Aaron Ramsey will be out for three weeks with the calf injury but Arsene Wenger is convinced Arsenal have the strength in depth to survive their midfield injury crisis.
Ramsey limped off 19 minutes into Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat against Watford on Tuesday with a calf injury, the latest in a string of muscle complaints the Welsh midfielder has suffered over recent years.
A crisis in midfield threatened to deepen when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, brought on in Ramsey’s stead, picked up a knock in the second half but Wenger expects the converted right-winger to be available to fill in alongside Francis Coquelin in midfield against Chelsea on Saturday.
“From the other night we lose Ramsey for I would say 21 days,” Wenger said. “[Olivier] Giroud has a test, but he should be all right. Maybe [Danny] Welbeck will come back into the group, that should be it.
“Chamberlain has a test today, but he should be all right.”
Ramsey injury also means he is almost certain to miss the first leg of Arsenal's Champions League tie against Bayern Munich, which takes place at the Allianz Arena on February 15.
Arsenal’s midfield numbers have been severely depleted in recent weeks, particularly after Granit Xhaka saw red and was banned for four games in a 2-1 win over Burnley. He joined long-term injury doubt Santi Cazorla on the sidelines, with Mohamed Elneny at the Africa Cup of Nations and no mechanism in place to recall Jack Wilshere from his Bournemouth loan.
In Saturday’s 5-0 FA Cup win Arsenal deployed a youthful midfield trio of Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jeff Reine-Adelaide and Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Wenger suggested all three could be called upon to fill in until Elneny returns from Afcon next week.
“We are a bit short at the moment but we have young players who can do a job in there,” he said.
“We have Reine-Adelaide, Maitland-Niles, Chamberlain, Iwobi can play in there. And Elneny comes back on Sunday, so we have some strength still.”
