Is usual bad luck hitting Arsenal with injuries and referees?

I suppose we should have known that it would not last, as every season Arsenal seem to be plagued with much more than our fair share of bad luck. It just felt for a while as though this time might be different, even though we had the defensive injury crisis at the start of the season with Gabriel and Per Mertesacker being ruled out before the competitive games even began.

In a way that situation did not seem too bad as it appeared to strengthen Arsene Wenger’s resolve to sign Mustafi and the German has been a great signing so far. We were also pretty strong squad-wise and with Xhaka, Elneny, Cazorla and Coquelin the injury to Ramsey on the opening day did not really hurt us as these things have in the past.

Add to that what seemed to be a decent rub of the green from the match officials, with more penalties awarded already this season as in the whole of the last one, Arsenal’s luck was on the up. Not for long though, as the tide already seems to be turning.

First we had the sending off of Giroud against PSG. Replays showed it was completely undeserved but because it was a second yellow there was no chance to appeal it. Now we have injury problems mounting, as the manager revealed on the Arsenal website today, with Walcott, Monreal and Cazorla a doubt and Lucas Perez ruled out until around the new year.

Just to rub salt in the wound and further suggest that our usual bad luck is back, the Lucas problem came about from the same sort of challenge that our own Granit Xhaka was shown a straight red card for according to the boss.

Wenger said, “From Tuesday night we’ve lost Lucas for a while with an ankle injury. I think he’ll be out for six to eight weeks. We have Giroud back available and Aaron Ramsey will be in the squad. We are [almost] in November, they have not played so it’s good to have them back. We have a few uncertainties over Walcott, Monreal and Cazorla, but they will all have tests today.

“Yes it’s very frustrating because he [Lucas] worked very hard to get there. Of course he is absolutely gutted, because it’s an injury coming from nowhere, and a stupid one, because it was a deliberate kick. It’s a similar tackle to [the one from] Xhaka [against Swansea], but there was no red card. But the red card would not have helped Lucas. What is most important is that he’s out for six to eight weeks.

“[Walcott] is not ill. There is a slight hamstring alert, a very minor one. He will have a test today.

“He should be OK for Tuesday. If it’s not tomorrow, it’s OK for Tuesday.

“[Monreal] has a little muscle tightness.”

All of this does not add up to a disaster, at least not yet, but do you get the feeling that the same old bad luck is coming back to hurt Arsenal again?

Bob.

Tags Lucas Walcott

2 Comments

  1. We may be able to handle our injury list now. But I’m just waiting for Walcott to be out for his usual two month stint, and then Sanchez will get burnt out again, and then we will find out how deep our squad really is.

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