Arsenal’s performances this season have been pretty good up to now, and as we head into a busy period of fixtures, we’re still in touch with leaders Chelsea despite a lot of key players missing games with injury.

Since our last title in 2006, we have been close several times, only for injuries to hamper our title bids, and this season is shaping up in similar fashion, with Per Mertesacker, Santi Cazorla, Danny Welbeck and Hector Bellerin all missing large chunks of the season.

Rumours flying around the media were that Spanish international Hector Bellerin will be out for a few more weeks, but the latest report from The Daily Mail show Bellerin training alone at London Colney and it’s looking likely that he will return earlier than expected.

Manager Arsene Wenger has played Gabriel in Bellerin’s place, along with Jenkinson and Debuchy, as we try to cope without the mercurial Spaniard.

Sir Wenger was interviewed after Bellerin picked up the jury and he said in The Daily Mail:

“Hector is out for four weeks.  He got injured in the last 10 seconds against Spurs after a very strong tackle by Danny Rose. It’s an ankle injury, it was a bad one and it’s annoying to lose Bellerin. Did Rose want to injure Bellerin? I don’t think so. He just went in for the tackle…

Spurs’ Argentine boss Mauricio Pochettino branded Wenger’s criticism of Rose as ‘strange’ despite Wenger not actually criticizing Rose at all:

“What happens on the pitch is never about bad intentions (apart from Dele Alli’s latest dive against Swansea of course), it is about football. It is strange after 20 years he should criticise this…”

Tottenham haven’t won the league since 1961, and their last trophy of note was back in 1991, over 25 years ago when they won the FA Cup.

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