Fabianski Out for Season, Injuries, Nasri’s New Deal?, and Looking Ahead to February

By: Martin | February 2nd, 2011

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A couple of stories today after yesterday’s gutty comeback win.

First off, Lukasz Fabianski has been ruled out for the season with his shoulder injury, which will require surgery. Not much to say about it, really, other than to just feel sorry for the guy. After as hellish a season as a goalkeeper could possibly have last season, a season which saw him lose the confidence of fans and teammates alike, he kept his head down, kept working, and rebounded in a big way this season. When he stopped that penalty in Belgrade it really seemed to flip a switch in him, and to my mind he was excellent as our # 1 keeper this season. He made several huge saves which earned us points, and despite how well Wojo has been playing, if Flaps was healthy at the moment, I’d still rate him as our best option.

But he’s not healthy, and he won’t be until August, which means that Wojo’s “Casillas moment” has possibly arrived. The job is his for the rest of the season barring a monumental screw-up. And if he does well for the rest of the season, and there’s no reason to think he won’t based on what he’s shown us so far, he’ll be pretty entrenched as our # 1 going forward into next season. Now that Almunia is apparently back in the fold, I suspect Almunia will ride the pine for the rest of the season and leave the club in the summer. But in case of emergency or injury, you could do a lot worse as a back-up than Almunia, so despite the injury to Flaps, I still think our goalkeeping situation is pretty solid.

At any rate, I hope Fabianski makes a full recovery and comes back to fight for his place over the summer.

In other injury news, we really don’t have any firm news. Nasri is still out for a while yet (I suspect we may not see him until March) with his hamstring issue. I haven’t heard any kind of timetable about Vermaelen, but I suspect we shouldn’t be optimistic about seeing him in February, either. Denilson picked up a knock at the end of the Huddersfield match and wasn’t in the squad yesterday, hopefully that’s not too serious. Sagna, Djourou, and Theo all were carrying knocks at various points yesterday, although all played through them. And in the major new worry, Song had to leave at half-time with a thigh injury. After having a rough first part of the season, Song has really settled into his new role and emerged as one of our best players. Missing him for any substantial length of time will really hurt us. I go more into our schedule this month below, but after playing Newcastle on Saturday, we don’t play again until the following Saturday. It’s pretty rare for us to not have a midweek match this time of year, so we should take advantage of that. Let’s beat Newcastle and then try to get the team healthy and rested for a really brutal run of fixtures to end the month.

Elsewhere, remember how I was making a big deal out of the fact that Nasri hadn’t signed a new contract, and Sairax told me to shut up because it wasn’t a big deal? Yeah, well, er… it looks like she was right and I was dead wrong about that one. Nasri’s agent (the same one who said just a month ago they would not talk about a contract until the summer came and they saw what direction Nasri wanted to take with his career) has said that Nasri is ready to sign a new deal with Arsenal. I suspect Arsenal backed up the money truck and gave him a salary close to Cesc and van Persie’s (and fair enough, given how well he’s played this season). So the lesson, as always — I’m an idiot, and Sairax is not.

Also, there is quite the brouhaha this morning over things Cesc allegedly said in the tunnel to referee Lee Mason during the halftime break of yesterday’s match. David Moyes has come out, unsolicited, and said that Cesc should have been given a red card after the break for what he said to Mason, although Moyes refused to repeat it, so we can only speculate that Cesc called Mason a funky winkerbean or some such. Maybe they were arguing about which season of “The Wire” was their favorite — I know that always sets me over the edge.

For his part, Wenger has said that Cesc didn’t say anything to Mason in the tunnel. There was some speculation that Cesc could face a misconduct charge from the FA, but apparently there was no incident reported in Mason’s official match report, so there’s nothing that can be done.

Did it happen? I have to say, I think it probably did. I think David Moyes is generally a pretty respectable guy, and wouldn’t just completely fabricate something, unlike that devious little oompa-loompa Phil Brown. And we know Wenger hasn’t always been the most forthcoming about his own players’ conduct and misbehavior, so he doesn’t exactly have the most credibility on the subject. But it’s irrelevant to me — yeah, Cesc probably shouldn’t do crap like that, but it’s ~~2010~~ 2011, and like it or not, getting in the referee’s ear (and in his head) is part of the captain’s job. And the refereeing crew DID hose us by not disallowing a blatantly offside goal. And if there’s a silver lining in this, it makes us that much more certain that the subliterate brigade of nincompoops who will start in with the “Cesc doesn’t want to be there, his heart is in Barcelona” nonsense are completely dead wrong. It’s clear to anyone watching Cesc and Arsenal this season just how much he wants to win things now as a Gunner.

The real issue is just why David Moyes felt the urge to say something. He started the statement by acknowledging that the goal was offside and shouldn’t have counted, but said that’s the referee’s fault. Well, so is cautioning players who give the referee abuse — if we have to live with the fact that your side got a goal it shouldn’t have because the referee messed up, then you have to live with the fact that Cesc didn’t get cautioned because the referee messed up. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. I suspect it’s classic Fergie-esque media tactics, trying to divert attention from the fact that his side was ahead in the 70th minute and lost on some shockingly bad (Arsenal-esque, even) set piece defending on the winner. But it’s a non-story as far as I’m concerned, whether it actually happened or not.

Finally, I thought it might be worthwhile to look ahead to Arsenal’s schedule in February. Having 9 matches in January was pretty hectic, and things don’t really show any signs of slowing down.

Arsenal

Feb. 1 — vs. Everton
Feb. 5 — at Newcastle
Feb. 12 — vs. Wolves
Feb. 16 — vs. Barcelona (Champions League)
Feb. 19 — at Leyton Orient (FA Cup)
Feb. 22 — vs. Stoke City
Feb. 27 — vs. Birmingham (Wembley Stadium) (Carling Cup)

“Only” 7 games this month, although it is the shortest month of the year. 4 true home matches, and 6 out of the 7 see us stay in London. Obviously the two that jump off the page are the two high-profile matches — our Champions League rematch with Barcelona, and the Carling Cup final against Birmingham. But we’re still in with a shout to win the league, so our 4 league matches this month are crucial. We’ve already won the first one, but the other three are very winnable, too. If we can take care of business in those, we’ll really be breathing down Manchester United’s necks going into March.

Manchester United (5 points ahead of us)

February 1 — vs. Aston Villa
February 5 — at Wolves
February 12 — vs. Manchester City
February 19 — vs. Crawley Town (FA Cup)
February 23 — at Marseille (Champions League)
February 26 — at Wigan

Only 6 matches for United, including 4 league matches, one of which they’ve already won. But the one that obviously jumps off the page is the derby match against City. If City could get a point or three there, that would help our title bid immeasurably. And about those citizens…

Manchester City (4 points behind us)

February 2 — at Birmingham
February 5 — vs. West Brom
February 12 — at Manchester United
February 15 — at Aris (Europa League)
February 19 — vs. Notts County (FA Cup replay)
February 24 — vs. Aris (Europa League)
February 28 — vs. Fulham

7 matches, 4 home & 3 away. Today might be a bit of a tough test, but other than that, we’d have to expect them to take full points from all their other league matches except for the Manchester derby — do they have what it takes to go into Old Trafford and win? We sure hope so.

Chelsea (5 points behind us)

February 1 — at Sunderland
February 6 — vs. Liverpool
February 14 — at Fulham
February 19 — vs. Everton (FA Cup)
February 22 — at Copenhagen (Champions League)

Only 5 matches for the Pensioners, 3 of them on the road. They’ve already dispatched Sunderland in impressive fashion (Sunderland have been very tough at the Stadium of Light this year), but Liverpool and Fulham could both be tricky matches as well. Will be interesting to see how Torres and Luiz are integrated into the team — they could be primed to go on a tear.

Tottenham (11 points behind us with a match in hand)

February 2 — at Blackburn
February 5 — vs. Bolton
February 12 — at Sunderland
February 15 — at AC Milan
February 22 — at Blackpool

Just 5 matches for the Spuds as well, 4 of which are away. And one of which is their much-anticipated trip to the San Siro to play AC Milan. Away matches are always tricky, and if Spurs aren’t careful, they could see their hopes of finishing in the top 4 crash and burn a bit by the end of the month. Let’s hope so, anyway.

So that’s an overview — we’re still playing more matches than most of our competition, so we’ll need to rotate the squad and hope players stay healthy this month. Winning our league matches this month will be key. If we can take maximum points, hopefully United will drop points against City, and then on March 1, United have to go to Stamford Bridge, which is a match they very well could lose more points from, which could put us right back in it.

Oh, and one last thing — you should definitely read this piece by Zonal Marking, a tactical analysis of last night’s match. Basically, it goes into how Everton managed to contain Arsenal for most of the match, and how Arsenal’s changes in personnel and tactics late on nullifed those tactics. Good stuff, as always.

Sairax back tomorrow, and I’ll be back on Friday with a Newcastle preview. Until then.

**************

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Category: Arsenal News, Cesc Fabregas, Champions League, Everton, FA Cup, Fixtures, Injury Report, Lukasz Fabianski, Premiership

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Trvorgomes

Looks like Fabianski is set to miss the rest of the season. Can't downplay how important this is. Having Szczesny and Fabianski available and at the top of Wenger's selection was the most stable the keeper situation has been in years. This means that Almunia is going to continue to get games. Hopefully he can step up... but I see this as a blow for our run to compete in all competitions from now until the end of the season. And no more keeper injuries now...we can't afford it.
FredJacob

The FA Cup fourth round replay between Chelsea and Everton has now been confirmed to take place on Sunday February 19. they will then play their fifth round tie against Reading on either March 1 or 2.postpone their fixture with Man United which is currently scheduled for Tuesday March 1.

Dawn hope Chelsea lose to Everton then
Gigi_man

Too bad for Flaps, really, the guy deserved his place of # 1, but as you point it out, maybe Wojos "casillas time" has come. Up to him, and he s got confidence, the rest is for him to grab. (grab the ball that is, before the line).
I hope Utd drop points, they have a tough schedule there with Chelsea; city and Pool, but I also thought it was tough vs Villa and they came back big time, I think Houllier praised them and all.

Any way, we can only keep on winning, and its doable with the right tactics, players, lust for victory and mind attitude.
mattrich

for what it's worth, the third season of the wire is the best one. or the fifth.
Martin

Really? I thought the fifth season was by far the worst season the show had. I say the only two acceptable possibilities for best season are third season and fourth season, with third season ultimately being the correct answer. So I agree with you. But I would ranke the seasons as follows:

1. 3rd
2. 4th
3. 1st
4. 2nd
5. 5th
mattrich

my favorite story arc of the show is the kids, and if i remember correctly the third and fifth seasons deal with them the most, which is why those two are my favorites. i personally think the 2nd season is the weakest, especially since the docks didn't really end up tying very much to any other seasons. so i guess i'd say 3rd, 5th, 1st, 4th, 2nd.
Martin

Actually, then, I think you mean the 4th season -- the kids weren't introduced until the 4th season, which was when the whole school/education storyline took place. Season 3 was the Avon/Stringer stuff.
Homey_Mills

Wow, Martin. Do you have 30 hours in your day, while the rest of us mortals have only 24? Let's see, you tell us you have a real day job as a lawyer. You at least spend some time keeping MLSF happy. You watch all sorts of movies and tv shows. And obsess about them almost as much as about Arsenal. You take care of at least one cat. You mention various books you've read. And then you spend an almost obscene amount of time either writing this blog or researching for it. Not to mention a few other sporting interests. So what's the secret? Are there 30 hours in your day?
Martin

To quote Rick James, "Cocaine is a hell of a drug."

No, I don't know, I guess I take this as a compliment, I don't know, I don't feel like I actually do all that much. I guess it helps that I can multitask a lot of those things -- MLSF is an avid tv and movie junky as well, and my (2) cats are perfectly happy snuggling with the two of us on the couch.

Oh yeah, and I'm a crappy, lazy attorney. That gives me a lot more time than I would have if I was good at my job.
Homey_Mills

Yeah, I'm the same kind of attorney. Maybe in the law firm of Martin, Gigi, and Homey, we can open at 10, watch soccer for a couple hours in the afternoon, and shut it down at 4.
JG

5 Hour Energy, it adds 5 hours to your day!
mattrich

thaaaaat's right. well there you go i guess haha. time to rewatch.
Zito_v2

Turns out Wojo caused Fabs injury during the Man City warm up, let the rumors begin.
Martin

Yeah, apparently Wojo was taking some shots on goal for Flaps to save, and, according to Wojo, he kicked it so hard that Flaps hurt his shoulder trying to stop it. Which I only find suspicious because Wojo can barely kick the ball to midfield, so I'm not quite sure I buy him having enough of a cannon shot to force someone to have shoulder surgery.
Zito_v2

The plot thickens
Martin

Cesc's statement on the alleged incident:

http://www.arsenal.com/news/ne...

He doesn't deny it, and in a situation like this, I think that's an admission that he did say something.

But I think he generally has handled this exactly right, and his comments are pretty similar to my take on it -- yeah, I was pissed, because a goal was wrongfully allowed, so was everyone else, but the referee obviously didn't feel like it was serious enough to warrant further punishment, so let's stop talking about it and focus on Newcastle.
Martin

James Shea and Chuks Aneke also injured in today's reserves fixture. In addition to Miquel. Plus the bad news about Fabianski and Song. And Theo supposedly picked up an ankle knock yesterday. Somewhere there's a voodoo doll in an Arsenal shirt in really bad shape.
Simon

Please can anyone tell me how do Liverpool get a work permit immediately for their player and we cant get one for either of our two boys
Martin

The rule for a work permit is that a player has to play a certain percentage of his country's intentional matches in the last year (I think it's the last year) at the senior level. If not, then you have to go through the special exemption procedure.

Suarez plays in virtually all of Uruguay's international matches, so it would have been no problem getting him a permit. Even if he hadn't, he has been in Netherlands for five years, so probably could have simply gotten a Dutch EU passport which would have allowed him to play in England.

Our problem is that we buy 17 and 18 year olds from outside Europe -- those guys obviously aren't playing at the senior international level, so we have to go through the exemption procedure. Sometimes we get the exemption right away (Denilson, Song), sometimes we don't and have to wait a couple of years (Vela, Botelho). Will be interesting to see how long we have to wait on Wellington, Galindo, and Miyaichi.
Darren_V

I beleive it only takes 2 years in Europe to obtain a EU passport, and Holland is amongst the easiest places in Europe to obtain the required passport.

It's kinda laughable that Denilson got special exemption now that you look at him. Gotta love hindsight.
Simon

martin thank you for the explanation simon
Gunnerlurker

Thanks again, great post. Even if we end the month still 5 back of Man U they go to Chelsea and to Liverpool in the the first 6 days of March and I suspect will give at least some points back. Also to save you or Sairax some time on the weekend:

Ratings versus Newcastle Sagna 7 Played consistently and provided good support.

You're welcome, now you only need to do 10 starters
Zito_v2

Oh man, that's terrible, I love Fabs. He did so well and his reflexes are amazing, some of his saves were borderline world class, he deserves to start.
billboy

It's 2011.
Sairax

City will play for the draw against United. That's what they do against top teams as we've seen. 0-0 against us, United and Spuds this season from what I can remember. They managed to nick a goal to beat Chelsea, but last season United nicked a goal to beat them at the last second. The dangers of playing for a point! Let's hope the result favours us.
Martin

Ignasi Miquel leaves Reserves match injured. Between him and Song (who apparently is unable to walk comfortably, which is not a good sign) being hurt, that leaves young Swiss defender Martin Angha, who just signed a professional contract with the club, as our injury cover at CB should more than two of our current CBs get injured. Worrisome.
Martin

Also, meant to mention, but forgot, that we had a lot of loanees in action yesterday at the upper levels -- Ramsey played 90 minutes, and JET played 76, for Cardiff in their 2-2 draw with Reading. And Henri Lansbury scored a 90th minute winner for Norwich City as they beat Milwall 2-1 -- Craig Eastmond played the entire match for Milwall in that one as well. Carlos Vela played 58 minutes for West Brom in their 2-2 draw with Wigan.
Sairax

Article on Polish goalkeeping coach (who resisted the temptation of coming to Arsenal) Krzysztof Dowhań who has worked with Fabiański and Szczęsny plus many other up and coming Polish keepers that we are seeing today http://inbedwithmaradona.com/a...
Sairax

Allegations of me not being an idiot in today's blog are grossly exaggerated.

Also, where can I find me a money truck?
dreamfight3r

share with me if you find that money truck :D
mobbdeen

Cute that you included Spuds there. How egalitarian...
Homey_Mills

"subliterate brigade of nincompoops" - I like that. I just hope you weren't talking about us. Cuz I sho ain't no sublitterit.
Anyway, speaking of Alumunia, I guess the situation with Flaps means we'll need to get Almunia game game action. I would think certainly in the FA Cup, and arguably in the Carling Cup too. I'd hate for him to ride the bench for the next 6 weeks, and then be needed suddenly.
Perry S.

No way Almunia is playing the Trophy Winning Match of the Carling. We simply cannot take any risk there to finally bring in some sort of silverware. FA is possible since the draw is so heavily in our favour. Barring injury to Wojo, Almunia will see very very little play, although he could play against a relegation club like the Wolves, to rest/prep Wojo for Barca.
Gigi_man

Oh yes, He cant play that game. As Homey says, maybe one or two of the FA I would vote, for having him in shape.
Martin

I would imagine he'll play against Leyton Orient in the FA Cup, but I don't know, I think I would be a bit surprised if he started the CC final for us.
Homey_Mills

I thought Almunia was fine in his last start, plus in some action earlier in the year. So I don't think it would be some big difference in class, if at all, if we played him against Birmingham. Plus it would be cool to see him lift a trophy (hopefully). If I felt like Wojo was markedly better at this point, then I wouldn't take the "risk" that Perry mentions when there's a chance to win something.
Martin

Maybe. But one decent match back -- his first match in months, against a third division side, when he didn't have much of anything to do -- isn't enough for me to feel confident throwing him out in a cup final.

Even if the difference in class isn't big, I definitely think it is there. And for a cup final, I think our only consideration is winning the cup, regardless of when or against whom the next match is. We field our strongest team possible, end of story for me (although I know Wenger has felt differently in the past -- go back and look at some of the players we fielded in the 2007 Carling Cup final (Justin Hoyte, Traore, Aliadiere, and Julio Baptista all started)). I think Wojo is a better keeper than Almunia, and gives us a better chance of winning, and that's my only consideration for this one.
Axel

in arsene's words - he has zee technical abiliteee and great mental strength
Sairax

As for the Cesc stuff, well I'm skeptical that it happened, and even if it did, we don't know what exactly went on. Plus I heard he was talking 'about' the ref and not 'to' the ref? Anyway, Cesc seems to not have a lot of friends in the league. Maybe it's because of how he talks back and stuff, but it doesn't seem much different to me than what other captains do on the pitch. Quite frankly I wish everyone would get off his back because he seems to get called out way more than every other player out there. He's sticking up for us, so good on him.
Sairax

Seriously, how awful for Fabianski. The guy kept going even after it looked like there was no way back for him and then he completely turns it around for himself only to get injured. Hope he comes back in good health.