Jack Wilshere will be an absentee for Arsenal as they take on Burnley at the Emirates Stadium .
However, Arsène Wenger sounded positive that the knock on his knee was not serious and suggested that the midfielder should be available sometime next week and in good time for England. Wenger described the injury as “very, very short-term. He got a kick on his knee. At the moment he doesn’t practice. I don’t know if Anderlecht on Tuesday will be too early or not. He’s not training at the moment.”
Arsenal’s midweek Champions League match against Anderlecht is a possibility but Wilshere is definitely expected back for the following Sunday’s trip to Swansea.
The Arsenal manager had suggested Kieran Gibbs was also in the frame to return soon and added that Olivier Giroud is “miles ahead” in terms of his rehabilitation from a broken tibia suffered at the start of the season.
“He’s doing very well. He’s three weeks ahead of schedule and I think he will join in normal training after the international break. Of course it’s a big boost,” said Wenger.
Theo Walcott will be in the party to play Burnley but Wenger remains reluctant to push the England attacker after so many months recovering from cruciate ligament damage. He has not played since last January and is desperate to get on to the pitch. Wenger will be cautious but is hopeful of giving him some minutes soon, possibly this weekend.
“Theo is not ready yet. He’s been out for too long to start the game. If I can give him some competition I’m happy to do it. He’s eager to play, but that is always the period when the patience of the player is tested because they feel ready and they want to play,” he said.
“Usually, they realise only much later that they are not completely ready. I know Theo well and Theo is a very intelligent player. He knows as well that he’s not completely there yet.”
Arsenal are still thin defensively, with Mathieu Debuchy still on the long-term absentee list and Laurent Koscielny nursing his achilles problem. With Gibbs missing, Nacho Monreal will shift out to his favoured left-back position, and Calum Chambers will move to the centre.
Arsenal are targeting a third successive victory when they host Burnley with another win potentially lifting them into the top four. A nine-point gap has opened up on Chelsea and while Wenger refuses to concede the title race, he knows it will take a sustained assault to catch José Mourinho’s team.
“I don’t write us off, let other people do that, but Chelsea are in a strong position at the moment,” Wenger said. “I believe it would not be realistic to just think now that we’ll catch Chelsea very quickly.
“We have to get consistent results to have a chance of coming back. I’m more focused on the quality of our games and on the consistency of our results before we think about coming back on Chelsea.”