Striker woes plague Wenger

Champions League play-off second leg

Arsene Wenger is braced for gloomy news as Arsenal await a specialist’s verdict on the shin injury that could leave Olivier Giroud facing a significant spell on the sidelines.

Giroud has been ruled out of tonight’s crunch Champions League qualifier against Besiktas with the tibia problem sustained in Saturday’s draw with Everton.

It is feared the 27-year-old could be absent for two to three months, robbing Arsenal of their first-choice striker just three games into the season.

“On Sunday he had a medical check and he needed to have further investigations,” said Wenger, who revealed an announcement will be made over his fitness today.

“The first news wasn’t fantastic, but I’m not a doctor so I wait for tomorrow’s (Wednesday’s) complete examination and decision over how long he’ll be out for.

“It can be (long term), we’ll see. I don’t know (if it’s broken). It’s sad for us, but for the moment we are focused on the game.”

Wenger may be forced into the transfer market to find a replacement if Giroud is missing for any length of time. The French manager, however, refuses to panic buy before the window closes on Monday.

“We have plenty of players at centre forward. In England as soon as you have a problem, people want you to buy,” he said.

“Unfortunately, I can give you some clubs that every time they lose a game, they say they might need to buy more. We are 24 hours from a big game and our focus is more on that than the transfer window.”

Summer signing Alexis Sanchez could operate as the lone striker against Besiktas, although doubts have been raised over his ability to perform the role. Sanchez was replaced at half-time at Goodison following an ineffective 45 minutes as the focal point of Arsenal’s attack, but Wenger is convinced he can operate as more than a winger.

“You do not convict a player on one half. It was not all bad what he did, there was some quality in what he did,” Wenger said.

“It was just that on the day we needed more physical presence. When you’re 2-0 down, you don’t play counter attack.”

Yaya Sanogo, Lukas Podolski and Joel Campbell are also options, although it is Sanogo, who missed out against Everton because of a hamstring injury, who is most likely to start.

Wenger, who ruled out Podolski leaving in the transfer window, is confident he has the options to cover for Giroud’s absence in the second leg of the qualifier at the Emirates Stadium.

“Yes of course, why should I not have that confidence?” Wenger said.

Arsenal are seeking a 17th successive season in the lucrative group stage of the Champions League, but Wenger insists it would not be a financial disaster should they fail to qualify.

The first leg finished in a goalless draw in Istanbul.

“It will affect us because we’ll have less income, but it will not affect our balance sheet in a dramatic way because we can survive without that,” Wenger said. “We want to be in the Champions League because we want to play top level football.

“Financially we’ve always adapted. When we had small resources, we adapted to having small resources.”

Meanwhile, Slaven Bilic is backing his Besiktas team to flourish despite his touchline ban as he plots a famous victory. Bilic will missing from the Turks’ dugout for tonight’s game after being sent to the stands for arguing with referee Milorad Mazic in Istanbul.

“It’s not ideal of course. I regret it and would love to be down there with the boys,” the Besiktas boss said.

“But I don’t see a huge problem in it. We have prepared our gameplan and I have a big belief in my assistants and they’ll do the job there.”

Bilic insists Besiktas are full of self-belief after holding the Gunners to a stalemate in Istanbul.

“We know it will be a massive game for us and after Istanbul it became big for them. A goalless draw was a positive result,” Bilic said.

“We showed in our performance in the first leg that we’re capable of giving them a game. We played well and weren’t totally happy with the result. We deserved to win. We’re full of hope for the second leg. We have a dream and we’ll do everything to fulfil it.”