West Brom 2 Arsenal 1 : Arsenal blunder into a nightmare

Zoran Mamic’s team won 2-1 in Zagreb and now Arsenal face them again at the Emirates Stadium knowing they must secure victory to stand any chance of getting out of their group.

“We have players that can play in [Coquelin’s] position”, Wenger added.

None of Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck, Tomas Rosicky or Ramsey were available at the weekend, while Coquelin’s replacement Mikel Arteta came off after 35 minutes with a calf strain.

While Arsene Wenger is already without a number of first-team stars, the injury to Coquelin, who was substituted just 14 minutes into the game at The Hawthorns with a suspected knee problem, will be a big blow to the club.

“We have a few players back in training and Ramsey is in the squad”.

Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla slips to miss a late penalty as the Gunners lost 2-1 at West Brom.

Arsenal manager has confirmed that Francis Coquelin will miss a significant amount of time with a knee injury.

Both players will be assessed and are doubts for Tuesday’s Champions League home match against Dinamo Zagreb, which Arsenal must win to stand any chance of staying in the competition.

“Yes, I don’t deny that”, he said.

“It’s a shame because we started the game well, we went 1-0 up and then after they scored [twice] before half time it became more hard for us”.

Chelsea’s win – which came courtesy of a first-half Diego Costa strike – ended a run of three consecutive Premier League defeats for last season’s champions.

Wenger said: “It was a very bad afternoon for us”.

What’s missing from this analysis, however, is the observation that while, yes, these kinds of games will happen if Arsenal doesn’t end up winning things this season, they will also probably occur even if it does. You can not say that they had a doped player but the result stands.

“Honestly I don’t know (about Coquelin)”.

Don Balon’s report states a deal was actually reached back in September, but Arsenal have been holding back from revealing the news until Alexis Sanchez put pen to paper on an extended contract of his own.

“Arsenal play better against teams like Bayern Munich than against teams like Olympiakos, who play defensively and who don’t allow you space and catch you on the counter-attack”.