Arsène Wenger has admitted he is very concerned about Arsenal’s injury situation, particularly as the club’s schedule is only going to get heavier as the Christmas period looms.
The manager said Laurent Koscielny had an 80 % chance of returning for Sunday’s derby at home to Tottenham Hotspur, after missing the 5-1 Champions League defeat at Bayern Munich in midweek because of a hip problem.
Mikel Arteta faces a late fitness test and David Ospina is expected to come back into the squad but Wenger is still without seven other players. He hopes Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Aaron Ramsey and Héctor Bellerín will return shortly after the international break, with Theo Walcott’s comeback likely to be December and Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck and Tomas Rosicky longer-term absentees.
Arsenal are level on points with the Premier League leaders, Manchester City and, although the season is only 11 games old, they consider themselves to be serious title contenders. The fear is that injuries could prove to be one of their greatest adversaries.
“I am very concerned, honestly, because we are only in November and to have so many players out, knowing we go into the Christmas period soon, I am concerned,” Wenger said. “At the moment, we have too many players out.”
Wenger had a number of players who looked physically shattered at Bayern but he said fatigue would not be a factor against Tottenham. He admitted he was “tempted” to withdraw Alexis Sánchez and Olivier Giroud during the second half in Munich only for his natural competitive instincts to prevail.
“When you get back to 4-1 [through Giroud’s goal], maybe you go back to 4-2 and you never know,” Wenger said. “I knew against Bayern, we could win the game in the last 15 minutes, as that is what we did in the first game at the Emirates.
“I knew it would have been possible in the second game but, unfortunately, we had lost it before. Once you come back to 4-1, you sit there and wonder: ‘Do I do it or not?’ You want as well the players not to feel that you give up. It is difficult.”
Wenger has always finished above Tottenham in the league since arriving at Arsenal in 1996, a proud record that he hopes to maintain, but he was not sure whether it gave his team the psychological edge.
Wenger added: “On a financial level with Tottenham, we always had level power because when we had 38,000 seats at Highbury we were level with White Hart Lane. And after we moved into the new stadium, we had less financial resources than them because we had to pay our debts back.
“Now, maybe in the last two or three years, we are in a stronger financial situation but that will not last because Tottenham build a new stadium, as well. West Ham, too, will have a new stadium and that is the biggest challenge we face. It will be purely down to the technical quality of work.”
Wenger also spoke about his loathing of individual awards, including the Ballon d’Or, in the context of the debate about who is the world’s best player at the moment – Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. Wenger refused to be drawn on who he considered to be the greatest but he made the general point that the pursuit of individual titles could ruin players.
“I have seen careers destroyed because the players are too much obsessed to get individual rewards,” Wenger said. “I can tell you who maybe another day. I feel sometimes it encourages selfishness and people to go too much for their own sake, when team-mates are in better positions. Even the agents motivate the players to get individual rewards because they are more valuable on the market after.
“We are first a team sport. I always feel responsible to encourage the collective effort rather than singling people out. The modern world is too much against individuals and we, as managers, are more worried about the collective. I’m against the Ballon d’Or. I’m against all these things.”