Thomas Vermaelen

Thomas Vermaelen has allayed fears of a small injury after he was spotted wearing a strap around his ankle while on international duty with Belguim.

Speaking to journalists ahead of a World-Cup qualifier against Wales, the Verminator said that the strap around his ankle was only a precautionary measure following a small knock last week. Our Captain then stressed that he should be fit to play at the weekend and that we should not worry. This is certainly a bit of good news after he limped off against Liverpool.

Even if Vermaelen did have a small injury, it wouldn’t be the end of the world for Arsenal. Per Mertesacker has played pretty well so far this season, and we have Laurent Kosciely waiting to come back into the team.

Emmanuel Frimpong

Emmanuel Frimpong has taken to his Twitter account to announce that he will be back in first-team training in two weeks time.

Frimpong has been out for a little over seven months with a cruciate ligament injury which he picked up only a few weeks into a loan spell with Wolves. He was also sidelined for 9 months with a similar injury in August 2010.

“I will be back in full training with the squad on 17th on this month. Two cruciate knee injuries couldn’t end my career. It’s been a long 7 months.”

Emmanuel won’t exactly walk straight into the first team (Abou Diaby is playing fantastically in the holding midfield role & I am a big fan of Francis Coquelin), but he will be a useful player to have in the squad nonetheless. Maybe Wenger will even send him out on loan again in January.

Jack Wilshere

Speaking after our win over Liverpool on Sunday, Arsène Wenger suggested that Jack Wilshere still needs at least another month to get himself back to full fitness. That Jack will be back soon is good news, but it does seem that his return has been extremely illusive and Wenger keeps pushing back the prediction. Wilshere hasn’t played since July last year (over 15 months!) and based on Le Boss’s latest comments I don’t see him coming back until late October at the earliest.

“He is looking very good in training. Close [to a return]? It depends what you call close. I would still give him a month. But it looks very good. In a month he should be starting to play again.”