Wenger: Ramsey and Arteta out for Chelsea match

Arsenal look like they will be without two key pieces in midfield next week against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. It was already going to be a hugely challenging match at the site of last year's 6-0 humiliation, given Arsenal's weakness against counterattacks and Chelsea's love of, well, counterattacks, but injuries sustained by Aaron Ramsey and Mikel Arteta today have just made the challenge even huger...er:

Wenger: "Wilshere I don't know. Arteta and Ramsey will probably be out for Chelsea" #AFCvTHFC

— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) September 27, 2014

Yeah. That's um...not great.

Assuming Wenger rolls out his trusty 4-1-4-1 formation again at the Bridge, one will most likely see Mathieu Flamini holding in front of the back four, and based on today's less-than-scrumptious performance, that might be cause for concern. (He wasn't helped by Szczesny's distribution on Spurs' goal, but, also, generally, he's um...yeah, sub-optimal). Then again, maybe Wenger will deploy Abou Diaby alongside Flamini to help out, which could be fun!

There's also the small matter of the mid-week clash against Galatasaray at the Emirates on Wednesday. Perhaps Diaby will get some warmup time during that match, especially if it's going Arsenal's way.