If Arsene Wenger was wondering whether this season would see Arsenal have any better luck on the injury front, he only needed to ask me or just about anybody who has paid the blindest bit of attention to the comings and goings of the Arsenal treatment room over the last few years.
The ongoing problem of Arsenal losing key players like Aaron Ramsey and Santi Cazorla for long periods of time has been noticed by the manager and he has been trying for years to put it right by bringing in new fitness and conditioning experts to join the backroom staff, but nothing seems to have made much difference.
I wonder whether Wenger would have thought the problem had been sufficiently addressed had Shkodran Mustafi not played that final World Cup qualifier for Germany. Maybe so, but the fact that it was a hamstring issue and not caused by any incident on the pitch suggests that there is still an underlying problem at the club.
So with Per Mertesacker unable to play every game and with Laurent Koscielny managing an ongoing Achilles problem, Wenger may have decided that the Gunners do need more cover at the back. There are reports that we are already out looking, with Talksport reporting the rumour from Italy that the Napoli centre back Nikola Maksimovic is one of the possible targets being tracked by Arsenal.
Do we want cover for the current Gunners defenders, though, or an upgrade?
Bob.
