Now we are getting to squeaky-bum time as Alex Ferguson used to say, and we are going to need as many players fit as possible, especially when Arsenal are getting closer to the Finals of the FA Cup and the Champions League, as well as pulling away at the top of the Premiership….
We have had a good few injury victims return to the squad, and now Wenger has given positive updates on both Jack Wilshere and Danny Welbeck. Starting off with Jack, Wenger said: “He is looking good. I had a short chat with Roy Hodgson about him and reassured him that he is progressing well. I’m cautious but I will say four weeks [until he is back].
“Danny has not played since April 2015 and will have to go through a game or two with the under-21s, where we can monitor him and leave him free to play at his level of commitment. That looks to be very soon, maybe this week.”
We are going to need all hands on deck, and we could probably do with Welbeck to help out on the right-wing as we always seem to have problems there, and Jack hopefully will be ready to be whipper-like alongside Francis Coquelin until the end of the season. Wenger must intend to play him if he has told Hodgson to expect Wilshere to be ready for the Euros….
But how unlucky is Tomas Rosicky? He comes on for his first appearance of the season, and gets injured literally minutes later. Wenger admitted that this could be the end of the Czech’s career when he explained: “He’s devastated. Unbelievable,”
“Nobody understands [how he got injured]. I told him straight away after half-time to warm-up. I observed him, he’s very conscientious Tomas, he did sprint and sprint and sprint.
“He comes on, after three minutes he got the injury. I looked at him and thought, ‘Tomas you do not run properly’, because he didn’t lift his legs and he lost some balls, I was amazed because he is top-level, technically.
“He told me after the game that he did it straight away, then I understood why that happened to him. He said: ‘I stayed on, because you couldn’t change anymore.’”
“He’s such a good player but his career has been disrupted by so many injuries,” he added. “He was born in 1980, he’s 36, it’s difficult for him. Let’s hope we have good news, that it is not as bad as feared.”
If it is as bad as he fears, then this will surely have been Tomas’ last appearance for the Gunners, and he will be even more devastated at missing the Euros in the summer for his country.
We wish Tomas all the best, but its not looking too good right now…