Arsène Wenger has defended his handling of Mesut Özil and Laurent Koscielny following the loss through injury of two of Arsenal’s most influential players.
Özil felt a crack in his knee during the 2-0 defeat against Chelsea but was kept on the pitch and sent on international duty with Germany where subsequent scans showed knee ligament damage.
Wenger said that the injury had been mentioned to him at half-time of the Chelsea game – but not the cracking sound – and they had decided that he would keep playing and should closely monitor the situation.
“What happened was that at half-time, just before we went out, the physio told me Ozil has a little pain with his knee, but it is not bad,” said Wenger.
“He wanted to go on and I told him 'if you don't feel well, tell me and I will take you off straight away'. He never did that during the whole game, and after I left him on because we were in a position where we needed to score a goal and he can deliver the final ball.
“With Germany, they thought at the start it was nothing. On Wednesday morning, he said he could still not practice. They sent him for a scan, and in this scan they discovered that he a knee ligament injury which is quite serious. The only positive is that he will get the rest that he had not maybe enough of after the World Cup. He is out for a while now, I think at least six weeks.”
Koscielny is also unavailable for the Hull City match on Saturday after his ongoing Achilles tendon injury flared up on international duty with France. Wenger still hopes to "manage" the injury and does not believe that surgery will be necessary.
With Calum Chambers suspended, it all means that Nacho Monreal will start on Saturday. Monreal is usually the reserve left-back and has never played a competitive game at centre-back. Hector Bellerin or Francis Coquelin will start at right-back. “We have been hit a bit hard with Koscielny coming back and his Achilles being worse,” said Wenger.
“He finds it difficult to play with it at the moment. You can only trust what the players says, he does not feel ready to play and will not play on Saturday. If you wait for it to be better, it can be a short time. If you want to get rid of it completely, it is long term. We will monitor him and as soon as he can take enough pain again he will play. We have scanned him, there is no real deterioration of his Achilles at all. It is just the pain of the inflammation.”
Theo Walcott and Serge Gnabry are now both in full training but will not play against Hull on Saturday but Mikel Arteta is back in the squad. Aaron Ramsey will begin full training on Monday and should be available to face Anderlecht in the Champions League on Wednesday. “We have as well Oilivier Giroud ahead of schedule, so we have some positive news, but in the defensive department, with the suspension of Chambers, we are a bit short,” said Wenger.
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