Arsenal Injury Plummets Gunners Into Short-Term Defensive Crisis

This is something that could only happen at Arsenal.

A club overly stocked with no less than eight first team centre-backs finds itself in a position where there are only two available for Thursday. Wherever Lady Luck may be she must’ve forgot to stop by Arsenal on her daily route.

While the extent was not previously known, we’re now hearing from the Daily Mail that Rob Holding will be out for up to four weeks with a hamstring problem sustained during the warm-up against Manchester City.

Seven starts in all competitions this season for Holding are testament to the 25-year-old’s hard work and professionalism. When it seemed that Newcastle would become his temporary home just before the Community Shield clash, it felt like the right decision. Fast forward to now and he’s first pick to play alongside Gabriel Magalhaes in whatever defensive structure Mikel Arteta wishes to employ.

It’s a good thing we kept him, right?

But heck, this is Arsenal. No season would be complete without a ludicrous injury scare in any one position. We had it at left-back last season, it’s centre-back now.

With Holding out for potentially four weeks, that leaves Gabriel and David Luiz as the only senior centre-backs for Thursday’s trip to Rapid Vienna. No Shkodran Mustafi, no Calum Chambers, no Pablo Mari, no William Saliba, no Sokratis.

The latter two have been deemed either too early in their careers or too late in their careers to play, while the rest are, you guessed it, on the mend.

Of those listed we’re looking at Mari being closest to returning. Not since mid-June has he played a competitive match, but he’s back in training and will be assessed over the coming days. His rehabilitation just got turned up a few notches.

Yet even if he was magically 100% match fit for Sunday’s clash with Leicester, the best we could hope for is giving Gabriel a rest, since otherwise it’d prompt  a left-footed imbalance. How ironic, having lusted for left footer for so long the concern is now about needing more right footers?

Sead Kolasinac could come in at centre-back – preferably not – or Sokratis could be given a chance in the Premier League – definitely not – but these options won’t do much to lessen the load on Gabriel and Luiz’s shoulders. Great time to play two European matches, Leicester and Manchester United over 11 days.

Under-23s for Europa needed.