Every victory comes with a price, it seems, and so it is the case with the 2-0 triumph over Stoke with the news that Tomas Rosicky will be sidelined with a groin injury.
The Sun picks out the walking wounded and adds Rosicky to Gael Clichy, Kieran Gibbs, William Gallas, Emmanuel Eboue, Armand Traore, Eduardo, Theo Walcott, Abou Diaby, Robin van Persie and Nicklas Bendtner.
The midfielder who has barely played over the last 18 months lasted just 45 minutes again on Saturday before being subbed due to the groin problem which could keep him out for a few more weeks, says the paper.
The redtop goes on to report that Wenger, who resumed normal service by shaking hands with opposing manager Tony Pulis afterwards, said: “Tomas is devastated and I am as well because he played the whole game at Man City and I wondered whether to take the gamble or not. But because it was such an important game, I took the gamble and by half-time it had backfired.
“It’s a groin injury and we will have to see with the scan in 48 hours whether it’s grade one, two or three. If it’s grade one it’s 10 days, grade three is three weeks. It’s the worst run of injuries I’ve had. What happens is that it’s all in the same area and at the moment they are all offensive injuries. Last year, it was defensively.
“It’s true we do get more injuries than other teams. You can’t say there’s no reason but we haven’t found the reason. It’s very hard to find a common denominator. With Tomas and Eduardo it’s because they’ve been out for a long time.
“Then you have Van Persie who got injured with the national team. Theo has been in and out and when he came back, he got tackled against Birmingham and since then he hasn’t played. I want to see if we are in the same situation in January. But we can’t dream too much of finding a world-class player, that’s what is needed to strengthen. But they also need not to be European cup-tied, so we must hope Father Christmas is good to us!”
And he added in the Mirror: “We’re at the beginning of December, if we are in the same situation with injuries in January then I will see. But we can’t dream too much of finding a world class player because that’s what is needed to strengthen our team. But they also need not to be European cup-tied and who is also free so we must hope Father Christmas is good to us!“
Santa aside and looking ahead to next Sunday’s trip to face Liverpool at Anfield, Thomas Vermaelen tells the Daily Star that the Gunners will be up to the size of the task facing them at Anfield on Sunday, when Fernando Torres could be back for Liverpool. he Arsenal centre-half said: “We are always confident. OK, last week we played against Drogba and he had a good game. But we remain confident and I think we can play a good game against Liverpool.”
One player who continues to be linked to the Arsenal is Patrick Vieira, who is unhappy at Inter Milan, but Wenger tells the Times that he does not need a defensive player.
“He is not a striker,” Wenger said when asked if Vieira could return. “We didn’t suffer much in midfield and we have [Alexandre] Song back next week, [Abou] Diaby will come back soon and I don’t believe we are especially short in midfield. We are just short up front.”
Other papers suggest T******** have offered Paddy £35,000 a week…