Can Arteta and Vermaelen get back into the Arsenal team?

Arteta and Vermaelen’s return! by ATB As Arsenal hear the bad news that both Tomas Rosicky and Per Mertesacker had been ruled out of the game vs. Sunderland with injury and illness respectively, there wass some good news on the injury front with two key players set to return for the Gunners. Arsenal welcomed back two key players in training this week, in Thomas Vermaelen and Mikel Arteta. The two leaders on the pitch as club captain and vice- captain respectively, Arsenal haven’t missed them as much as expected however overall of course it’s all good news to hear that they will soon be featuring for the Gunners once again. Both players have been ruled out for extended periods of time, with Thomas Vermaelen not featuring at all during pre-season because of injury, whilst Arteta did feature in pre-season but was ruled out before the start of the Premier League season. Vermaelen, who struggled for a large part of last season is very keen to get back into playing for Arsenal because of course he spent a the majority of last year on the treatment table and bench for the Gunners, despite being the club’s captain. The Belgian international defender traveled with the squad to Sunderland with the news that Per Mertesacker couldn’t because of illness, however he wasn’t expected to play, mainly because of a lack of match fitness. Whether or not Vermaelen will be able to force his way back into the Arsenal team remains to be seen because as we have witness over the last 10 months or so, and Mertesacker and Koscielny have managed to become a great defensive partnership and so it would be a shame to disrupt something that is flowing so nicely at the club. As for Arteta, the Spaniard may too find it difficult to reclaim his place in the team, with the latest signing of Mesut Ozil, as well as the much improved Aaron Ramsey showing why he should be in the team no matter what. Because of Arteta’s age as well he may be in his final years of being a regular at the club and so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him play a much bigger role on the bench this year rather than on the pitch. That aside, let’s welcome these two back from the treatment table and ultimately the more quality players we have available the better.