Arsenal centre-back Thomas Vermaelen will not be back until next year
Arsenal has confirmed that their centre-back Thomas Vermaelen will not be back in action until the start of next year. The Belgian defender is currently sidelined because of an Achilles tendon injury, which continues to cause problems
and is delaying his much-awaited return in the side.
Since the start of this season, Vermaelen has played only one league match for Arsenal. He followed that by participating in the Euro 2012 Qualifying match for his national side. Vermaelen got himself injured in the match, and
there are still no signs of a return. Arsenal manger Arsene Wenger previously thought that his player would return after one week, but three months have passed since then. Now it has been confirmed that he will not be available for the hectic schedule around
Christmas Eve and New Year.
Arsene Wenger told the press that Vermaelen is not wearing protective boots anymore, but he will not return before January. In the absence of the defender, the centre-half duties have been entrusted to Sebastien Squillaci and Laurent
Koscielny. However, Koscielny is still learning the traits of the game as he has served suspension twice this season already. In the absence of any one of the two players, Johan Djourou has been playing in the role as well.
However, Arsenal’s problems are beginning to surface and they might suffer setbacks in their defensive capabilities. Koscielny and Squillaci have shown a lack of communication on certain occasions. Last week, Arsenal was up against
Fulham and leading by one goal when the slip-up by Wenger’s defenders resulted in an equalizer. Koscielny and Squillaci collided with each other in a failed attempt to clear the ball. In the end, both players were out of focus and Fulham took advantage of
the situation to find the goal. To make things worse, Koscielny did not recover in the match and had to be replaced by Djourou.
However, even Djourou had his own set of problems that could have been exploited by Fulham. Unlike Koscielny or Vermaelen, Djourou does not have a good pace and he cannot chase down the forwards. In an Arsenal set-up, the defence
is not kept deep enough and there is a need for fast defenders in the team. The Swiss defender does not fit well in that role, which means that the void left behind by Vermaelen is still empty.
The poor defensive record of Arsenal is apparent from their stats: they have conceded 18 goals this season – a ‘record’ beaten by only Tottenham Hotspur (21) in the current top 5 of the League table. Arsenal has conceded more goals
than all the other teams in top four, including Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City. Chelsea, who have the best defensive record in the league, have only granted 11 goals so far. Therefore, Arsene Wenger is really hoping for the return of his star
player as other teams have started to exploit the weakness of Arsenal’s squad.
Another thing that Vermaelen brings to the team is goal-scoring ability. Unlike other defenders, the Belgian centre-back scores many goals and often from positions of the centre-forwards and attacking midfielders. He is a great
striker of the ball, as well as a great finisher with the head. These qualities have been missing in Arsenal in his absence, since Koscielny and Djourou have failed to fill the boots of the missing superstar.
The next match will be played against Manchester United where Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov pose a real threat to the weak defence of the Gunners. The real problem is that Arsenal have already shown that they cannot protect
a lead because of their poor centre-half players and the goalkeeper. Therefore, it would be a real test for Wenger to reorganize his players for a match that has a potential to be the title-decider at the end of the season. It would be interesting to see whether
Wenger picks up either Koscielny or Djourou for the match. Djourou would be a much better choice because he is strong and has good aerial abilities, which would be required to hold off a threat from Manchester United.
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