Mariona Caldentey will be out for somewhere between eight and 10 weeks, Renee Slegers said ahead of Birmingham City's visit to the Emirates on Saturday. Asked whether it was a grade 3 injury, she wouldn't put a grade on it and called it only "a bigger hamstring injury", though a rescan this week showed it healing well. Arsenal were 10th in the Women's Super League with five points from five games after losing at Chelsea on 27 September and at Manchester City on 4 October. A side sitting that low can least afford to lose a midfielder of Mariona's quality for that long.
Selina Cerci's signing from Hoffenheim was announced on 6 July, and by 4 October she'd made three league appearances off the bench without a start. Slegers said a knee problem was one reason she'd struggled to work her way into the side after missing parts of pre-season, even though she'd trained with the group for most sessions. In the end, Slegers said, "it became too much and with Germany they did a scan and the best solution going forward was to clean it up."
Geraldine Reuteler is the better news. She needed a small intervention to get fit and missed some weeks of pre-season, but Slegers said she's looking good and training well. Slegers admitted she'd sometimes picked others ahead of her while bedding in new signings and chasing consistency. With Mariona out, that reasoning is harder to hold to, and Reuteler should be the first to benefit.
Bruno Guimarães making Mikel Arteta's midfield picks harder before the trip to Nottingham Forest on 18 October is easy to believe, given his two Premier League goals since his £75m move from Newcastle.
Lille beat Arsenal's Under-19s 3-2.
Olivia Smith hasn't started for Arsenal since 19 September, though she's come off the bench in each of the last four games. Slegers said Smith had been managing physical issues in the background but is "pain-free now". She showed it with Canada during the break, scoring in her 45 minutes against Denmark and again in the second game of the double header. Slegers described what's ahead as "a block of six weeks and nine games". A run that crowded, without Mariona, needs Smith starting rather than coming off the bench.
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