Rapid Vienna v Arsenal. Everyone’s guess at the team, and the injury horror list.

By Bulldog Drummond

Arsenal are right up at the top of the injury table, and once again I must report that we have spied no articles explaining how Arsenal being top of the injury list (which they occasionally were) was always the fault of Mr Wenger, when here we are again, at the top.   Is it now all the fault of Mr Arteta?  Is he making all the same “mistakes” that Mr Wenger made?   We await more information from the anti-Wengerians.

These figures come from Physioroom.

• Arsenal: 7
• Crystal Palace: 7
• Everton: 7
• Liverpool: 7
• Manchester United: 7
• Brighton and Hove Albion: 6
• Leeds United: 6
• Manchester City: 6

At  the bottom of the league Chelsea, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton Wanderers all have one injury each.

Here is the list of injuries

Player	Reason	Further Detail	Potential Return	Condition	Status
Calum Chambers	Knee Injury	Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury – ACL Injury	03/12/2020	None	Ruled Out
Rob Holding	Thigh Injury	Hamstring Strain	21/11/2020	None	Ruled Out
Pablo Mari Villar	Ankle/Foot Injury	Ankle Surgery	21/11/2020	None	Ruled Out
Dani Ceballos	Ankle/Foot Injury	Bruised Ankle	25/10/2020	Currently Being Assessed	75%
Willian Borges Da Silva	Calf/Shin/Heel Injury	Calf Injury	25/10/2020	Currently Being Assessed	50%
Shkodran Mustafi	Thigh Injury	Hamstring Surgery	22/10/2020	Late Fitness Test	75%
Gabriel Martinelli	Knee Injury	Meniscus Tear		None	Ruled Out

However this is the Europa League so youngsters could be the order of the day.

Rapid Vienna are likely to be the most troublesome team in the group for us, so the manager might be persuaded to put out some first team players and leave the under 21s until a bit later when we play Molde and Dundalk.

 

TBR team selection…

Runarsson

Gabriel Luiz Kolasinac

Cedric Elneny Partey Maitland-Niles

Pepe Lacazette Nelson

 

Sports Mole give us…

Runarsson;

Luiz, Gabriel, Kolasinac;

Cedric, Elneny, Partey, Maitland-Niles;

Willock, Nketiah, Nelson

 

The Evening Standard offer us…

Leno;

Luiz, Gabriel, Kolasinac;

Cedric, Partey, Elneny, Maitland-Niles;

Nelson, Nketiah, Saka.

 

While the Express go with one change and one positional adjustment from the Standard…

Leno;

Luiz, Gabriel, Kolasinac;

Bellerin, Elneny, Partey, Maitland-Niles;

Nelson, Nketiah, Saka.

The BBC offer us their usual roundup and tell us that Shkodran Mustafi is available for selection for the first time since suffering a serious hamstring injury on 18 July.  “Mustafi required surgery after the injury during the closing stages of his side’s FA Cup semi-final victory over Manchester City.”  The physioroom.com list has him as 75% available.  One and a half legs I guess.

Oh and they tell us that “Mikel Arteta said he is taking the Europa League seriously,” quoting him as saying, “We are very excited to be playing back in Europe again after a difficult season where we had to earn our right to play here through winning the FA Cup.  It’s a big bonus for us. We want to make the best out of it and every competition that we are involved in. Our aim is to try to win it.”

So here we go with the fourth year in the Europa League, having reached one final, one semi-final and a last 32.    And I can’t even give you a list of previous games against this team since I don’t think we have ever played them before.

But there is a bit about Bukayo Saka, again from the BBC.  He “was directly involved in more goals in the Europa League last season than any other Arsenal player, registering two goals and five assists in six appearances.”

They also say, “This is Rapid Vienna’s eighth Europa League campaign, reaching the knockout stages on two occasions previously – 2015-16 and 2018-19.”

So that’s it.  More after the game.

• Rapid Wien v Arsenal: All I’ve managed to find out, and maybe what you need to know