The news broken overnight by The Mirror that Thomas Vermaelen could miss the next two months after surgery on his injured ankle is a massive blow. Confidence amongst Arsenal fans is understandably thin and we veer between hope and despair.
Already some Arsenal bloggers are laying into the club, claiming medical incompetence and re-running the summer transfer debate. But the injury is NOT on the same ankle that kept Vermaelen out last season and we’ve surely all done the transfer thing to death over the last three months so I’m not going there again today.
Vermaelen took a kick on the ankle in the Udinese game. He was rested then, missing the Manchester United game to see how the ankle would react.
When Vermaelen’s other ankle was damaged last season they waited ages, clearly uncertain what the exact problem was. This time they have taken an early decision to go for surgery. It is expected that he will be out for two months, although the day after surgery that is obviously just a guess at this stage.
This obviously increases the pressure on Per Mertesacker ahead of our games games against Swansea and then Borussia Dortmund. Arsenal need a performance straight out of the box. I expect that he will be paired with Koscielny for both games despite the heavy programme ahead. I wouldn’t have thought that Arsene Wenger will want to go into our toughest group game with a partnership that hadn’t played a single game together.
Wenger himself will of course be watching the Dortmund game from the stand after UEFA decided to dismiss his appeal against a two match ban. Sadly, Wenger will just have to accept the fact that UEFA cares more about respect for UEFA than anything else that might trouble the game.
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