Arsenal’s woes seems to have been compounded with news filtering in that their key defender could miss next Sunday’s crunch game against Manchester United.
Manager of Arsenal, Arsene Wenger has confirmed that influential defender Laurent Koscielny suffered a hamstring problem in the club’s 3-2 home defeat to Olympiakos last night, says James Olley of the London Evening Standard.
Koscielny has featured for 90 minutes for Arsenal in six out of their seven Premier League games this season, and is now likely to miss out on the Gunners’ encounter with the Red Devils at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
Olley [@JamesOlley] tweeted: “Wenger says Koscielny has suffered a hamstring injury. Looks ominous for Sunday by the sounds of things.”
Last night’s loss was Arsenal’s second straight Champions League defeat this season, with the first coming against Croatian outfit Dinamo Zagreb a fortnight ago.
But domestically, the Gunners have made a decent start to the campaign as they are currently in fourth position with 13 points. Now Wenger has some tough decisions to make ahead of the must-win clash with Louis van Gaal’s men on Sunday.
Per Mertesacker, who replaced Koscielny in the 57th minute of the tie was at fault for Olympiakos’ third goal as he failed to make a challenge on goalscorer Alfreð Finnbogason.
Hence, Wenger could decide to go with Calum Chambers as Gabriel Paulista’s centre-back partner against United, as the Brazilian defender has finished serving his one-match suspension for an altercation with Chelsea’s Diego Costa.