Arsenal’s Flamini injured for three weeks
Mathieu Flamini should be out for about three weeks with an ankle injury which he received during the Champions League match against Liverpool. Flamini was injured in the first half and replaced by Gilberto Silva.
Arsene Wenger described the injury and the situation Arsenal would be put in ahead of their game with Manchester United at Old Trafford this coming Sunday, “I believe Mathieu will be out for three weeks, manager Arsene Wenger told Arsenal TV Online on Thursday. It’s a big blow but Gilberto has a lot of quality and experience. He will come in. He can help the team recover and focus. Apart from that we don’t have any other injuries from Tuesday. We have a few bumps and bruises but nothing special. Robin van Persie is available. He had two good sessions yesterday and today. He looks to be OK and we’ll see how we go from here. But Bacary Sagna is out.”
He also said that Arsenal still had a distinct chance of winning the League; and if they did it would be one of his greatest victories. “It will be the greatest achievement of my career to win the Premier League now because we are swimming against the stream at the moment. For us the game on Sunday is the game of the season. If we do not win this game we have no chance. We will fight until the last second of the championship. It depends on what happens on Sunday. If we win then we can win the title and that’s what is important for us to focus on. What is at stake on Sunday is the work of a whole year. If we go there and don’t believe in ourselves then it is over. But do you really think that we will go to Manchester United thinking that our season is over? That would be ridiculous. We have worked extremely hard since the first day of the season against all the odds. We will fight until the last second of the championship, especially on Sunday. If we win on Sunday then realistically we can win the title.”
Sir Alex Ferguson provided his perspective. “Arsenal have had injuries. You can’t win games consistently without your best team. You just can’t do it, not at the level we’re at. You can’t get the best results without your best players. I think it is Arsenal’s injuries in the second half of the season that has made it difficult to rest players. It’s hard to recover from these things. If we beat them, it makes it difficult for them, no question. It’s difficult anyway because they’re six points behind us and three points behind Chelsea. With five games to go there’s not a lot of leeway and they can’t afford to drop anything really. But we have got to look at ourselves and make sure we keep motoring. Every game is a must-win now. We dropped two points last week and we need to win our games, it’s as simple as that.”
Manchester United will be playing Barcelona twice and Chelsea all within 7 days providing an interesting challenge for Ferguson.