It was all doom and gloom on the injury front for Arsenal yesterday, with the media reporting that the Gunners were going to be without the key figures of Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Debuchy for the next three months or so. But things are not quite as bad as all that, thankfully, as Arsene Wenger revealed in his pre-match press conference reported by Arsenal.com.
The Frenchman revealed that our club captain, who has had surgery to remove an offending piece of bone from his ankle, will not be out for as long as the French right back. In fact the manager suggested that six weeks was more realistic as a return date for the Spanish midfielder. He also spoke highly of Francis Coquelin and Mathieu Flamini who have been providing the cover for our captain in central midfield.
So let’s assume that Arteta is available to play for Arsenal in six weeks. He would miss Man City on Sunday, Brighton in the FA cup next weekend and then Premier League games against Aston Villa, Tottenham and Leicester City and the 5th round of the cup if we qualify and Crystal Palace in the league, which would take us about to his comeback.
That means there is a decent chance that he would be ready for Monaco in the Champions League on February 25th but definitely for the second leg and the rest of the season. I reckon that Wenger will now be thinking about whether he can risk waiting for Arteta or whether he has to provide cover for him in the January transfer window. There are rumours that Arsenal may have an agreement to sign Morgan Schneiderlin in the summer and so anyone bought now might be surplus to requirements next season.
What do you think Gooners, can Arsenal afford to wait for the return of Arteta at the end of February?