It had to happen.
A defence consisting of just six players coupled with Arsenal’s injury track record over the last few seasons was just asking for trouble.
Of course, no-one could have predicted that the trouble would arrive courtesy of a player simply jumping for a ball, but arrive it did as we all predicted, and Arsenal are now faced with the very real possibility of relying on young players with little experience and a reshuffled back line should any further injury problems arise.
It is far from ideal.
While there are options available to the club, none of them are anything to get excited about – promote youth players who probably aren’t ready, play players out of position or bring in a free agent who is so useless that he’s got to September without being able to find a club.
At the top end of the pitch, where Arsenal seem surprisingly blessed with numbers despite Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott’s injury problems, Arsenal could find their solution. It may come down to a case of outscoring the opposition, hardly a great plan, but I’m sure at this point we will take the results any way we can get them.
Adopting a high-pressure pressing game this season, Arsenal’s attack and midfield seems like it could be the best way of protecting their fragile defence. After all, if the opposition can’t keep the ball, they offer little threat to the Arsenal goal. Nothing about this entire situation is ideal in the slightest.
It almost seems like a knee-jerk reaction to go in to full panic-mode over what is, ultimately, one serious injury. But it is one injury on top of lots of niggly ones, and it is a problem that even the most ardent Wenger supporters saw coming over the horizon as the transfer window deadline loomed.
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