Arsenal's Injury Crisis Has To Ease After the International Break

With the defeat against Chelsea on Sunday now just a distant memory, it's time to move on and look to the rest of the season for Arsenal. The prognosis on our injured players isn't too bad, as we should see Cesc Fabregas, Robin Van Persie, Theo Walcott, Kieran Gibbs, Nicklas Bendtner and Manuel Almunia back either after the international or within a week or so of the resumption of real football. The only players that aren't listed there are Thomas Vermaelen, Aaron Ramsey and Emmanuel Frimpong and the returns of the three of them are not so sure.

Vermaelen's injury seems to be worse than was thought at first and no definite return date can be given yet. The way our defence is playing at the moment, we need Vermaelen back sooner rather than later, as we have leaked six goals in three games and looked like we could concede even more goals in those games.

Ramsey is reportedly making steady progress and is scheduled to return in November but, as we know from previous experience of players with his injury, it will be quite a while before he gets back to a level that he can compete in the Premier league or Champions league. I sincerely hope that we get to see the promising young talent that was emerging last season bloom into the top class midfielder that he promised to be, but it's anyone's guess whether that will happen or not. Frimpong is a different matter, as he was a player that the boss said might have a chance of making a first team breakthrough this season, but his injury has put that possible breakthrough back by another season. The worrying aspect is that he was seen as possible cover for Song, who is now neglecting some of his defensive duties, but there is no other player at the club to take his place in the team.

I spoke a couple of days ago of Alex Song needing someone on the pitch to remind him of his duties but he obviously didn't have that on Sunday yet again. When you look at all of those players who will return shortly, it makes for a very strong squad and the hope is that the amount of competition will force some players to up their game, as they look to keep their place in the team. The players who are most likely to be in a battle to save their place are Gael Clichy, Sebastien Squillaci, Abu Diaby, Tomas Rosicky and Marouane Chamakh and it would not do any harm for all of those players to give that little bit more for the cause.

I expect to see a few players who are picked at home to Birmingham in 11 days give that little bit extra to convince the boss to keep them in the side. Maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but I don't think it's asking for too much to expect players to fight for their place. We will find out before too long if that is indeed the case.

Fantasy Football Update:

As regular readers will know I have being running a fantasy league in conjunction with 11Gunners and it has proved to be very popular with over 700 players signed up to it already. My own team had a very slow start and were outside top one million overall, but I have since managed a bit of a comeback and this week I broke into the top 200,000 overall and the top 100 of my own league. My target is to make it into the top 50 in my league and at the current rate of progress I'm hoping to do that somewhere in November, if I can keep getting things right. Here's a look at the top ten in our league as it stands at the moment.

1	Leave-Ma-Arcelona	Gurdeep Jugpal	48	433
2	DUO's Gunnerz	David Okere	49	431
3	Finchley Massive	alexander harrison	55	423
4	Laverick 'N' Sons	Stephen Laverick	66	419
5	MahindraUtd	Ankeet Mahindrakar	58	417
6	Half Arse(nal)d	Nick McKeon EasyLuckyFree	70	408
7	Lokomotiv Gav	Gavin Ball	42	407
7	RipRoarinReds	Cole Friedlander	43	407
9	Abba's Horse	Michelle Tilley	40	406
10	GunnerBhoys	Dave Brown	49	406

The league itself is ranked in 85th place out of 210,000 leagues and I have to say that I'm very proud that it's doing so well. That ranking is taken from the average score of the top five teams in the league so I have to thank all of those who are taking part and helping us to do so well. With prizes for the first three teams, there's plenty of incentive for everybody to do well and I hope that the league continues to grow in size all the time. I'll look at what players are proving to be invaluable so far in tomorrow's piece as I look to fill the empty days of the international break.

Other Arsenal News:

There is a little bit of Arsenal news to report today as well, so I'll run through it briefly. First of all I forgot to report that the youth team won 3-2 on Saturday at home to Norwich, with the goals coming from Oldfield Spence-Neita, Rees and Ebecillio. They were 3-0 up but league leaders Norwich fought back to make it a tense finish. Despite not having a great season so far the youth team are now up to third in the league, four points behind Norwich and Crystal Palace. Jack Wilshere has been promoted to the senior England panel for the upcoming games, after originally being selected for the under 21 panel and hopefully he will get a chance to show what he can do. Finally for today former Arsenal great Robert Pires is training at the club at the moment as he is out of contract since leaving Villarreal in the summer.

See You Tomorrow.