Gunner Since Time Began - born to moan
04-10-2014, 04:40 PM
Arsenal are facing a mounting injury crisis ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final against Wigan with as many as 11 players potentially unavailable.
Arsene Wenger confirmed today that Kieran Gibbs, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Tomas Rosicky are all “at the moment unavailable” but he will give the trio as much time as possible to prove their fitness.
It is understood that Oxlade-Chamberlain has the best chance of recovery from what is believed to be a slight groin problem but Rosicky, who has a thigh injury, and Gibbs are major doubts to face the Championship club.
Arsenal are already without Mathieu Flamini through suspension, while Laurent Koscielny and Mesut Ozil are also sidelined but set to return next week from calf and hamstring problems respectively.
Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott, Abou Diaby, Serge Gnabry and Nicklas Bendtner remain injured but Wenger was at least boosted by the news that Aaron Ramsey is in line for his first start since Boxing Day following a second-half cameo in last weekend’s defeat at Everton.
That performance was the latest in a series of chastening defeats for Arsenal and Wenger admits his biggest task is to rebuild his players’ self-belief.
“We know that we didn’t turn up with a performance that we wanted and therefore after the huge disappointment analysed what didn’t go right and where we want to improve and as I told you after the game we want to go back to basics,” said the Arsenal boss.
“First of all as a team we have to defend better and that of course was not right from the Everton game.
“For us what is very important is to win the semi-final and it’s important we focus on that. After that we play against an opponent that has done well in this competition. They have beaten Man City away so we want to focus on that and make sure we can go through. We highly respect Wigan for what they have done and the best way to go to the final is to do that.”
“This season we lost key players at important moments but we have to just to focus on finishing as well as we can. We are in a position where we can still do very well until the end of the season, that is what we want.
“It is not about next season, it is about this season.”
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Arsene Wenger confirmed today that Kieran Gibbs, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Tomas Rosicky are all “at the moment unavailable” but he will give the trio as much time as possible to prove their fitness.
It is understood that Oxlade-Chamberlain has the best chance of recovery from what is believed to be a slight groin problem but Rosicky, who has a thigh injury, and Gibbs are major doubts to face the Championship club.
Arsenal are already without Mathieu Flamini through suspension, while Laurent Koscielny and Mesut Ozil are also sidelined but set to return next week from calf and hamstring problems respectively.
Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott, Abou Diaby, Serge Gnabry and Nicklas Bendtner remain injured but Wenger was at least boosted by the news that Aaron Ramsey is in line for his first start since Boxing Day following a second-half cameo in last weekend’s defeat at Everton.
That performance was the latest in a series of chastening defeats for Arsenal and Wenger admits his biggest task is to rebuild his players’ self-belief.
“We know that we didn’t turn up with a performance that we wanted and therefore after the huge disappointment analysed what didn’t go right and where we want to improve and as I told you after the game we want to go back to basics,” said the Arsenal boss.
“First of all as a team we have to defend better and that of course was not right from the Everton game.
“For us what is very important is to win the semi-final and it’s important we focus on that. After that we play against an opponent that has done well in this competition. They have beaten Man City away so we want to focus on that and make sure we can go through. We highly respect Wigan for what they have done and the best way to go to the final is to do that.”
“This season we lost key players at important moments but we have to just to focus on finishing as well as we can. We are in a position where we can still do very well until the end of the season, that is what we want.
“It is not about next season, it is about this season.”
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