So, what some feared has now become reality, Thomas Vermaelen has suffered an injury and has ungone an operation on his Achilles, he’s expected to be out for at least a month.
Forgive me if I am cynical but that’s what we were told last season and we all know what happened then don’t we! His operation took place in Sweden and I hope he stays there too until he’s fully recovered, or goes to Belgium because I seriously sorry about what goes on with our medical people, our players suffer far too many injuries for it to be a coincidence.
We have already lost Jack Wilshere and what looked like a little knock has turned into being a serious injury that will probably keep him out until Christmas…
Reports suggest that the injury to Vermaelen was sustained during the Champions League qualifier against Udinese and no doubt this was the reason for the sudden signing of Pers Mertesacker, well in my opinion if that is true, we should have tried a bit harder for Cahill as now we are back to square one!
Also on the injury list is Theo Walcott, The Independent report that he is struggling to be fit for Englands fixture against Wales with a hamstring problem and will undergo a late test this morning.
Crazy, if this report is true Arsenal should pull him out of the squad this morning and let him rest before Saturday, we pay his wages, not England!
On to some brighter news…
We have some new Dutch talent bubbling under in the guise of midfield duo Kyle Ebecilio and Oguzhan Ozyakup.
Ozyakup is 19 years old later this month and he was on the bench during our last fixture. Suggestion is that he was ready to quit Arsenal in search of first team football but in May this year Wenger offered him that with us, so he signed a new contract.
Ebecilio 17 years old and ready to follow his fellow countryman’s path and has been speaking to afc.com
My first aim is to start every game in the Reserves and score five goals by Christmas, then I would like to join the first team and make my debut in the Carling Cup. I signed my first professional contract in February and that was very important for me. The manager has said I have to keep working hard and that is what I will do.
Now I am modelling my game on Alex Song’s. I like the way Song plays, he has power and strength. He is a strong midfield player, very smart and technically very good. I look up to him.
All I would say to Kyle is – find another midfielder to emulate, if not, just don’t copy the clumsy tackles and silly stamps on Barton. 😉
If either of the two Dutch Players turn out to be as dedicated and loyal as Dennis Bergkamp and RvP, they’ll be half way there….
Enough of the Dutch – here’s a bit of smiling Spanish for you…
Mikel Arteta is just one of a few new signings to join us this summer and to celebrate their arrival Highbury House regular ArsenalDK has shared with us all a cake to celebrate them joining us….
Nice……
Have a good day all….
Morning all, we are in real trouble…TV5 the best player by a mile and now he’s injured
Morning all….
Not good news eh!!
Howdy Erick
Deep trouble indeed and i fear we won’t see TV for a long while, similar injury to last season, just the other foot…
This is the squad Arsenal have submitted to the Premier League:
Homegrown players
Johan Djourou
Kieran Gibbs
Vito Mannone
Alex Song
Theo Walcott
Non-homegrown players:
Manuel Almunia
Andrey Arshavin
Mikel Arteta
Yossi Benayoun
Marouane Chamakh
Abou Diaby
Lukasz Fabianski
Gervinho
Laurent Koscielny
Per Mertesacker
Chu Young Park
Tomas Rosicky
Bacary Sagna
Andre Santos
Sebastien Squillaci
Robin van Persie
Thomas Vermaelen
What the heck is Almunia doing in there 😮
wat abt jack wilshere and ramsey…
Morning Rico add the injuries to suspensions and we are fighting relegation… Think Per was bought because they knew TV5 would be out
Jack and Ramsey are listed as under 21, still scholars…how can Squillaci and Almunia still be at Arsenal, Aw is confused
Thanks for uploading the picture rico!
Not much of it left 😉
How come we always suffer so many injuries? didn’t Wenger say that the new gps system will reduce the amount as they could follow the intensity of the training?
af – they are under 21, don’t have to be named
I do too Erick, but we needed him before any injury, we should have done a bit more to try and get Cahill or samba imho….
Hi ADK, it looks fab, i’m surprised there is any left 😉
The medical team needs to be looked into, something has to be wrong with what they are doing, or the training/diet….
It surprises me so much, that we can have problems such as these, at such a big club as ours..
Don’t tell me Wenger is saving money on the medical staff too 😉
This injury situation is ridiculous….morning all
This is the rest of the squad that can be called upon, apart from those out on loan of course 😉
Benik Afobe
Chuks Aneke
Martin Angha
Zak Ansah
Kyle Bartley
Daniel Boateng
George Brislen-Hall
Francis Coquelin
Craig Eastmond
Kyle Ebecilio
Luke Freeman
Emmanuel Frimpong
Sead Hajrovic
Conor Henderson
Gavin Hoyte
Carl Jenkinson
Henri Lansbury
Damian Martinez
Ignasi Miquel
Ryo
Rhys Murphy
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Oguzhan Ozyakup
Aaron Ramsey
Wojciech Szczesny
Sanchez Watt
Jack Wilshere
Jordan Wynter
Nico Yennaris
ADK, wouldn’t surprise me…
Morning Lee, i don’t think we’ve ever had it so bad…..
Now i think about Rosicky, was it his fault he was out for so long or did our medical team mess up?
And it wouldn’t surprise me about Rosicky rico.
When did (apart from Essien), Chelsea ever had these injuries? Or United? Or any other team for that matter…
hi all
“I seriously sorry about what goes on with our medical people, our players suffer far too many injuries for it to be a coincidence.”
Maybe it’s not coincidence; maybe it has something to do with having smaller players; maybe it is related to us being targeted by thugs; maybe it’s coincidence. I’m getting bored with this finger pointing and questioning our medical team where in reality you don’t know anything about sport medics. Why don’t you just ask for expert opinion instead of pointing the finger. I think it’s better people talk about what they know instead of they don’t know.
Every team seems to have its crock, Rio, Essien, Gerrard… but we have Rosicky, Robin, Gibbs, TV, JD, Diaby…. too many to mention….
Think we are cursed, its hard to be optimistic at the moment
I’m not sure its a curse Erick, i think there is more to it..
Jack’s injury is down to being overplayed last season, and to be fair, TV hardly had a break the season before – was Theo always getting injured when he was at Southhampton?
I don’t think so…..
is Kos back from injury yet?
Why is there no injury news on the afc.com website?
It is now being reported that verm is out for 2 months..
They are rubbish ADK…..
Kos was in the french squad for their first game and should be involved today so guess that means he’s fit – at the moment…
Final internationals are today/tonight so fingers and toes crossed we pick up no further injuries…
Norwegian youngster Havard Nordtveit has lifted the lid on Nicklas Bendtner’s poor attitude at Arsenal, claiming he could never accept criticism of his own performance.
Nicklas Bendtner of Arsenal Moody: Nordtveit wasn’t Bendtner’s biggest fan
Bendtner, who was shipped off to Sunderland on the last day of the transfer window on a season-long loan, insists he’d never consider returning to the Gunners.
But Nordtveit, 21, who joined Borussia Monchengladbach last December after three years at the Emirates, revealed the striker’s attitude to training and his personal performance meant he was always destined to leave north London unhappy.
‘You could not say much to him (about his game) because it doesn’t take much for him not to like you,’ Nordtveit told Danish channel TV2 sport.
‘He has his own way of doing things, but he could have made more of an effort in training when he was at Arsenal.
‘It was disappointing for Bendtner to have so little time on the field in the last half year. But Arsene Wenger always wants to play with his best players and that’s what he did.’
Yeah I read that interview yesterday rico, and it honestly didn’t surprise me to read things like that about bendy…
Nor me ADK, what a fool he is, he’ll never settle anywhere if he can’t be bothered in training….
Steve Bruce will soon kick his butt though…
It is funny how there is no news about TV on afc.com, Sky Sports or the BBC…..
Surely it wouldn’t be false… Would it??
i read on a danish news site that verm is out for about 2 months.. they don’t say what their source is though…
Just seems strange it’s nowhere else but its not denied either…. roll on saturday, i’m fed up with this break now….
It’s not like the medical team go out and injure our players… and it’s too much of a pattern to be just bad luck… surely it has to do with over-playing and over-training. Once again I’m afraid there is only one person to blame for that…
It’s like the whole philosophy of the club, from recruitment to training to wages, is deeply flawed, or rather just doesn’t work in these times.
Jekyll, Wenger tolds us last year i think that the introduction of the gps system would reduce the amount of injuries, because the staff would be able to follow the intensity of the training and thus be able to reduce it, and thereby the reduction of injuries.. But so far, no results..
Look how great he looks in Fly Emirates shirt and I believe he’ll deliver coz he’s a good guy and great futballer. Ebecilio is great young lad and I watched play in U17 World Cup he was superb and he’ll be one of the greatest we have in Arsenal history. Ozy, will have to step up when given opportunity to shine that’s my message for these young lads.
good luch this coming weekend and let’s not worry about injuries.
I read that the GPS system identified that Jack needed a rest, it was ignored and he continued to play…
Jekyll, agree re the overplaying/training… that’s what happens when the squad lacks depth – last seaosn we were stretched to the limit and in the matches that the first team players did get a rest, all that happened is we got a replay….
Then, we had to play some of the rested players to get a result….
Has the youngguns website, stopped working??
Kharadonha
I like the sound of both of them, add to that we have Ofobe, Ryo, Chamberlain all ready to make their mark this season…
And behind them are a few more too…..
Not happy about the TV5 news, the medical staff needs to be sorted out, its a bit silly at this point, joke is over.
On another point, I would like to see Ryo get games this year.
Ryo and Chamberlain for me ESP….
Will be interesting to see how we line up on saturday….
no matter how we line up, we should be able to smash Swansea. A bit like the opening game against Blackpool last year!
I’m not feeling such confidence ADK, going to wait and see how many others we get injured after tonight….
Perhaps I’ve got this all wrong but this morning I’m bloody angry about TV. Not because he’s injured but because the club seemingly kept the extent of his injury and his treatment a secret. There is no commercial or tactical reason that I can think of to excuse this.
This summer the management of our once great club have looked at best inept, but once they start trying to cover their actions to save face they become dishonest and corrupt.
Good moaning all,
I’ll be taking some grapes around to thomas later if anyone wants to sign his get well card.
We needn’t panic we have djourou to step up to the fore, its not as if he’s injury prone is it !
This is like a sick joke.
Steve
imho – the reason they kept it quiet was due to the transfer window… The club know everyone would be on their backs to make two CH signings rather than just the one…
Most of us said we needed two, and that was before this injury….
IF this report is true, yet again we are one injury from being in the mire….
Have we got a call back option on Bartley??
so we are back to square one, the Swansea game does look exciting anymore.
No Gervinho,
No Frimpong
No song and now No Verminator.
Oh adding Walcott to that list just really adds salt to the wound.
What the heck is going on at Arsenal?
I’m sorry Rico but I can’t accept that as an argument. It’s now nearly a week since the window closed and the club are still keeping us in the dark about TV. Everyone knew we needed after a Centre Back. about 5 years before Wenger knew it. We had been sniffing around
all summer and apparently the big German had been sitting at the airport since June.
I’m sorry but a cover-up is a cover-up whatever excuses you come up with afterwards. Incidentally can we now believe Wenger that he did not know the extent of TV’s injury last season, particularly during the January transfer window or are we not allowed to know if the right decisions were taken at the club.
SD, Frimpong is back…
Steve
you don’t have to be sorry, i agree with you, it stinks… my comment was how i think the club saw it…
all summer i and many others have been bleating on about how we needed two ch’s…. before this injury to TV….
wenger knew in january how bad TV’s injury was, he’s admitted it….
Would it be too much to expect just for once, for Arsenal to field it’s strongest eleven.
At this rate it will never happen, hope sagna comes thru unscathed as Jenks is suspended for the swansea game.
Good point Micko, i’d forgotten he’s missing…
another reason to hate international week…
good morning…
Today, there are internacional games… and our players will be tired for next match and for CL drawn…and the injuries again (always the same).
We must have a squad of 30 players!
Hi JM, we have a large squad but not too many of them have too much experience….
Still no confirmation on afc.com about either TV or Theo’s injury….
Lansbury did well again last night for the under 21’s…. Still think we should have kept him this season….
Lansbury can return on January or not ?
I’m not sure JM, it’s a season long loan but hopefully there is a call back option in the deal, same with Kyle Bartley…
By Jan we could be in desperate need for both the way things are going….
Thomas Vermaelen’s father has revealed his son is expected to be out for up to six weeks as he recovers from surgery on an Achilles injury.
The Belgian stopper suffered the injury in the club’s UEFA Champions League play-off match against Udinese last month and it was initially hoped he would not require surgery.
The 25-year-old missed eight months of last season with a similar injury in his right foot and although this injury in his left ankle is not believed to be as serious, he has had to go under the knife.
Arsenal have yet to publicly comment on how long he will be out for but his father estimates up to six weeks after having flown to Sweden on Monday for the operation.
“The doctor in Stockholm, where Thomas was operated on last time too, recognised the problem now,” He told Belgian website Sporza.
“He would not take any chances and immediately operated on Thomas. He expects five to six weeks of unavailability.”
I’m off for a few hours guys, back later though….
@ Rico: I recall saying something earlier this summer along the lines that I would shave my head if we signed 2 or more defenders for over X? million each. There may even have been talk of a Mohawk (or even a reverse Mohawk *ouch*).
It’s been awhile. I don’t remember what conditions I set, but it occurrs to me that Per and Santos probably qualify. I’m really hoping it was 3 quality defenders. With TV5 out for 2months (the whole season?), shaving my head now would sort of defeat the spirit of what I was going for, but I’m not one to wiggle out of a commitment.
Do you happen to recall, or do you have the ability to search past posts of mine?
I want to believe that, the way we play has a major bearing on the number of injuries we sustain at our club. Our players do not kill off games quickly for them to be able to avoid rush tackles. Take for instance Ramsey’s injury. It occurred around the 88th minute mark, when the game was poised at 1-1. Obviously, with the need to win that particular game to stay in contention of the premiership race, the poor boy had to ran into that horrible Shawcross tackle. The other factor has to do with officiating of the English game. Far too many referees are allowing thuggish play in the league for comfort. Some of the tackles we see week in week out, are calculated to end opposing players careers. Take for instance the Barton tackle on Abou Diaby at Newcastle last year. He was not punished by the match referee, but when Diaby retaliated, he was sent off. I am not by any stretch of imagination suggesting that Diaby was right in retaliating the way he did. Folks! in arriving at the root cause of our injury situation, we need a special forum to lament on all the contributing factors. Have a nice day!
ESP, do you want me to send you up some beta blockers ?
Rico, watching the ireland game, i think we bought the wrong arshavin, the one that plays for russia is unrecognizable to the one that plays for us, he’s having a great game, everything goes through him, the second half has just started it’s 0-0, Ireland are really hanging on, its all one way traffic at the moment, I’m hoping for a smash and grab.
Boo – evening all….
Vermaelen has undergone a minor procedure to remove an inflamed plantaris tendon from his left ankle.
This is the same treatment that he had on his right ankle in January this year and has nothing to do with his Achilles tendon.
The action was taken after consultation with specialists who advised this was the best thing to do to prevent it becoming a persistent problem.
Deja Vu??????
Micko – Wenger has ruined Arshavin!
Doc, I thought you said central defenders, so keep your hair on 😉 😉
No Walcott for England tonight…..
All quiet here so I’m off for the day too – catch up soon guys and gals…
Nighty Night….
Frimprong turns down England to play his international football with Ghana.
One must be concerned about our perenial injury woes. Why? Because I can’t recall when we ever lost a match with a full squad. Without even Vermaelen we tore apart Chelsea, Man City(twice) and humbled mighty Barcelona.
How we play might be considered but not when one takes a look at Barcelona. Whatever we do on the pitch, Barcelona doubles in passing, creating chances and missing them!
The huge difference is that you don’t get away with kicking Barca players in Spain but in England, players get away with practically murdering our players! From last season, our players stepped up to sticking in. And what did we get? – the worst displinary record in the League! The same League Stoke, Blackburn, Bermingham, Bolton, Man U, Man City, Chelsea oprate?
Believe me, Wenger works sleeplessly to get the best for Arsenal but the English FA and recently UEFA take delight in attempting to destroy our gaffer’s philosophy and hard works. Take Van Persie’s red card at Camp Nou and the subsequent bans! The recent two-match ban and fine were induced by UEFA’s officials!
It’s like the world against the Arsenal and we should do not to get on ourselves as well. Arsenal is one of the best-run clubs in world football. Such a club wouldn’t hire wrong personnel in any department, and never the all-important medical department. When we had Adams, Keown, Vieira, Campbel and their likes, the treatment table wasn’t as busy. The English game hates technical players. That’s why England would never have a decent national side, whoever they hire as manager. And believe me, Fabregas left the Prem to save his career from premature exit. It’s no secret he’s the most kicked player for past four seasons in the EPL and how many players got punished for that?
Blame the English FA and their referees for excessively hating Wenger’s guts, thereby letting his team get whacked all the time, and not our medical team!
I call on all Gunners – journalists(do we have any?), bloggers(we sure do have plenty) and fans(tons of millions!) – to fight this injustice by the English FA and UEFA, this hatred by the likes of Mourinho, Chelsea fans and the mayor of Barcelona.
Shout on top of your voice at any bad call against us on the pitch or out of it, call perpetrators names where necessary. IMO, Gunners are too laid back – they accept anything and even turn to blame Wenger and our players! The pr**k Joey Barton almost maimed Diaby and got him sent off. Arsenal fans turned on Diaby as the culprit. The same animal manhandled Gervinho, got him sent off. Song, for once reminded the ex-con he wasn’t dealing with babies….Arsenal fans called Song names and even blamed Gervinho for trying to protect himself from blantant assault. Meanwhile, even Newcastle manager defended Barton, absolving the idiot from any wrongdoing!
Again, don’t blame our medical team. EPL refs enjoy seeing Gunners whacked all over the pitch and would give limbs to see us beaten. Tell me one EPL ref that is an exception and I’d believe Adebayor is an Arsenal fan!
New Post up
I am a middle aged Arsenal fan ,now living and coaching in Italy and i am being asked constantly why the referees, newspapers and the media in general are against Arsenal; because in their minds we are a great club with a fine footballing team,(that they love to watch).Of course they support their own Italian teams,but they also watch Barca,Real,Man U and The Gunners.They are also inteligent enough to know that Arsenal try to run the club without getting into major depts and that they give the younger players(my age group) a chance to enter the game.They are told that hard work and practise is the key to success,and not to rely on luck ,fortune or favour unlike many of the so called big teams.I and like many of the guys that i coach would love to see Arsenal pressing in all comps,but i think we have left it a bit late, only making signings that balance the books and not to put a challenge to our existing squad (only my opinion,and i hope i am proved wrong).The new arrivals are good players,and i believe they will play well, but we were the top team in the country once and these new guys would not have been definate starters,but we are now relying on them. I still support my club no matter the situation,but really believe that 2 experienced players in defence another in attack and a leader on and off the pitch could have and should have been made affordable.So with the media and weak officials already on our backs,lets brush them off and support our great historic club ,only one team can win a competition,lets hope thats us