Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has revealed that star winger Alexis Sanchez could face a long lay-off following an injury he picked up in their 1-1 draw against Norwich, according to reports from the Mirror.
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The 27-year-old was on Sunday handed his first league start since the opening weekend of the season and is now firmly back in the first-team picture at Carrow Road.
The good news is that Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain made their returns from injury recently so we do have players ready to step-in, but it’s still a huge blow to lose Sanchez and Cazorla for any period of time.
Asked if he may have erred in starting with Sanchez, Wenger told Sky Sports: “You can say that, but at the moment on the striker front we have not much choice because (Theo) Walcott is out, (Danny) Welbeck is out”.
Sanchez was magnificent as the Gunners kept alive their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League knockout phase for a 16th consecutive season, plundering two goals after Mesut Ozil had struck the opener.
The result meant Wenger’s side missed out on the chance to draw level on points with Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table.
Former club Bournemouth had bids rejected as they looked to lure him back to the south coast and, although he ultimately remained a Norwich player, he was rarely given the opportunity to feature.
“I want that against every team, it doesn’t matter if we’re playing Arsenal or anybody else”. We don’t need to worry about [the injuries to Alexis and Koscielny].
It’s all the more disappointing because Arsenal fans would expect to have won at least seven out of the nine points available in those games, if not all nine with the fixtures looking winnable on paper.
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Before Sunday’s game, Thierry Henry said he would have liked to have seen Wenger take Sanchez off when they were 3-0 up against Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday night. “But we are still not far, and going through that spell and still not being far is alright”. “We’d set up to make sure that we limited spaces and tried to hit them on the counter-attack”. I don’t know if he has jaded his knee ligament or he it was just a kick on the nerve but the worrying thing was it got worse during the game.
