It is not really going too far to say that Arsenal v Galatasaray on Wednesday night is a must win game for the Gunners, at least if we are to keep our hopes alive of actually winning our UCL group this time and avoiding the likes of Bayern Munich and Barcelona in the first knockout stage.
We simply have to win our home games, so the ever growing injury list has really given Arsene Wenger a headache and left him with a selection headache for midweek. As revealed in a report by Arsenal.com, the boss has revealed that Aaron Ramsey are definitely out of contention for the Turkish club as well as the trip to Chelsea at the weekend. He also said that Abou Diaby is not ready, even though the French midfielder cam through about an hour against Southampton in the league cup unscathed. Hopefully Diaby will be available to face Chelsea but we still have the small problem of Galatasaray to deal with.
And it is the central midfield area that is the most concerning. Mathieu Flamini will start, of course, but who can play alongside him if Wilshere’s ankle problem keeps him out? It’s a tough one. Maybe Francis Coquelin or Calum Chambers, although that would not give much help to the attackers and the onus is on Arsenal to win. Zelalem maybe, although the young German is very inexperienced, while I would not like to trust Cazorla or Rosicky to have the discipline and effort needed in the centre.
So if our worst fears are confirmed and Wilshere joins Ramsey and Arteta on the sidelines, there is only one player to fill the gap and that, in my opinion, is Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. After all, Wenger has said before that the dynamic England international will probably end up in the middle at some point in his career. But can he do the business on Wednesday.