Arsenal: Time for Marouane Chamakh To Step Up As Club's Injury Woes Continue

The news we anticipated came from the club yesterday as the boss confirmed that Walcott will be out for four to six weeks with the ankle injury he sustained on international duty with England. With his history of injuries and recovery times I would think that the estimation is on the positive side and we will be lucky to see him play before mid November.

The boss also said that his return date is roughly the same as that of RVP and I find myself wondering exactly how long we were told RVP would be out for. He has already been out for two weeks so does that mean it's another four to six weeks for him too. Also, are these dates for the players to return to training or to return to playing as if it's only to return to training we can probably add another couple of weeks to them as well. 

To be honest with the two players involved I don't think anybody expects them to return by the dates given unlike Nasri who will actually return a week earlier than expected if he plays on Saturday against Bolton. The boss said that Nasri might play a part in that game but that he will definitely be available to play against Braga at home on Wednesday night in our first Champions league group game. That's some good news on the injury front at least as is the news that Djourou, Denilson and Squillaci will all be available for tomorrow's game and the only thing that might keep them out of the team or squad is not being selected.

With both RVP and Bendtner injured there will be added pressure on Chamakh for the next month or two as he is the only fit player in the squad capable of playing the central striker's role. If anything were to happen to Chamakh our options would be very limited as they were when we had all of our strikers injured last season and Arshavin had to play as a central striker. Personally I think that JET should be given a chance if that happens as although it's not his natural position I think he could still do a job there and he certainly has an eye for goal. I would be surprised if he does get a chance in those circumstances but surely it's in times of crisis that young players like him get their chance and often take it too.

Other News:

There's still not a lot of other Arsenal news around so far today but I'm sure that will change after the manager's press conference later on as he gives his views on anything and everything and freely answers the questions of the assembled media unlike some other managers who will only speak to certain media outlets and even then they will only answer pre arranged questions.

We are lucky to have a manager who is so open, frank and available and despite his flaws I definitely wouldn't swap him for any other manager in the league or the World for that matter. He may be stubborn, blind to some of our weaknesses at times and unwilling to spend the money that we supposedly have available but he is the man who took our club to where it is now as the third wealthiest football club in the world and as a constant one of the top eight seeds for the Champions league for which we have qualified for 13 or 14 years in a row.

Predictions and Fantasy Football:

I'll be attempting to improve my record with my Premier league predictions later tonight when I make my predictions for week four. As with previous weeks I would appreciate any feedback on my predictions and anyone who feels they can do better feel free to give me your predictions.  Obviously with the return of Premier league football tomorrow we will also have the return of fantasy football and if you have a team don't forget to make any changes that are required. The league I'm running in conjunction with 11Gunners now has 685 teams in it and 15 more are waiting to be added this week. The league is ranked 92nd overall out of over 200,000 leagues which is no mean feat. Here's a look at how the top 10 in the league looks but you won't see my team there as it's 296th position.

1	Bles FC	Ben Sloane	63	226
2	Leave-Ma-Arcelona	Gurdeep Jugpal	70	225
3	DUO's Gunnerz	David Okere	63	223
4	Ezekiel 25:17	Tim black	61	221
5	Double F Utd	Warren Ffolkes	55	220
6	Mercenary Wanderers	david rose	59	218
7	Gunners	James Monahan	57	218
8	Bishops	Ade Adebangbe	53	215
9	MahindraUtd	Ankeet Mahindrakar	57	215
10	IstoKakoLani	Goran Mladenovski	68	214

See You Tomorrow.