The defeat on Sunday was a hard one to take for Arsenal and the club face more bad news as two of their long-term absentees have suffered setbacks. According to fresh reports from the Arsenal camp both Santi Cazorla and Jack Wilshere will be out until mid-April.
Cazorla had ruptured his collateral knee ligament at the end of November against Norwich and was set for a return in March. A recent update from Wenger suggested he could be available fro the 2nd leg tie against Barcelona.
But the manager was pessimistic in his recent press conference on Cazorla's injury.“Santi is not doing too well His knee is doing well but his Achilles has inflamed a little bit and we have to put him off impact [training]. It has been a reaction to coming back.”
When asked whether he would come back in April the manager once again cast doubt say9ing, ”A return in April? We have to see now how he responds. He always had a little tendinitis in his Achilles and we have to see how he responds to that.”
Arsenal's Jack Wilshere has also been out with a long-term injury and as expected to be back this month but it looks like his time on the sideline has also been extended,
“Jack is doing quite well but has still not been outside yet, running He starts again, I think, this week. He will be three to four weeks [more] out”, Wenger said on his injury.
Wilshere’s career has been plagued by injuries. He missed a majority of last season through injury and it looks like he is set to miss almost the whole season this year as well. With the Gunners struggling to find some rhythm in the recent game the injuries to these players comes as even bigger blow.
Last week in the game against Barcelona another of Arsenal’s midfielders Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain also suffered a problem and Wenger has ruled the player out for at least two months, but he did have some positive news about it. "He will be out for six to eight weeks. No surgery. We feared surgery at some stage before we saw the MRI. In the end we got, on that front, positive news" said the manager.
Arsenal look to bounce back against Swansea
After the defeat on Sunday Arsenal will look to get back to winning ways against Swansea in the Premier League today. With Leicester dropping points yesterday against West Brom in a 2-2 draw Arsenal will look to close the gap to three points.
With probably the most important North London Derby coming up on Saturday these two fixtures will probably decide if Arsenal will remain in the title race or be left out in the cold