As we lick our Watford shaped wounds and try and regroup ahead of another busy week, we try and find some positives in the orange sky of Arsenal doom.
Journalist Ben Dinnery has revealed in the following tweet that Laurent Koscielny’s injury was just cramp, meaning he could be back for the Everton game next weekend.
Told that Laurent Koscielny was suffering from cramp at Watford. Therefore, fully expected to be OK for the trip to Everton on Sunday. #AFC
— Ben Dinnery (@BenDinnery) October 16, 2017
His persistent ankle injury is a worry though but lets hope a week in between Watford and Everton and assuming he plays no part in the Red Star game on Thursday, you’d hope he’d be ready to face fellow strugglers Everton on Sunday.
Danny Welbeck looks like he’s going to be out for a few weeks after just returning from his hip injury only to pull a hamstring at Watford, and Mustafi is now out for around six weeks so we really need to have some players back.
Francis Coquelin is back in full training and while not being one of our best players he’ll be a useful and welcome addition for either the Red Star game on Thursday or the Everton game on Sunday.
Alexis Sanchez, Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil were all dropped on Saturday evening for the Watford game, Ozil the only player to make the bench, missing an early chance to make the game 2-0 and bearing the brunt of many Arsenal fans’ disappointment at a miserable night.
Two players who didn’t feature at all were Alexis Sanchez and Aaron Ramsey both who had played twice for their countries the previous week. Chile and Wales both missed out on World Cup qualification during the week and Sanchez has been traveling to and from South America.
Still not sure why Ramsey wasn’t featured, surely not a psychological thing just because Wales missed out? Georgia away and a game in Cardiff on the Monday isn’t quite the same as Sanchez’s global exploits. Ramsey did seem to get it in the neck as the scapegoat for Wales not winning the game, so perhaps his head’s gone, poor from the Welshman if that is the case and even poorer from Wenger to let him sit out.
Anyway, who knows, it’s all been very quiet on that score.
Lets hope we can get these three fully back for the Everton game with Ozil, Sanchez and Lacazette firing we’d be more than a match for Everton if they can get some confidence back.
Koscielny needs to be wrapped in cotton wool and bubble wrap this week as we badly need an away win to stop the rot and Everton seems like a Goodison place to start as any.
Red Star away is on Thursday evening, kicking off at 6pm UK time on BT Sport, while Everton kicks off less than 3 days later, 1:30 KO, live on Sky Sports on Super soaraway Sunday.