{"id":1181,"date":"2011-01-28T13:09:58","date_gmt":"2011-01-28T13:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/?p=1181"},"modified":"2011-01-28T13:12:18","modified_gmt":"2011-01-28T13:12:18","slug":"arsenal-in-dire-need-of-defenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/?p=1181","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal in dire need of defenders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arsene Wenger is going to have to delve into the transfer market for a new defender if he wants to challenge Manchester United for the Premier League title.<\/p>\n

The Arsenal manager recently confirmed he would be looking for some cover at centre-half if it seems Thomas Vermaelen would not return from an achilles problem in the near future.<\/p>\n

The news has been bad for Wenger, as the Belgian defender has been ruled out for a further six weeks as he needs an operation to cure the injury that has seen him unable to play since August.<\/p>\n

With Sebastien Squillaci also out with a hamstring strain it means Laurent Koscielny and Johan Djourou are the club’s only recognised centre backs. It did not affect them however at the weekend as their easy win over West Ham ensured they remain two points behind leaders United in the Premier League title race and the football betting<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>suggests it will be a close run thing.<\/p>\n

But with many important games coming in both the Premier League and Champions League on the horizon, Wenger seems to have his hand forced and he will look for a new defender to bolster his injury-hit squad and anyone looking to bet on Premier League games <\/a><\/strong>\u00a0should remember this.<\/p>\n

Vermaelen has said: “I have already tried to come back three times, but the pain proved too much on each occasion.<\/p>\n

“Recent tests showed a minor problem next to the achilles tendon has been causing the pain. That’s why I’ll undergo surgery.”<\/p>\n

Theo Walcott was on target during Arsenal’s 3-0 win over West Ham and he claimed after the game the real Gunners were back after two disappointing results.<\/p>\n

The England man claims the mood is “great” among the Arsenal squad and it is looking like it could be a “great year” for the club, however the Premier League title may be a little bit too far for them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arsene Wenger is going to have to delve into the transfer market for a new defender if he wants to challenge Manchester United for the Premier League title. The Arsenal manager recently confirmed he would be looking for some cover at centre-half if it seems Thomas Vermaelen would not return from an achilles problem in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[40,39,33],"class_list":["post-1181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arsenal-fc","tag-koscielny","tag-squillaci","tag-vermaelen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1181"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1185,"href":"https:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1181\/revisions\/1185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}