Santi Cazorla’s injury at the weekend could be the final straw that broke the back of Arsenal’s Premier League campaign, with both him and Francis Coquelin both to miss at least the next three months of the season, not to mention the other seven Gunners currently in the treatment room.
But the Gunners have just sent young Stefan O’Connor off to York on loan, and we have eleven other youngsters out gaining valuable first team experience at the moment, but who could help us out by coming back right now, like Coquelin did last season with such spectacular results.
With Alexis joining the walking wounded we only have Olivier Giroud as a main striker. Wenger has been telling us for a while that Theo Walcott will be back soon, but we may need him to go back on the wing for a while. So how about Chuba Akpom? He looked promising last season, but he is now out on loan at Hull City. The Tigers were soundly beaten by Man City and Akpom was accused of sulking and having an ‘attitude problem’ by Hull fans. Perhaps he is not quite ready, and the same goes for Isaac Hayden, who is not first-choice at Hull, but in some promising performances for us last season.
Gedion Zelalem is doing well up at Rangers, but he needs bulking up a bit. The Scottish Championship can not really be compared to the Premier League…
Jon Toral is very promising now he has got over his early injury problems. He is at Birmingham City right now and as an attacking midfielder he may be useful to us. He has scored in his last two games as well and the Brummies boss Gary Rowett has been very impressed.
Our young winger Ainsley Maitland-Niles has been a smash hit at Ipswich. He has been played on both wings, but culd also be used centrally. He is tipped for a big future with the Gunners, but is he ready to make an impact right now?
I think we can write off Serge Gnabry and Yaya Sanogo, who can’t even get a game out on loan, and Wellington is still far from being Premier League quality.
Who do you think Wenger could recall in our hour of need?