Arsenal arrived back in England today, not only deflated from a calamitous 2-1 defeat at the hands of Porto, but also it appears, counting the cost of Abou Diaby becoming the most recent name on the Gunner’s injury list.
Arsene Wenger revealed this latest setback in today’s insightful article on Arsenal’s official site…
“We lost Abou Diaby last night [at Porto]…I don’t know how it worked. But he has a medial knee ligament injury. We discovered it today. He came in today and he had pain in his knee…Diaby is zero [percent chance of playing this weekend]”
Diaby has been the subject of much praise after putting in some stirling performances for Arsenal of late, so much so we had our very own “Watchlist” article on him just last week.
His form has helped him garner almost 35,000 new Fantasy Premier League investors this week. This news that he is sidelined (at least) for this weekend, will leave a few managers more than a little peeved.
The Gunners are currently collecting injuries at an alarming rate. So with Diaby out, what of the likes of Gallas, Arshavin, Eduardo and Almunia who all missed the Porto trip through injury? Wenger has also been forthcoming on their prognosis today…
“William Gallas (calf), Andrey Arshavin (hamstring) and Eduardo (hamstring) are still out. The first two of that trio are also likely to miss the trip to Stoke a week on Saturday.”
So we may yet see Arsenal continue with the Campbell and Vermaelen partnership that played against Porto for the next two Premier League fixtures. Arshavin owners meanwhile must surely be looking to abandon a ship that has been stuttering and stalling for pretty much the whole season. So is there a light at the end of the injury tunnel?
“However Song could be available, we have a test tomorrow on him. I don’t know about Almunia, we’ll have a test tomorrow on him too. I’d say Song is 80 per cent to be back in the squad. Almunia 50:50.”
Maybe on a few counts at least, there is. If Song manages to get through said tests it would seem likely he will come right in for the injured Diaby and allow Denilson to push upfield. And after Fabianski’s disastrous error last night there will be many Arsenal fans and owners hoping Almunia also manages to sneak himself back into contention, in a lesser of two evils kind of manner.
With Arsenal’s highly appealing fixture list on the horizon, let us just begin to hope things clear up as soon as possible, as multiple investment in their squad looks like it could be very profitable.