Saturday’s semi-final between Manchester United and Arsenal saw the return of both Antonio Valencia and Aaron Ramsey from their horrific injuries. But after one injury recovery, another injury was inflicted to an Arsenal player. Johan Djourou, who has been great in defence for Arsenal this season, had his arm ripped out of his socket in an awkward collision with Bacary Sagna late on in the match.
The Switzerland international will now miss the rest of the season with a dislocated shoulder, Wenger confirmed:
“We have lost Djourou now for the rest of the season and it will be difficult for us. It is a dislocated shoulder”
Wenger also wasn’t happy with the way in which his team have gone out of three competitions in just a fortnight. The only silverware that Arsenal can now win is the Premier League, which Manchester United currently hold pole position for. Wenger believes it can still be won:
“I believe that we can do it but it’s a good test for us now to show that we can regroup.
“I am very disappointed that we lost three big challenges in a very strange way. One was in the last minute to a goal that came from nowhere [Carling Cup], one was under strange circumstances in Barcelona and now this.We weren’t outplayed but we were punished by a team that was more clinical than us.”
Wenger is in an extremely unfortunate position. He has an incredibly tough job to pick up his players and force them to push for the Premier League title. A few weeks ago, Arsenal fans were tentatively talking about a quadruple, but now, they have just one aim; to win the league. Losing in the late stages of three major competitions in the space of two weeks is crushing for players and teams, and when they come one after the other, it must seem like one blow after the other. Add to that the injury list that has been relentlessly added to over the season, and moral must be pretty low.
The late stages of the season are when teams need all the positivity possible, but positivity is not an element radiating from the Emirates right at this moment.
Tell me what you think!
Submitted by DBSFootball
