How will Arsenal cope without Cazorla AND Giroud?

Whilst the majority of news surrounding Arsenal is positive at the moment, I’m afraid following on from our good win against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, there is some bad news to deliver on the injury front. Firstly, though, Lukas Podolski is recovering well and could be in line for a return in early October, whilst vice-captain Mikel Arteta could feature in the Capital One Cup game vs. West Brom. Thomas Vermaelen too made his return for the final few minutes and although he didn’t have a lot to do, he looked up to shape and possibly he could be in line to challenge for his place in the team.

So that was the good injury news and now onto the more concerning news. It was soon revealed by Wenger after the game that key striker Olivier Giroud has picked up a knee injury. This would be especially bad news because the striker area is the one area on the team we seriously lack strength and depth in. If there is no Giroud, we either have Podolski or Walcott as our backup; of course Podolski is also injured, leaving the inconsistent Walcott at the helm who hasn’t scored at all so far this season. Then further down the line we also have Chuba Akpom, who made his league debut for Arsenal yesterday, and possibly Nicklas Bendtner but who knows what the Great Dane’s situation is at Arsenal nowadays.

Wenger said: “That’s my worry today after the game. We are very thin at the moment. [It is] a knee problem. He is the player at the moment that would be very difficult for us [to replace].”

Giroud later tweeted that he was okay, but the real concern in Wenger’s voice suggests that perhaps the Frenchman will have to have more tests later on in the week. Then on to the really bad news that Santi Cazorla will be out of action for around a month after picking up a suspicious injury. Cazorla didn’t come back from international duty with any real problems which can only suggest that it was a training injury for the Spaniard.

Wenger said: “Cazorla has an ankle problem. He will be out for a few weeks as well. I don’t think he will play before the next international break.”

Luckily we now have Mesut Ozil at our helm as our creator and the creation from Santi will not be missed as much as it would have, however I for one was looking forward to the sight of seeing both Cazorla and Ozil linking up with fancy footwork. Guess we will just have to wait a little longer for that moment to come. The left sided position is a problem for Arsenal now, and Wenger may have to give chances to Ryo Miyaichi and Serge Gnabry.