Arsene Wenger Faces Selection Headache Ahead Of Villa Clash

As if the transfer woes were not enough for Wenger, reports have emerged that two of his players are injured and not in a position to play Arsenal’s first game against Aston Villa this weekend. Both Theo Walcott and Barcay Sgna have been injured in their respective matches for their nation on Wednesday.

While Walcott scored a goal and helped England to register a win against Scotland, he had to be limped out of the field after he received an injury in his knee. But the 24-year old has stated that he would hope to be fit in time for the match and would love to be in the starting eleven.

“Hopefully, fingers crossed, I’ll be alright. I had to come off with a little bit of a swollen knee so fingers crossed I can rest up and be alright for Saturday,”, Walcott mentioned.

On the other hand, French international Bacary Sagna has also suffered an injury during France’s goalless draw against Belgium. The 30-year old defender had to be carried off the field with a knock in his ankle and now would, in all probability, miss the opening day fixture against Villa.

So the possible starting line-up may look like this: Szczesny; Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs; Walcott, Ramsey, Cazorla, Wilshere, Podolski; Giroud.

However Walcott has to prove his fitness before the game and there are concerns over fitness of Cazorla and Arteta. Arteta is reportedly suffering from a thigh injury while Cazorla will return to London later tonight after representing Spain in a 2-0 win over Ecuador.

And the latest on Arteta is that the midfielder could miss upto 6 weeks. Pete O’Rourke of Sky Sports has tweeted the latest on Arteta’s injruy.

Big blow for Arsenal with Mikel Arteta facing 6 weeks out through injury. #AFC

— Pete O'Rourke (@SkySportsPeteO) August 15, 2013

In other news, it seems that Arsenal would make yet another improved offer to land Luis Suarez. Reports claim that Arsenal are in process to make a bid of £49m for the Liverpool striker and would consider it as the last offer. Earlier Arsenal had made a bid of £40m for the same player but found the bid rejected. Then the club upped their bid by a single pound as they supposedly understood that Liverpool were bound to let go off the player for any bid higher than £40m. But it was later clarified that there were no such clause in Suarez’s contract and again Arsenal had to bite the dust.

In the meantime, Suarez has denied reports claiming him to have made a decision of staying at Anfield this term. Although, Liverpool are still adamant about not selling Suarez to a rival team, an upgraded bid may just do the trick for the Londoners.