Arsenal: Kieran Gibbs can break Gunners’ hopes once and for all

Arsenal’s upcoming match against Chelsea in the FA Cup final was already dicey defensively, but Kieran Gibbs puts it so far out of reach.

Arsenal’s season hangs on the potential of taking home an FA Cup after beating Manchester City and, hopefully, putting away Chelsea. Hope definitely grew with the 3-4-3’s growing success, as it has shored up the Gunners flaky defense as well as providing more offensive pop than we have been used to seeing from players we never expected.

Related Story: 5 Reasons The 3-4-3 Is Actually Working

But going into the FA Cup final, the news kept getting worse and worse. First, Laurent Koscielny committed a foolish tackle in the match against Everton, earning himself a straight red after just 14 minutes. Then Gabriel blew out his knee and was ruled out for at least six weeks.

Shkodran Mustafi never returned to training after his suspected concussion and that meant that the big, lumbering German, Per Mertesacker, had to deputize, and will continue to have to.

As it stood, the back line made itself, with one of two right wing backs, then a back three of Rob Holding, Per Mertesacker and Nacho Monreal, with Kieran Gibbs out wide.

That just got thrown another sucker punch, as it’s been revealed that Kieran Gibbs has not return to training with a sore thigh.

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Now, I’m no doctor, so far be it from me to try my hand at a diagnosis. But the implications of this sore thigh go beyond precaution. As in, if there is any hope he can play, absolutely any, even if he is a bit wobbly or sore, or the risk of a bigger injury is there, you have to role the dice. Mainly because the thigh is not a part of the body known for having an injury that worsens, like a knee or hamstring can be.

The other option, if you sit him, is you reset all the progress you have made, start a back four, and weather an absolute whooping from a team that has already chewed apart the very defense that we would have to resort to.

There is no middle ground. Not with how many people are missing. I guess you could start Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain opposite Hector Bellerin, which could be ripe with excitement, but it is a huge defensive risk.

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Gibbs has had injuries derail his entire career. Serious injuries and minor injuries alike. But if his absence means that the Gunners have to revert to a four man back line, then there has to be something in the reserve tank that he draws on to get out on that pitch.