We seem to cry a lot about injuries at Arsenal but the latest revelation has left me shocked! How could Arsenal sign Mikel Arteta without giving him a medical? No wonder we have injury problems, what is to say that we have not given players medicals in the past before we signed them?

To Arteta’s defence, there was not enough time to have the medical as the transfer window was about to close and the player himself has now said that and injury problems he faces at Arsenal will be on his account. But still… We know that Arteta has been plagued by injuries during his time at Everton and we go ahead and sign him by taking his word that his is fit and not giving him a full and proper medical.

Arteta said, “It was very stressful. At 6pm, they said everything had broken down. Then, at 8.30pm, everything started again.

“But there wasn’t time to have a medical. I went to the offices of the club [Everton] and from there I told Arsenal to trust me and that if some medical problem was found it would be my responsibility.”

As if things could not get any worse for Arsenal following the departures of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri, we are now hearing that Jack Wilshere is going to be out injured for a further 3 weeks. This is not good news at all for Arsenal as we have critical games coming up, starting with tonights tie against Udinese and then a trip to Manchester United on Sunday.

Wilshere will also not be available for England due to this injury. Wenger who said: “No chance he will be fit for England.

“It’s not ideal for us on the day we sell (Samir) Nasri.

“I don’t know if we are back to square one or for how long he will be out.

“He’s in a (protective) boot again, so that means he will at least be out for two or three weeks.”

Wenger added: “He had a setback. It’s a hotspot on the bone of his ankle that if you continue to play, it can lead to a stress fracture. So we had to stop him.

“He felt the first sign in the second half of the game against Switzerland.

“After that, during the holidays, it was all right and then his pain increased when we were on tour in Asia.

“We had two good test days on Friday and Saturday.

“Yesterday morning, we had a test with the squad and he felt it again.”

I guess this just means Wenger now HAS to go out and sign a new midfielder or two as we have now lost our first-choice midfield of Wilshere, Nasri and Fabregas.

The bad news for Arsenal is set to continue, this time on the injury front. Jack Wilshere looks set to miss Arsenal’s three next matches which are vitally important. Wilshere continues to suffer from an ankle injury he picked up in pre-season. The next three games for Arsenal are against Liverpool, Udinese and Manchester United: matches that could easily shape the rest of our season at this early stage.

Coupled with that, we will also be missing Gervinho and Song for the matches against Liverpool and Manchester United as they are suspended.

With Fabregas now gone and Nasri set to leave very soon, it will be up to Wilshere to drive our midfield forward, but if he continues to sit on the sidelines due to injury then we are going to struggle.

Wenger needs to go make some new signing soon for our central midfield. Who would you like him to sign?

Finally, we can get down to some real football now and forget about all the Fabregas and Nasri stories. We have our first game of the season on Saturday against Newcastle and there is some good new coming out of the treatment table in terms of injured players.

Wenger says:
“Van Persie and Gibbs should be available. They have a test today [Friday].”

“Walcott will be back in the squad and so will Vermaelen.”

But we will be without Wilshere and Diaby.

Wenger also said that both Fabregas and Nasri will not be in the squad to play Newcastle and this is because they are not fit enough to play! I wonder how true that is!

After the disappointing last minute Wigan goal, causing us to loose 2 valuable points, this game against Birmingham really could be the make or break of our season. A loss, and all the other teams around us winning, would put us back down to 4th, level on points with Tottenham. We’d be 5 points behind ManU who would also have a game to play, so potentially 8 points off the top, 5 points behind Man Shitty in 2nd spot, with us having a game in hand, and 1 point behind Chelsea. However despite all this the most worrying thing is that Spurs would be equal on points with us, and considering we have a crucial game against Man City on Wednesday, while they only play Everton, we could find ourselves three points behind them! How bad would that be..

On to the team news and Diaby has been ruled out for a few weeks with a calf injury suffered against Wigan, which got him subbed off early on. A massive blow for the player as he literally just returned from injury to play a cameo against chelsea, and got a start against wigan, yet is now injured again. I’m starting to question if we should really keep Diaby anymore as he is always injured, and even when he does play his performances are very inconsistent. One game he can win the game for us, while the next he can cost us the game.

The only other real news is that Fabregas will be able to play after missing the Wigan game due to suspension. Big boost for the team, and its very unfortunate he missed the Wigan game looking back, we lacked the flair he brings along with him. I would be very surprised if Wenger didn’t play the majority of the team that started against Chelsea, because if you look back at our record against Birmingham away we havent won there in recent years, drawing 2-2 with Eduardo breaking his leg, and then 1-1 after Almunia cocked up for their last minute goal. I dont even what to think what will happen if Koscielny and Squillaci both start with the other players that started vs Wigan. We really must win this game and show we can put the poor Wigan display behind us, because if we don’t we can kiss our title hopes goodbye. If you had looked at Chelsea, Wigan and Birmingham most of us would have taken 7 points out of them 3 games, and we can still do this. Just a shame we couldn’t pick up the other 2. A win tomorrow and then victory over Man Shitty could kickstart our season, putting us up nearer to the top with more breathing space behind.

Birmingham have a very good home record, and in the last two games played at St Andrews they have managed to take 4 points away from us. I doubt they will be scared of us, and they will defiantly try to exploit us being weak at set pieces. They are a very physical and large team, so we MUST be able to defend corners and freekicks. I can see both teams scoring, lets just hope we can get more than 1, and only let in 1 at the max.

The strongest line up would be: Fabianski, Sagna, Djourou, Squillaci, Clichy, Wilshere, Song, Fabregas, Nasri, Theo, RVP. However im sure there will be some surprises, maybe Arsh over Theo cos of his assist and goal, and maybe Denilson instead of Wilshere to give the young lad a rest. I would also assume it will be Koscielny and either Squillaci or Djourou as the 2 cb’s…

Predicted Score: 3-1 Arsenal: Fabregas Song and Nasri to score.

Other Scores Looking like this, and forming the Table:

Lets hope Fulham , Villa, West Brom and Blackpool can pull of good results! A bit too much to ask for but ill try my luck.

Come on the Arsenal..

The time has come for shawcross to come to the Emirates. Lets hope he enjoys his 90 odd minutes here as much as Ramsey enjoyed his broken leg. Not to suggest we should be dirty on him , but to be blunt, we should. But to smash in 3 or more goals past him would be just as a good punishment for him, as well as a good bit of abuse from the home fans to round off his attendance. A win tomorrow would put us back on top of the league, so it really is a must win game. Lets do it for Aaron.

Team News: It seems Schezeny will start from a source on the official website, which suggests Fabianski is either injured, or his future is dodgy. More likely the first. Hopefully Djourou starts ahead of Koscielny, but  the defence will be the same as ManUtd. Fabregas will probably start with Song and Wilshere holding, Nasri on the left and Arshavin on the right. Maybe give Theo a game, but wouldnt be suprised if he was on the bench again. Or even try RVP (instead of Arsh) just behind Chamakh.

Prediction 3-0 Arsenal. Come on the reds, lets beat these cunts.

A good win against Wigan last night saw the end of our so called bogy month over. With loses against Shaktar, Newcastle, Spuds and Braga most of us couldn’t wait for December to begin. However despite all the losses we are (somehow) only 2points off topspot, in the carling cup semi final, we have a good draw in the FA cup and we still have a good chance of going through in Europe. It seems at the moment that the season may be a good one for us, and surely we must be able to win the league cup now- with Man U out and no very challenging teams left. We dont want to be complacent, as we’ve shown before but anything other than winning it would be a disaster!

Mr Wenger seems to be playing down our chances and telling the team to stay focused on the game ahead (Fulham at home). He also says that a lot of work is still needed to win the Carling Cup, and although its not on his priority list the team still wants to win it. This is what he said in his post match interview :

“You have seen it in the Premier League, and tonight with West Ham, it can happen to Manchester United, to Chelsea and to us this season”

“We have to accept there are no guarantees, even if we are in the semi-finals, that we will win the trophy. You have to fight in every single game to win.”

“The supporters always want more, which is completely natural.”

“You cannot say that  is not important, but we should also not make obsession of that.”

We want to focus on the quality of our performances, and the rest will be the consequences of those performances.”

“The major trophies are the Champions League and the championship, but if we can win this as well, we will take it.”

“We want to win trophies and be at the top, but you can only do as well as you can.”

“At the moment, we are at the end of November and are in quite a good position in all of the competitions.”

When asked about RVP’s performance Wenger said:

“Robin showed his class, and still needs games because he has been out for a long time”

“It was positive he played for 70 minutes tonight and let’s hope he has no reaction, then he will become stronger and stronger.”

“It is impossible to say at the moment,” he said. “It is not a big injury, but we have to wait. In the next three days, we will know more.”

In other news Real Zaragoza, Celta Vigo, Salamanca and Osasuna as well as Swansea city are all linked with Carlos Vela. I feel sorry for the guy, he missed all them good chances last night and will probably not be played a lot because of them. But he needs to be played to get his confidence up and (hopefully) improve his game.

Cesc talked about his injury in the programme notes last night and he wont rush back to into the team. He said that the team played very well without him at Villa and so he believes that we can cope without for a while. However he told of his frustration of being injured and not being at his best this season.

Fancy Colin Lewin’s (Arsenal’s Physio) list of injured Gunns. Eight first team players are out due to injuries of one type or other. One cannot resist seeing big names as Cesc Fabregas, RVP and Rosicky out of that list as soon as possible. Similarly one cannot deny injuries as a neccesary evil. But ever thougt why Arsenal have such a big list of injured well established players? Wenger emphasised that there isn’t anything wrong with the training players observe and he is satisfied with the medical staff. But why Gunners are more vulnerable to injuries? I think there would be something that Arsenal is lacking in terms of physical fitness or physical training. Hope to see all the Gunns fire together.