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Wenger Reveals Double Injury Concern Ahead Of Spurs Clash

By on September 24, 2014

Arsene Wenger has revealed that Kieran Gibbs and Per Mertesacker are struggling with minor knocks ahead of Saturday’s North London Derby against Tottenham.

The duo were only named on the bench for last night’s 2-1 defeat to Southampton in the Capital One Cup with Francis Coquelin and Isaac Hayden selected to start in a very inexperienced back-four.

However, Arsene told Arsenal.com after the match that Gibbs and Mertesacker were unable to feature due to niggling injuries. The BFG was a doubt to face Aston Villa at the weekend because of a gluteus problem and only declared himself fit shortly before kick off, so the boss decided to give him a rest last night.

Thankfully neither injury is thought to be serious and Arsene thinks they’ll be able to start when Spurs come to the Emirates on Saturday evening.

He said:

on whether he felt short defensively…

We are a bit short, yes because of the injuries we have. You sit there and you think Gibbs couldn’t play because of a slight problem, Mertesacker is a bit on the edge and then we have no choice.

on Mertesacker…

Before the last game at Villa he had a little gluteus problem. He declared himself fit but at the moment we are so short that it’s difficult [to play him] with the games he plays. We have to play on Saturday against Tottenham and then an important game on Wednesday against Galatasaray and then we go to Chelsea. To absorb all these games without being rested when you have a little problem is very difficult.

on Gibbs and Mertesacker’s availability for Tottenham…

They will be alright.

Fingers crossed neither injury gets any worse over the next few days as it would be a disaster for either of them to miss the Tottenham game as we have very few options with Matheiu Debuchy and Nacho Monreal already out.

Since the transfer window closed and Arsene failed to bring in another defender, Mertesacker, Debuchy, Koscielny, Gibbs, Monreal and Chambers have ALL missed games due to injury or illness. All six of our senior defenders have been ruled out recently. Not one has managed to stay fit for just three weeks. That’s really worrying.

Obviously Debuchy is out until the New Year and Monreal’s back problem is causing him trouble, and it doesn’t sound like Per is going to be able to play in all the games against Spurs, Galatasaray and Chelsea, so it looks like the youngsters are going to be called upon over the next few weeks.

However, while these injuries are unfortunate, the blame must be placed on Arsene for not bringing in more depth in the summer…..

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