Arsenal Injury Woes Continue, Trophy Winning Chances Assessed

When I finished my season preview of our strikers and attacking options yesterday I said that we were told that RVP would probably be out for 10 days after he sustained his ankle injury at Blackburn. Those 10 days were up yesterday and having heard nothing from the club about his situation in the meantime I had hoped that we would receive a report that he had returned to training and would be available to take his place in the squad for Saturday's home game against Bolton.

Of course that was only a hope and realistically I would have been happy to see him return the week after for our trip to Sunderland. However, we were treated to the news yesterday evening that his injury is worse than it was first thought to be and we won't see him again until mid October. Does anyone else believe that we will be lucky to see him playing again before November at the earliest.

After that bad news we had to sit through the night's Euro international matches and hope that all of our players managed to emerge intact. That wish was short lived as Walcott was stretchered off with an ankle injury after only 13 minutes of England's game in Switzerland and we can look forward to doing without his services for a while as well. According to the player he will only be out for two weeks but no doubt by the time our medical staff get hold of him he will have to have his leg amputated.

It's very frustrating for us fans as well as the manager and at this stage in the season the players have played three games for their clubs as well as three games for their country which is quite ridiculous. There's nothing that can be done about the scheduling of international games and all we can do is deal with the carnage after them as usual. Let's just hope that as the players filter back to the club there's no more bad news on the injury front.

It leaves Chamakh as our only fit central striker for the next couple of months probably and we need him to perform well and stay fit or else we will have the sight of possibly Arshavin playing the role like he had to do last season. It also means that we have to draft somebody in on the right hand side for Walcott and I suppose it's going to be between Eboue and Nasri with Diaby probably keeping his central role if Nasri gets the nod.

For this weekend's game I expect Nasri to play no part as he is only just returning to training after the surgery on his knee and we probably won't see him against Braga either but hopefully he can return for the trip to Sunderland. It's going to make beating a resilient Bolton and a very attack minded Braga that bit more difficult but they are two games we have to win.

Season Preview:

As for our chances this season I was going to say that a lot depended on keeping our best players fit for as much of the season as possible but that doesn't look remotely possible at the moment. If we have two or three of them out at a time we can just about muddle through but if it gets to the stage where it was at the end of last season we cannot cope when the team is full of reserves. We need the mainstay of our team to stay fit and it just doesn't look like it will happen yet again.

If we can just about keep most of those players fit I think we will finish in the top three in the league again and if Chelsea and "Manure" struggle like they did last season then there's a possibility of Arsenal actually stepping up and claiming the league title. The worst case scenario is Cesc getting injured too and us struggling to keep our top four place but I can't realistically see Liverpool or the Spuds pushing us all the way with the distractions they have.

In the Champions league I fully expect us to qualify as group winners even with our current injury woes but I think we will get no further than the last eight or the semi finals if we're very lucky. We're not good enough to beat the very best teams in the competition over two legs unless something can change in terms of belief and determination in those games and we can tighten up at the back a lot more.

When it comes to the FA Cup it's a different matter altogether and if we treat it seriously it is there for the taking without a shadow of a doubt. It's a trophy we haven't won since 2005 although it was the last trophy we won and no matter what else happens in the season the fans will be happy if it finishes with a day out in Wembley and a trophy to go with it. I know it's not as glamorous as either the Premier league or the Champions league but at this stage it's a good place to start our campaign to conquer the world.

The Carling Cup is another trophy that would be within our sights but our policy of playing reserve and Youth team players in it over the years has been justified as we regularly produce very good performances and we did reach the final in 2007. It will be interesting to see what teams line up for both Arsenal and the Spuds when they meet in the third round in a couple of weeks but a victory over them with a second string side would be very sweet indeed.

Reserves v Blackburn:

Finally for today the reserves beat Blackburn 4-3 at home last night after coming from 2-0 and 3-2 down. Noteable players in the team were Squillaci, Djourou, Denilson and Fabianski and Blackburn had a strong enough team too. The goals came from Aneke, Afobe(2) and JET and it seems to have been a fairly good game. It can't have done any of those four players any harm to have got their first game of the season under their belts and they should all be available for selection on Saturday if needed. 

Here's a look at what happened when we played Bolton at home last season.

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See You Tomorrow