Not them.
Given our notorious injury history (except last season, I’ll admit) you would have thought they’d have cover in place in all positions. No, not Arsenal.
Instead, we head to Villa with the real possibility that one or two of our youth team squad members will be sitting on the bench. The same could happen for next weeks Champion’s League tie.
To make matters worse our youth team is terrible right now, having conceded over twenty goals in the last four games. There is not one trustworthy defender in our youth ranks right now.
Why was Ignasi Miquel allowed to go on loan last week when nobody was coming in to take his place? Couldn’t they have waited until they had signed someone … or are they even planning to sign a new defender?
Now we hear that Sagna could miss the game on Saturday, that Arteta needs a scan, and that Cazorla may be too tired. We also know that Ramsey was unable to play for Wales yesterday and that Sanogo and Rosicky didn’t make the trip to Finland last weekend because of various muscular injuries.
In other words, there are not a lot of healthy players left. Watching the England match I’m sure I saw Theo Walcott leave after he may have felt a twinge in his leg. You have to wonder whether Jack Wilshere is at the point where he can play a full 90 minutes, and everyday I pray that Kieran Gibbs stays healthy.
We all know that the squad is short five good players right now, but we definitely need defensive help sooner rather than later.
We knew we’d need new bodies the moment that we sent the last paycheque to Squillaci. We knew when we sent Djourou off on loan
We knew when Vermaelen returned with an injured back.
How galling that Tottenham have their act together. They just signed Etienne Capoue, a player we wanted in January, a player who can play in defence and in midfield. Why did we change our minds about him this summer. Have we found someone better? Luiz Gustavo? Is he coming or is there someone else?
Have we just been focusing on signing a centre forward? Are we concerned that we cannot sign anyone else until we see how much money is left over after buying Suarez or someone special? I don’t know.
The one thing I do know is that we barely have a squad should a couple more players get injured. Wenger, Gazidis and Dick Law need to shore up the defence and midfield quickly or else we may not get the good start to the season we expect.