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Arsenal full back Andre Santos out longer than expected

In news that probably surprises nobody, Arsenal left back Andre Santos is going to miss more than the initially-expected three weeks with his ankle injury sustained against Olympiacos:

Wenger: "The bad news we have is that we lost Santos for a while. The ankle injury is more severe than expected. More than three weeks."
Dec 09 via webFavoriteRetweetReply

Given Arsenal's back luck with injuries, perhaps everybody should have expected this.

It was a strategic blunder by Arsène Wenger to play Santos (and Thomas Vermaelen) in a game with absolutely nothing at stake for Arsenal. It's not a matter of "hindsight being 20/20" in this regard; it's a matter of foresight. I back Wenger through almost any storm, but in this case, I think he messed up, plain and simple. He passed up an opportunity to have young players gain valuable experience in Europe and played the team's best center half, who's coming back from a long-term injury, and the team's lone remaining full back. He could have EASILY played Ignasi Miquel, who looked fine against Manchester City the week before, and Nico Yennaris, and not risked a single member of the starting XI beyond Johan Djourou.

Sadly, in this case, Wenger appears to have hoisted himself by his own petard.