There was a time when Arsenal fans could not imagine the team without their captain. That sentiment has eased in recent seasons as \u00d8degaard\u2019s influence has fluctuated. He produced 18 goal contributions in 2023\u201324 as part of a collective Arsenal return, but observers have noted his impact has waned since then.<\/p>\n
Injuries have been a significant factor. 2025\u201326 is on course to be \u00d8degaard’s quietest full season at Arsenal, yet the campaign may still conclude with the Gunners as champions. Beyond fitness, critics have highlighted issues such as a lack of power in transition and a tendency to delay around the opposition box.<\/p>\n
\u00d8degaard completed the second half against Brentford last Thursday after replacing Eberechi Eze at the break, but he was seen limping toward the end of the contest in west London. Explaining the knock he’d sustained, Arsenal’s captain said, “Hopefully it\u2019s not too bad. We\u2019ll see how it goes in the build-up to today’s game [4\u20130 win vs. Wigan Athletic] and over the next few days.<\/p>\n
“I tried to clear the ball as it came down, but instead kicked into the player a bit, and ended up over-stretching my leg, which pinched the knee.” <\/p>\n
He did not feature in the FA Cup on Sunday, and Mikel Arteta has confirmed the captain also will not be fit for Wednesday night’s trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers, where Arsenal can extend their lead at the top of the Premier League table to seven points. Arteta is hopeful \u00d8degaard will be available for Sunday’s north London derby.<\/p>\n
The squad is already light. Arsenal are also without Kai Havertz and Mikel Merino through injury, although Havertz is in with a chance of facing Spurs. A natural replacement in Ethan Nwaneri is not currently available, having been sent to Marseille on loan during the January transfer window. The timing of \u00d8degaard’s latest setback comes at a moment when Arteta’s options are limited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Odegaard misses Wolves as Arsenal manage injuries and rotation; Arteta hopes for derby return. Soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6935,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,969,783],"tags":[1305,1304,1006],"class_list":["post-6936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-premier-league","category-wolverhampton-wanderers","tag-bench-selection","tag-benching","tag-captaincy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}