Wenger On Monreal & Rosicky Injuries

Arsenal beat Aston Villa 2-1 at Villa Park on Monday night to return to the top of the Premier League table, but the win came at a cost with both Nacho Monreal and Tomas Rosicky forced off with injuries.

Monreal was enjoying a fine game at left-back and set up the opening goal for Jack Wilshere before going down in a heap in the Villa box after a being caught on the foot by Ron Vlaar midway through the second half. The Spaniard got to his feet and played on for the next two minutes but continued to limp and was eventually subbed off for Kieran Gibbs.

Rosicky had only been on the pitch a matter of minutes having replaced Serge Gnabry when he was caught by Gabby Agbonlahor’s elbow square in the face as the two challenged for a high ball.

The Czech midfielder stayed down clutching his face with blood pouring from his nose but unbelievably the referee refused to stop play, despite stopping to take a look at Rosicky in agony on the floor. The 33-year-old’s nose was badly swollen and appeared to have a cut across the bridge, and he was replaced by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for the remaining 10 minutes of the game.

Speaking after the match, boss Arsene Wenger told Arsenal.com that Rosicky’s nose ‘looks bad’ but he’s not sure whether it’s broken or not, while the club will also be checking to see if Monreal has broken his metatarsal after being caught on the top of his foot:

on Rosicky and Monreal…

Rosicky has a bad nose, I don’t know is it broken or not, it looks bad.

on being disappointed with the elbow…

Honestly I didn’t see the elbow, I have to watch it again. He [Tomas Rosicky] told me that he got the elbow but he himself doesn’t know if he did it on purpose. He doesn’t know. I think Monreal is an accident but we have to check his metatarsal tomorrow morning because he got kicked on the top of the laces.

on whether Monreal’s metatarsal might be broken…

I don’t know.

If Rosicky has broken his nose he’s likely to be out for a maximum of two weeks, so we’ll be able to cope with his absence. However, if scans reveal that Monreal has broken his metatarsal he could be out for a couple of months, which would be a huge blow.

Kieran Gibbs is our first choice left-back but Monreal is a more than able deputy and would certainly have contributed during the second half of the season, so let’s hope we hear some good news and he hasn’t broken any bones in his foot.