Injury problems mount for Wenger

Arsene Wenger has had no shortage of challenges to face in this turbulent season for Arsenal, but the most daunting of all is yet to come.

Greatness remains within touching distance for the Frenchman’s young squad but, to grab it, they will have to conquer not simply the best sides European football has to offer, but also an injury crisis which has struck at the most inopportune moment imaginable.

William Gallas is out for the rest of the season with a knee problem, while Manuel Almunia and Gael Clichy will be sidelined for at least the next fortnight.

The trio will be missing for a period in which Arsenal face four defining matches: they travel to Wigan in the league on Saturday, then host Villarreal in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals, play Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-finals before a league trip to Liverpool.

Such a fixture list would furrow Wenger’s brow at the best of times, but given his current lack of resources, it has a particularly ominous look as he seeks to cement another top-four league finish and win his first piece of silverware since 2005.

The absence of Gallas could be felt most keenly of all. The French centre-half has been in sterling form since being humiliatingly stripped of the captaincy by Wenger for one public outburst too many in December, and Arsenal have no ready-made replacement.

Mikael Silvestre and Johan Djourou are the obvious candidates to step in, but neither are in Gallas’ class.

Silvestre has been bedevilled by his own fitness problems this term and, is susceptible to searing pace, while Djourou, though improving, lacks the nous that only experience can bestow.

He might have cursed his fortune in private, but Wenger was doing his best to be bullish as he revealed the extent of his selection problems for the trip to Wigan, where Arsenal will be seeking to stretch their unbeaten league run to 18 games and maintain momentum ahead of next Wednesday’s visit of Villarreal.

“It is a big blow but the squad comes in,” he said. “We are on a strong run in the league and want to keep the run going. We did that even without the injured players.

“It is super important to keep the run going. Consistency is the real sign that we have improved and at the moment we are quite consistent. Until now we have dealt well with our problems.”

Wenger has learnt the hard way never to under-estimate opponents – Arsenal have already tasted defeat at Stoke, Fulham and Manchester City this season – but the Frenchman should expect even a patched-up squad to emerge unscathed from Wigan, whose form has dipped alarmingly since mid-January.

Steve Bruce’s side have won just twice in 11 games and were crushed 4-0 by Everton in their last outing. Bruce has also had his ire stoked by his errant on-loan striker Amr Zaki, who failed to return on time from international duty with Egypt, claiming he had suffered a hamstring injury.

Bruce is planning talks with Zaki – who has already been fined two weeks’ wages for his indiscretion – but a permanent move to the JJB stadium now looks certain to be scrapped.

“We will sit down with the player and his advisors in the next 24 hours and see where we go from there,” Bruce said. “We have to listen to what he has to say but I expect him to apologise not just to his team-mates, but to the people who employ him as well.

“You cannot have one rule for one and another for the others. It’s left such a sad and bitter taste because he had such a good start with us.”