It’s never too early for an injury crisis

We all know that Wenger gives players who go deep in summer’s international tournaments an extended break, so their bodies can recover and they can be fresh for the bulk of the Premier League grind. So of course Olivier Giroud and Mesut Özil will be out for the first couple weeks, which isn’t the best thing but also isn’t a huge problem.

What might be a huge problem, though, is the fitness of Alexis Sanchez. In the Copa final, of course, he rolled his ankle - and, Alexis being Alexis, played on for most of the game after. He then tweeted out a picture of his bloaty, swollen ankle afterwards, and we all hoped that he’d rest, recover, and be ready as soon as possible once the season starts. Turns out that may not be the case. Granted, this article has no quotes or attribution, so take it with the usual grains of salt, but still.

This, it turns out, is not great - Danny Welbeck, of course, is out until 2017 with a knee injury, and with Giroud on enforced rest until a couple games in to the season, Theo Walcott is, as of now, Arsenal’s only available forward option. I’m sure this news isn’t greeted at Arsenal with a shrug and a “we’ll make do”, but with Napoli reportedly wanting £80 million for Gonzalo Higuain now, it will be very interesting to see what happens in north London as Arsenal prepare for the season.

This same article says that Wolfsburg might want to cash in on Julian Draxler, who would be a nice option up front, but that’s the only real reference I’ve seen about that, so I’m not sure how much faith I put in that rumor at this point.