Arsenal have quite miraculously managed to salvage a point from Bournemouth by managing to put the ball in the back of Bournemouth’s net three times in the last 20 minutes with the last goal coming in stoppage time, 90+2 to be precise.
What happened next has somehow managed to cause quite a bit of stir among Arsenal fans, media alike drawing criticism from Pundits and fans all over.
Alexis Sanchez had gone to pick up the ball from the net and had nearly reached the half way line only to find the scorer tap dancing as a form of a celebration aimed at reminding people about his back-heeled stunner against Crystal Palace with 3 and a half minutes remaining of added time.
Usually a justifiable act at having managed to get three back from 3-0 down in the 70th min but not so much when you are 9 points of the top prior to the match and are playing against Bournemouth not Bayern Munich in a game which you are expected to win quite comfortably in the first place.
As Martin Keown puts it:
Someone like Thierry Henry would have picked up the ball straight away and run to put it back on the centre spot.
Something which Alexis did as sort of a reflex action. Kind of shows the difference in aspirations from the two of them in my opinion.
In other news from Wenger’s press conference, the manager has provided the latest fitness update on Francis Coquelin and Santi Cazorla. Coquelin is expected to be out for a duration of three to four weeks ruling him out for most of this month with a hamstring injury which will be precisely assessed after scan results are revealed later on in the day.
Most likely to be a grade 2 hamstring tear he is expected to be out until the 25th of this month at the earliest. Meanwhile, the boss has provided quite a gloomy update on Cazorla ruling him out for this month and most likely the next to saying:
At the moment, he is far [from returning]. It’s not going as quickly as I imagined it, so certainly in January he will not come back
I think once a player goes outside and runs without any problems, you come six weeks. At the moment he has not been out so that’s why I say in January he will certainly not play.
Honestly, it feels like the Annual Arsenal Injury competition is back on with 8 players currently in the treatment room and competing about who can successfully derail the title challenge this year.
Last season it was the absence of Santi, Francis, Sanchez, Arteta, Wilshere, Thomas all at the same time which seemed to have done the trick and this season we’ve been already reduced to just two proper options for the central midfield role in Ramsey and Xhaka with Elneny off to a different continent when we really needed him.
Getting to some pleasant news Wenger has discussed the possibility of our long absent English striker Danny Welbeck making a return in the game against Preston North End saying there’s a possibility he might feature but only from the bench on Saturday. Here’s what he had to say:
I haven’t decided yet, but he could be [in line to play at Preston] – it depends on Lucas a little bit, it also depends on how he feels.
Physically his fitness is at quite a good level, but of course the ideal way is to give him two or three games with the under-23s.
Yes, of course. He will not start the game.
Well, it’s always good news to welcome a player back from injury and more so from such a lengthy layoff as he has had that too two seasons in a row, hopefully, he can produce more match winners like the ones against Leicester and United this season. We could certainly use more of that to turn draws into wins.
Certainly something positive for a start.
