Just when Arsenal fans were left cursing our luck yet again after the news was revealed this morning that our Brazilian centre back Gabriel has gone back home to South America as he recovers from injury, we got some better news on the injury front from our next Premier League opponents Manchester United.
Louis van Gaal and the United squad are in Denmark ahead of the first leg of their Europa League clash with FC Midtjylland and in his pre-match comments reported by Sky Sports the United boss revealed that the reason their captain Wayne Rooney was not with the squad was because he has picked up a knee problem.
Van Gaal said, “We have 13 players injured and Wayne is one of them. You can never say [how long he could be out for].
“He has a knee problem so we have to wait and see. He scores a lot of goals so he is very important for us. We know that but we have to cope with that.”
The England captain may have started the season slowly but he has improved and his 15 goals are the main reason why United are still harbouring some faint hopes of getting back into the top four. The only other United player to reach double figures in all competitions is Martial so the news that Rooney will miss the game against us at Old Trafford next weekend is a big boost.
It does kind of cancel out the bad news about Gabriel and may even prove to have a bigger effect on our title challenge than the defender’s hamstring problem, as long as Gabriel is not out for too long. What do you think?