Arsenal and Wenger will be licking their wounds this morning after a battering at the Britannia stadium yesterday. The Gunners were on the wrong end of a Delap-inspired defeat and also suffered the loss of both Walcott and Adebayor, in addition to having Van Persie red-carded. They now face United next weekend with a string of absentees…
Lets tackle the Van Persie situation first. The “challenge” on Sorensen will be seen as “violent conduct” and will therefore see the Dutchman handed an immediate three match ban, pending an Arsenal appeal.
Wenger could well go to the FA with such an appeal but, based on the success of previous appeals from other clubs and the chance that the ban could be extended if the FA see the appeal as “frivolous”, it seems unlikely.
Van Persie will miss the United game next weekend, the Wigan Carling Cup tie the Tuesday after, and the home Premiership fixture with Villa the following weekend. He will be eligible to return against City.
Having lost one key attacking player for next weekend, Wenger may well have lost two more. Walcott was stretchered off with what appears to be a dislocated shoulder. If that is the case then the Arsenal man will face at least 6-8 weeks on the sidelines.
Adebayor also suffered an series of injuries and although details are currently sketchy on his status, Wenger has described his situation as “very bad”. We await details but can only imagine that he will face at least several weeks sidelined. I’ll keep you posted.
Sagna also picked up a knock and Eboue and Gallas were already missing from the lineup with injuries. No doubt there will be a few more scrapes surfacing from the Emirates in the coming days as they prepare for the Champions League clash with Fenerbahce on Wednesday.
The likely fallout from this array of absentees is that Wenger will be forced to face United, and possibly several opponents beyond that, with a forward line of Bendtner and Vela. The two have combined in previous Carling Cup outings but are obviously inexperienced on the Premiership stage. Diaby is another option – we’ve seen him lineup in an attacking role in the Champions League with good effect a fortnight ago.
Bendtner, Vela and Diaby could well offer some value during this spell of injuries and bans then, although whether fantasy managers should look to invest in Arsenal during this time is another matter. Their morale must be rock-bottom right now having been pegged back by Spurs and bullied by Stoke. Ferguson must surely be looking forward to unleashing Ronaldo and Rooney on a fragile Arsenal defence next weekend and Arsenal’s performance on Wednesday will now act as a key test of their resilience.