Sunday, May 2, 2010

Injury update: [Denilson, Gibbs, Djourou, Arshavin, Almunia, Emerton, Samba]

There is plenty of action in the Barclays Premier League this weekend, unfortunately the Gunners might field yet another depleted squad against 9th spot chasing Rovers at Ewood Park tomorrow.

Almunia, Denilson, Kieran Gibbs, and Johan Djourou won't play tomorrow.
While Arshavin, Samba and Emerton's participation is still probable.

Arsenal's manager Arséne Wenger, has refuted claims he will be fielding youngsters in the final 180 minutes of the campaign: "No we want to win," he declared.
"I will play the team that I think is most efficient and balanced to win the game," le professeur said.

But on further examination, an observer will be stating the obvious if he/she arrives at the conclusion that they might be no change (maybe one) to the squad that scraped a point from their visitors (City) last week, ahead of the team's encounter with Rovers on Monday.

Kieran Gibbs and Johan Djourou according to the official website are now injury-free but they are not fit enough for first team action.

"Denilson (groin injury) is out until the end of the season," the manager said on Thursday during his press conference at Emirates stadium.
The midfielder along with goal keeper Manuel Almunia, missed the Gunners last two games (Wigan and Manchester City).
Manuel Almunia, (wrist injury) might be back in time for Fulham - the Spaniard is out of the Blackburn game.
Guess who's gunner man the posts? He is none other than Fabianski, hopefully the defence will shield him expertly like they did against Manchester City.

"Arshavin has a little chance to be back in the squad," Wenger said.
The Russian striker who is struggling to shrug off the calf injury he sustained in the first leg of the Champions League quarter final against Barcelona said of his injury: "This is a painful issue both for me and the team I play for now," the midfielder told Sport-Express.

"We need to do something to avoid it in the future," he added.
"Something needs to be done about it in general and I talked to all Arsenal people who are responsible for medical care."

Meanwhile, Blackburn Rovers boss Sam Allardyce, believes injuries to key Arsenal players curtailed the efficacy of the Gunners title push: "Whatever level you're at, the fitter you keep your players the better you're going to do.
"Our season has got better but theirs has been wrecked by critical injuries," he maintained.

Big Sam insists he will not rush back Brett Emerton and Chris Samba. The duo are recovering from injury, just like his counterpart (Wenger) Allardyce will only name a side that can cope with the rigours of playing Arsenal:
"I think they are going to be fit," Allardyce told Rovers.co.uk

"However we will have to make sure that they are ready to go back into such a big match, of such tempo and intensity.
"Arsenal are one of the best teams at keeping the ball around and you have to exert a huge amount of energy in trying to stop them. The only way to get a result against them is by disrupting their flow.

"That takes a huge amount of physical effort, so we will assess that and make sure they (Brett and Chris) are okay to last this type of game against a very, very good Arsenal team."