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Arsenal boss confirms fresh injury blow following Man City defeat

By mac14 on December 18, 2016

Arsene Wenger has confirmed a fresh injury blow with the news that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain suffered a suspected hamstring injury during Arsenal’s painful 2-1 defeat at Manchester City this afternoon.

Oxlade-Chamberlain was dropped to the bench for the game at the Etihad Stadium, despite putting in some encouraging performances lately, with Alex Iwobi preferred on the left side of attack for the crucial clash with City.

Wenger’s decision didn’t pay off as Iwobi was largely ineffective during the game [like most of his team mates] and the youngster was hauled off to be replaced by Oxlade-Chamberlain in the 65th minute.

However, The Ox’s afternoon didn’t last long as he was forced off just 13 minutes later and was seen limping his way down the tunnel after being replaced by Mohamed Elneny with 12 minutes to go.

Speaking to reporters after the game, Wenger confirmed that unfortunately Oxlade-Chamberlain appears to have picked up a suspected hamstring injury.

The boss told Arsenal.com:

on what’s wrong with the Ox…
He’s injured. It looks like a hamstring – it’s a muscular problem.

This is a big blow as Oxlade-Chamberlain was just starting to show some good form in recent weeks and was beginning to establish himself as a first team regular under Wenger.

We’ll have to wait and see how serious the injury is once it’s been further assessed but my guess is it will be a minimum of three weeks out, as that’s the time-frame the club usually put on a standard hamstring injury.

Let’s hope it’s not more serious as we need all the players we can get right now as we head in to the busy festive period with Aaron Ramsey still nursing his own hamstring injury while Danny Welbeck and Santi Cazorla are also still unavailable.

The news of Oxlade-Chamberlain’s injury compounds what has been another disappointing day after we let slip a one-goal lead to lose 2-1 at City and remain nine points behind Chelsea in the table.