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Boost For Arsenal As Newcastle Will Be Without At Least 11 Players

By on December 11, 2014

If you thought Arsenal’s injury list was bad, wait until you see Newcastle’s!

The Geordies head to the Emirates on Saturday’s evening for this weekend’s big Premier League clash and Alan Pardew will be without at least 11 players.

The Newcastle boss confirmed at his press conference on Thursday that goalkeeper Rob Elliott has been ruled out for up to six games with a thigh injury so with Tim Krul also out injured, third-choice Jak Alnwick will start in goal.

The youngster came on during the closing stages against Chelsea last week and despite a nervous start, he made a few decent saves, so no doubt he’ll be out to impress this weekend.

Pardew also confirmed that Davide Santon won’t be rushed back despite returning to training so he’ll join Ryan Taylor, Rolando Aarons, Gabriel Obertan, Siem De Jong, Mehdi Abeid and Curtis Good in missing the game through injury.

With Moussa Sissoko and Steven Taylor also unavailable through suspension, that makes 11 players unavailable. Fabricio Coloccini is facing a late fitness test, so things could get even worse for the Magpies.

Obviously Arsenal players are no strangers to the treatment room themselves as we’ve regularly had to make-do without as many as 10 first team players at times this season, so I must say it makes a nice change for the shoe to be on the other foot.

That’s not to say we don’t also have our injury worries for this weekend. As it stands, we have 7 players unavailable. Laurent Koscielny, Nacho Monreal, Mikel Arteta, Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere and Mesut Ozil are all out while Calum Chambers is suspended.

When looking at the two sets of players out this weekend, although Newcastle have it worse in terms of numbers, it must be said that we’re still the team who’ll feel it the hardest.

Of the 11 Newcastle players out, only 4 (S. Taylor, Sissoko, Santon and Krul) could be considered as first choice regulars. For Arsenal, we’ve arguably got 5 missing (Kos, Arteta, Wilshere, Walcott and Ozil). That’s depending on what you think our first eleven is….unfortunately we haven’t had a chance to pick it in about five years!

So although Newcastle come to the capital boasting the worst injury list on paper, don’t feel too sorry for them as we have plenty to worry about ourselves.