Arsene Wenger admits that Santi Cazorla’s season may be over

Widespread reports on Wednesday claimed Cazorla could be facing up to three months on the sidelines with a knee injury suffered in last weekend’s draw with Norwich.

Alexis Sanchez is likely to return in time for the busy Christmas fixture schedule for Arsenal, but Santi Cazorla is out until the new year after suffering a knee injury at Norwich last Sunday.

Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla could be out until March although manager Arsene Wenger was reluctant to commit to a time frame for the injured midfielder until he hears from a specialist.

Arsenal have a number of key players injured at the moment and questions have been raised about Wenger’s rationale in choosing not to bolster his squad in the summer after signing Petr Cech from Chelsea.

Arsenal fans aren’t best pleased with their manager for not bringing the player off following the injury, but Wenger explains that Cazorla was adamant that he was fine.

Having felt his hamstring after the Champions League victory over Dinamo Zagreb, Wenger said all of the club’s medical tests showed he was in peak fitness to start at Carrow Road.

“Nobody suggested that he could displace his back or his hamstring”. But what winds me up is to lose games against them. You try to master all the scientific aspects but there are as well some irrational factors in injuries sometimes.

While there had been calls for the French coach to rest the ex-Barcelona attacker prior to the match, he insists Sanchez was fully fit heading into the game. I don’t know, I have to wait until we have a complete assessment from the specialist. “The injury can come from that as well”.

“We are quite sophisticated in testing our players”, he said.

“That is of course too much, but hopefully we now have Theo (Walcott) not too far away, and (Laurent) Koscielny coming back too”. “I can use [Chambers there too] if needed, he can play there”.

He said: “I ask my players to focus on tomorrow’s game”.

“Yes, I love his music and the man that he was”, Wenger said in the interview. We are only two points off top spot, so it’s vital to capitalise on this period because I do think it’s never easy for any side.