So this season hasn’t been great as far as a fit squad goes for Arsenal.
Losing super Jack Wilshere during pre-season was undoubtedly a huge blow to the creative aspect of our game. The departures of both Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona and Samir Nasri to Manchester City certainly didn’t help things either.
The midfield was looking pretty depleted by the end of the summer transfer window, until some last minute signings. Yes there may of been a bit of ‘panic buying’ from Arsene Wenger, which saw the Frenchman bring in Mikel Arteta from Everton for £10 million, Yossi Benayoun from Chelsea on loan for the season, Per Mertesacker from Werder Bremen for £8 million and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain from Southampton for £12 million – later to increase to £15 million – to bolster our midfield and defence. But in hindsight had Wenger not have done this then we wouldn’t have had a midfield at all!
There are currently five first-team players injured, here are those five:
1. Emmanuel Frimpong – the latest young gun to suffer an injury. The 20-year-old ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee while on loan with Wolves. He is expected to be out for at least 6-9 months. Season over!
2. Jack Wilshere – was on the mend with his ankle problem he picked up in pre-season, but has been setback a couple of weeks after suffering a stress fracture to his recovering ankle. The 19-year-old England international has not been ruled out for the rest of the season and could still make a return before the campaign finishes. Fingers crossed that this occurs, as there is a big anticipation to see Wilshere back on the pitch.
3. Abou Diaby – out with a hamstring injury since late November, but Abou is now back in full training and is set to be available and at full fitness towards at the end of the month. We have the big north London derby coming up on the 25th of February, so the Frenchman could be involved in that major fixture.
4. Andre Santos – Andre is currently recovering from ankle ligament surgery, the injury he picked up against Olympiakos in the Champions League awhile back. The Brazilian left-back should be back and available in around 5-6 weeks as he has started light training. Santos has had a good start to his Arsenal career; let’s hope he can carry that on when he returns.
5. Carl Jenkinson – Carl suffered a back injury a few weeks back and could be out until the latter part of the season. He is expected to be back in training within a few weeks. I expect the youngster will participate in about one or two reserve games before being available for the first-team.
Of course with bad news does come some good news.
Kieran Gibbs is back to full training and could well be selected for the squad against Sunderland this weekend. Also, Bacary Sagna, who returned last week, is fully fit after a few months out with a broken leg and has made two substitute appearances since his return. So does this mean we can finally field a well experienced back four with two natural full-backs? Let’s hope so as Sagna, Gibbs, Vermaelen, Koscielny and Mertesacker are all fit.
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