Arsenal’s defender, Johan Djourou, still hopeful of featuring for the club this season
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Johan-Djourou-c18779, has claimed that he is still hoping to return to action before the season ends and wants to play some part in the club’s title chase despite being ruled out for more than two months by the Gunners’ management.
Djourou said, “In my heart, I was initially hopeful because they said to me that I didn't have a rupture and nothing was broken so I was thinking: 'Brilliant, I can get back as quickly as possible'. But then we come to reality. When you dislocate a shoulder,
it takes a lot more time. The thing with shoulders is that if you don't operate and I played in a month, it could come out again. We'll just have to see how it settles over the next few days”.
The Swiss international appeared to have dislocated his shoulder in Arsenal’s two-nil defeat against Manchester United at Old Trafford in the quarterfinal of the FA Cup.
Djourou was taken off the pitch on a stretcher after colliding with his teammate, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Bacary-Sagna-c7148, in the dying stages of the match.
Arsenal’s manager, Arsene Wenger, confirmed in his post-match interview that Djourou dislocated his shoulder and ruled the defender out for the rest of the season.
However, the Swiss FA did not completely agree with Arsene Wenger and claimed that Djourou still has an opportunity to feature this season.
Few weeks ago, Arsenal was the only team in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/England-c749 to be playing in four different competitions.
However, the Gunners endured a shocking knock-out of three different tournaments within a span of one month and now their only hopes of winning any silverware is left with Barclays Premier League.
After enduring a shocking loss in the Carling Cup final, Arsenal was knocked-out by http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Barcelona-c38604 in the UEFA Champions League and was defeated by Manchester United in the quarterfinal of the FA Cup.
It has been over five years that Arsenal has not won a single piece of silverware and their last trophy was the FA Cup in 2005.
Arsenal’s memorable ‘Invincibles’ were the last Gunners’ team to win the Barclays Premier League in 2003 and Djourou feels that winning the title and ending the trophy drought this season will have more importance than the Invincible era.
Djourou said, “I think it would be even more special to win the Premier League this time, because the wait has been so long for us to win something and, also, the weight of the pressure that people have put on us has been so great. It's true that there is
a lot of weight on our shoulders. It might be just a relief for the club and the players to win the title.”
Arsenal is now provided with a golden opportunity to go on level points with Manchester United at the top of the table. The Gunners are placed second, three points behind United, and also have a game in hand.
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