It seems our defensive woes are far from over as it was confirmed that Monreal is injured and hasn’t travelled to Germany with the Arsenal squad for their Champion’s League game.
Monreal sustained a minor injury during Saturday’s game and missed training this morning, it injury will need short-term recovery but he will miss the game on Tuesday night. Calum Chambers has also missed training this morning but he has travelled to Germany and will most likely play at right back position.
Laurent Koscielny isn’t a 100% fit according to rumours but nothing has been confirmed as of yet. The only saving grace we have is that Kieran Gibbs is match fit again but due to the nature of his injury history we know we can’t be too reliant on him.
This leaves us with only 5 defenders to face Dortmund and if any of those get injured then we are in real big trouble. Can Hayden and Bellerin step up and prove themselves with that amount of pressure on them?
Bellerin has more than proved himself at youth level and he definitely has the ability to be a great defender. He’s still a little raw around the edges in terms of blocking but he is a good tackler and can run really fast. At 19 years old now is the time for him to establish himself as our right back.
Hayden is full of talent and can be used in a variety of positions including defensive/central midfield but he remains strongest at the back. He is tall so good in the air and very strong in his position and blocking. He will also strengthen up the English core that Arsene is trying to build.
Both these defenders have the potential to be really strong first team players and I think they will integrate into the first team as well as Calum Chambers has.
In other news Nicklas Bendtner thinks we ‘wasted’ him last season after calling him back on loan from Juventus. ‘At Arsenal I barely played. My last year was wasted there,’ Bendtner told Bild. He said he would rather have stayed at Juventus for another season…I think we all would have preferred that too.
Bendtner has not started any games or scored any goals since joining Wolfsburg.