this week.

We can only hope, Gooners…

Bob.

Tags Mertesacker Wenger

24 Comments

  1. That’s how we start the every season.
    God Wenger Knows everything what he wants and we Fans are nothing for him.

  2. Now imagine if Giroud gets knocked off? With Arsenal, you can’t disregard injury….maybe we are asking for too much (CB, striker and winger) but this team seriously needs a CB and striker. Wenger is unpredictable and you just never know what he is thinking.. Please get us a CB and striker. We shouldn’t focus on other teams but sometimes you can’t help it when teams are signing players while we are still looking for the right players at the right price..

    1. @Uzi Ozil

      I actually disagree about Wenger’s unpredictability, I feel he’s very predictable. We all knew Wenger was going to leave us woefully short come the start of season, hang on to the majority of the deadwood, play the same formation and system, keep playing his favourites, and not strengthen the priority positions (we did need another DM/CM in Xhaki, but CB, RW, CF were more of a priority, especially when Wenger said he’d only sign three).

      Wenger’s done exactly what I thought he’d do this summer because he’s so predictable. Even if Wenger makes some more signings, I promise it’ll be a bitterly disappointing transfer window in terms of ins and outs.

  3. Well to be fair Mustafi was a must sign after the Mertesacker injury and there should’ve been progress already before last night’s injury. Get that deal done ASAP and PAY UP please! Shivering at the thought of Holding/Bielik/Chambers vs Liverpool’s pace despite them doing very well in preseason.

    1. Well, as it is, our back will comprise two of these four Holding/Monreal/Chambers/Bielik even if we sign a CB today. If Wenger was serious he could have signed a CB by now after BFG injury. We are the kings of window shopping after David D exit.
      Holding, Chambers and Bielik are for two years time.

  4. Reports claiming Arsenal finally made a bid for Mustafi.

    So Wenger has just been flirting with him all this time

  5. this is where we become casualties of Wengers dithering in the transfer window

    we were lacking a CB before this, now we are desperate, so any team we are looking to buy from will immediately increase the price..

    wengers economics come back to bite him in the arse !!

    1. Now Cech is next on our player bashing list, is that what we are tryna start here? Itumeleng Khune, the SA goalkeeper has excellent ball distribution, in fact better than any goalkeeper I’ve seen in while, would you prefer we got him instead?

  6. I hope we don’t sign a Squillaci or Silvestre, if we do indeed sign someone

    We have come to the point where Wenger may get a panic buy or loan because with less than a month left, Clubs are less willing to sell/loan top players

    And God/Wenger knows if we will get a forward of some kind

  7. Not sure Wenger will be more active… We’ve been waiting for a top-class striker and center back for years and nothing ever happened!

  8. Signing or not, I’m just eager to watch the boys play, Mustafi doesn’t come with guarantees either, most of these players we cry out for are just average at best and only contribute to bloated squad numbers in the long run after our already average squad members return from injury. If we are not after Sergio Ramos, Matt Hummels, Jerome Boateng etc then just freaking promote from within, I’d prefer Rob Holding and Beilik to be given a chance even if they have to play together, whats the worst that could happen? Concede 16 goals in one match? We need to throw these youngsters in on the deep end more often and give them the benefit of doubt or why the heck do we have an academy? What if we had brought in Serge Aurier when or Nathaniel Clyne when Debuchy got injured, would we have Bellerin at this level today? Has Rob Holding or Krystian Beilik, how do we know they won’t turn out good against Liverpool or even bigger opposition? Afterall, Tony Adams Captained Arsenal from 21.

    1. Am afraid no pursuit of a CF again as we are scoring freely in Pre-season and Asano and Gnabry are scoring in every match in Brazil.
      As for CB, Wenger assumed that Holding and Chambers are there with Beilik to support. If not, why didn’t buy one before now as BFG was long known that he will be out for months?
      Am sorry to say it, I think Wenger is living in the past. Does he think Man U, Man City and Chelsea are nonentities? Even when two (Chelsea and Man U) of them will play less matches than us this season, they are buying left and right.

      1. Its not like we were going to win the title anyways even if we signed Leroy Sane, Pogba, Ibrahimovich, Kante, Mahrez, Vardy, Mane etc, there’s are mental block with the team and until its dismantled, how?, I don’t know. All I know is that it’s got something to do with Wenger and as you and I know he ain’t goin nowhere anytime soon so might as well live with it and enjoy what we have in before us. Even the invincibles had a mental block in Europe, they never went beyond the quarter finals.

        1. I don’t think it’s all about the mental block problem but agree there’s something to do with Wenger. Maybe the tactics? When we are able to play in our way it works. But when we face teams do everything just to stop us we struggle. And it happened many times before! That’s when we need a great striker who might be anonymous for 89 minutes but shines in 1 minutes. Or a (or two) great CB who helps with defence when we can’t go forward. Believe me Wenger knows that because we had that in the past! So stay cool and pray he would change his mind and do something!!

  9. Wenger will not sign a defender this week nor next week or the week after that. It’s going to be another frustrating season. We have difficult matches to start no defenders and no striker. What a Mess!!!

    1. Unfortunately, I agree with you
      I don’t see it happening
      I was hoping for Lacazette, Mahrez and Mustafi (would have been £100 mil well spent)
      But we will be lucky just getting a single loan

      I also think United and Spurs finishing ahead of us this season
      Spurs signing Janssen and Wanyama were good decisions
      United signing Zlatan, Mkitharyan and Pogba will make them favourites

  10. If Arsenal and Wenger don’t sign us a stricker and a defender then it clearly tells us the fans the kind of team that we support. I have my fingers crossed this season.

  11. Wit us being so desperate for defenders now, Mustafi and others will be more expensive from now on. If Wenger bought players before we become desperate, we would have got them cheaper.

    Until Wenger gets the hell away from Arsenal we will continue having Groundhog Summer Transfer Windows with the same apologist script used the previous year.

  12. If only you could play a big pile of cash at CB we’d be laughing and Wenger could still get a big fat bonus for not spending anything.

  13. The way I see it is we have two choices, we either play Chambers and Holding and let them make the mistakes needed to become better players ( I seem to remember a former Arsenal captain nicknamed “Donkey” who wasn’t to good when he first started out) or we buy another defender who might cost a bundle and still make mistakes or not which ever the case may be. Either way i believe the shit is going to hit fan and we will have to suffer some more before things turn around in our favour once again. I really hope i’m wrong though and we somehow manage to come up smelling of roses.

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