By Bulldog Drummond
There is a lot of chit chat about Arsenal having huge numbers of players back from injury and ready for the Newcastle game, but whenever such stories appear the reality always seems to be somewhat less exciting than that predicted by some of the blogs.
Here’s the data from physioroom…
| Player | Reason | Further Detail | Potential Return | Status |
| Calum Chambers | Knee Injury | Jan 02: “Further to the injury sustained during the match vs Chelsea, we can confirm that Calum ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament of his left knee.” | 29/08/2020 | Ruled Out |
| Kieran Tierney | Shoulder Injury | Feb 14: “Good progress being made in rehab process and has commenced participation in group training sessions. Aiming to be in back in full training by the end of Feb.” | 07/03/2020 | Ruled Out |
| Cedric Soares | Knee Injury | Feb 14: “Progressing well with gym work. Aiming to be in full training by the end of February.” | 02/03/2020 | Ruled Out |
| Pablo Mari Villar | Other | Feb 14: “In full training following transfer from Brazilian pre-season. Aiming to be available for selection for Olympiacos.” | 20/02/2020 | 75% |
So that shows us as having Saka, Kolasinac and Nelson available. Villar is a few days away and Soares and Tierney will be with us in March.
Newcastle, however, have one of the longest injury lists I have ever seen. But closer inspection suggests that Joelinton Apolinario de Lira, Miguel Almiron, Yoshinori Muto and Dwight Gayle should all be fit although the last two might not be match fit.
That leaves the following list of Newcastle players completely out of action, although there is a hint that Shelvey could be ok.
| Player | Reason | Further Detail | Potential Return |
| Emil Krafth | Ankle/Foot Injury | Jan 24: “Krafth is going to miss the next six weeks. He battled on the other night but it was a bad challenge on him. He’s done his ankle ligaments.” | 07/03/2020 |
| Andy Carroll | Groin/Hip/Pelvic Injury | Feb 14: “Hopefully he will be ready in a couple of weeks or whenever it will be. We’re not putting a time scale on it. It’s just the way it is.” | 03/03/2020 |
| Javi Manquillo | Thigh Injury | Jan 20: “Manquillo is still not right. Out of them all who hurt themselves [vs Leicester], he was the worst. He was going to be four, five, six weeks.” | 29/02/2020 |
| Jonjo Shelvey | Thigh Injury | Feb 14: “Shelvey is still out unfortunately but we don’t think he’s going to be too long. Maybe another week.” | 22/02/2020 |
| Jack Colback | Knee Injury | Jan 03: “He trained and slipped and fell and damaged his medial ligament in his knee a week ago. He is in a brace for the next six to eight weeks.” | No Return Date |
| Paul Dummett | Thigh Injury | Jan 20: “It looks as if he’ll be out for the rest of the season with a tendon injury in his leg.” | No Return Date |
| Jetro Willems | Knee Injury | Jan 20: “He’s ruptured his ACL and will miss, obviously, the rest of the season. He’s been a very decent player for us and we’ll miss him.” | No Return Date |
Meanwhile returning to our look at recent matches from this morning’s post, and ignoring any home/away differences we have only had one defeat in our last ten – it is as ever the draws that are dragging us down.
| Date | Game | Res |
Score | Competition |
| 21 Dec 2019 | Everton v Arsenal | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 26 Dec 2019 | AFC Bournemouth v Arsenal | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 29 Dec 2019 | Arsenal v Chelsea | L | 1-2 | Premier League |
| 01 Jan 2020 | Arsenal v Manchester United | W | 2-0 | Premier League |
| 06 Jan 2020 | Arsenal v Leeds United | W | 1-0 | FA Cup |
| 11 Jan 2020 | Crystal Palace v Arsenal | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 18 Jan 2020 | Arsenal v Sheffield United | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 21 Jan 2020 | Chelsea v Arsenal | D | 2-2 | Premier League |
| 27 Jan 2020 | AFC Bournemouth v Arsenal | W | 1-2 | FA Cup |
| 02 Feb 2020 | Burnley v Arsenal | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
What would be nice would be to see a way of breaking through this two-goal barrier that we now have.
The last time we got more than two was in the 3-1 win over West Ham at the TaxPayers’ Stadium. Other than that I think the only time we’ve got three in the PL was in the 3-2 win over Villa. The last time we actually got three in any game was Arsenal v Vitória Guimarães in the Europa back in October. This game would be a good one to get the goals running again.
Interesting comments By Arteta today, but stating the obvious really, that we have fallen a long way behind those we would wish to compete with, he says it will take time, patience, and a lot of good decisions to get where he wants the team to be.
And the Newcastle game would be a good way to start the teams fight back in terms of winning games at least.
But expecting Newcastle to defend, tactically foul, time waste where they can, and fully take advantage of whatever it is with the PGMOL when Arsenal play
OT: Arsenal History
Brinkwire has a story about Craig Whyte, which mentions a little about the shares that Rangers held in Arsenal.
https://en.brinkwire.com/news/craig-whyte-on-what-happened-to-the-arsenal-shares/