The pair were injured in the early stages of Arsenal’s mid-week 3-0 League Cup defeat at Sheffield Wednesday, with Oxlade-Chamberlain sustaining a hamstring injury and Walcott, his replacement, picking up a calf problem.
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To really show how their form is varying, they went from beating Bayern, who are first in Germany’s Bundesliga, to losing 3-0 to Sheffield Wednesday in the League Cup, a team playing in England’s second division.
Wenger hopes Arsenal can avoid an injury crisis, with key games against Swansea City and bitter city rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League and the Champions League match against Bayern Munich.
The Frenchman though will not choose to keep players at the club over sending them out on loan at the start of the season, as he feels it is better for their development that they get regular first team football elsewhere, according to the club’s website.
“We had a game plan; we played 4-5-1, sat back a bit deeper and waited for them to come at us”. “We lost two players and after that I had Gabriel and Nacho Monreal on the bench but I couldn’t bring them on because I couldn’t afford to lose any more players”.
With this injury, Walcott joins a long list of walking wounded, at the Gunners’ camp, with the likes of Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Alex Olxade-Chamberlain, Danny Welbeck, Mikel Arteta, David Ospina, and Tomas Rosicky already out with injuries. “We are short now with these injuries”. “But we have to manage the workload of the players”. We lost the two players and after that were not good enough.
It should be noted that youngsters Iwobi, Glen Kamara, Christian Bielik and Ismael Bennacer all made their debut with the senior squad.
If Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott are out, Wenger could decide to move Santi Cazorla forward into a right-sided midfield role, bringing Mathieu Flaimini into his position in the middle. Santi can play there as well but he has become very important centrally.
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With the Gunners the only club in Europe’s five major leagues not to buy an outfield player during the summer transfer window, injuries have the potential to define Arsenal’s season and inhibit their chances of winning the Premier League in 2015-16.
