The pair were injured early in their 3-0 League Cup fourth-round loss at Sheffield Wednesday after Walcott replaced Oxlade-Chamberlain only to also suffer a muscular injury.
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The Premier League joint-leaders went down to goals from Ross Wallace, Lucas Joao and Sam Hutchinson, while they also sustained injuries to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott.
Arsène Wenger says that Theo Walcott will be out for a “fraction longer” than the global break with his calf injury, meaning that it could be December before he returns to action.
The duo add to manager Wenger’s worries, with the likes of Danny Welbeck (knee), Jack Wilshere (ankle), David Ospina (shoulder), Mikel Arteta (ankle) and Aaron Ramsey (hamstring) already on the sidelines.
Sterner tests await Arsenal next, with a crucial Champions League trip to Bayern Munich sandwiched between league matches against Swansea and Tottenham in the coming weeks.
“We always have to answer the question of whether it is more than being unlucky when we have injuries, but we analyse every single case and every exercise”. This was certainly not in Wenger’s plan to lose two of his key players in the first half.
The full extent of both problems is yet to be determined, but Wenger confirmed neither man would feature until after the global break.
“Arsenal have a very strong game inside and the full-backs provide the width so what we tried to do was press inside and block the outside with our wingers”.
“He can be a big help for us, and he can play centre-forward – don’t forget that”.
“I have another 24 hours to make that decision”. “We are short now with these injuries”. Asked if he now regretted this, he responded: “No, I said during the transfer period that we would take players who can strengthen our squad, but we did not find them. Ideally we would have loved to win, but with the squad we have got now, we can not keep in all the competitions”.
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A ideal performance may be required against the Swans, who got back to winning ways last time out against Aston Villa.
