Gunner’s fans worst fears where realized with the news that Theo Walcott is expected to be out for 4-6 weeks with an ankle injury.

“The tackle looked quite bad,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said today. “When you see how it turned his ankle I thought it would be three or four days or it would be four to six weeks. Unfortunately it will be four to six weeks. We had some good news about the scan because at some stage we were scared it could be worse. But overall it is a question of patience and rehabilitation.”

It’s s shame as Theo had had a really good start to the season. Assuming six weeks which is the end of October Walcott will miss probably six Premier League games including the matches against Chelsea and Man City.

No more international games for another month! Now we can get back to our regular scheduled programming of the Gunners trying to win the Premier League title.

To do that they will be without Robin van Persie who will be out for at least another month as he recovers from his latest ankle injury. Van Persie got injured against Blackburn on August 28th and at that point estimations would be that he would miss a month of action. Now it looks like van Persie will be out until mid-October which means he will miss Arsenal’s first two Champions League group stage matches, the Chelsea game on October 2nd and possibly the Man City game on October 23rd.

Theo Walcott was carried off during England’s game against Switzerland after injuring his ankle. He was sent to the hospital for x-rays which is not promising. I seriously doubt that Theo will play this weekend against Bolton.

On a more positive note Samir Nasri is ready to return to training ahead of schedule and should be ready to play in a week to ten days. Also Sebastien Squillaci, Djourou and Denilson all played for Arsenal reserves this week and should all be in the squad for the Bolton game.

Want to ask Arsene Wenger why he did not buy a goalkeeper this summer? Or when the Gunners will win their next trophy? Well you can if you attend the Arsenal shareholders meeting on September 16 at the Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal and Arsene Wenger postponed his traditional Q&A session with fans last May due to fans dissatisfaction with how things were going. But Wenger has agreed to site down with fans once again and answer your questions.

If you could ask Arsene Wenger one question what would it be?

There were no shocks when Arsenal named its 25-man squad for the first half of the EPL season and there was a couple of surprises.

All clubs had to submit a squad of up to 25 players containing no more than 17 players who do not qualify as homegrown. Homegrown players are classed as players who “irrespective of his nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to the Football Association or the Football Association of Wales for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons or 36 months prior to his 21st birthday”.

U21 players (born on or after January 1 1989) do not have to count towards the 25-man squads. Changes to the squads can be made in January.

Arsenal named seven ‘homegrown’ players as part of their 20-man squad. Those players are: Nicklas Bendtner, Denilson, Johan Djourou, Cesc Fabregas, Vito Mannone, Gael Clichy and Alex Song.

Fabregas qualifies as a home grown player because he he has been trained by Arsenal for more than three years before the age of 21.

Official squads
Arsenal: Manuel Almunia, Andrey Arshavin, Nicklas Bendtner, Marouane Chamakh, Gael Clichy, Denilson, Abou Diaby, Johan Djourou, Emmanuel Eboue, Lukasz Fabianski, Cesc Fabregas, Laurent Koscielny, Vito Mannone, Samir Nasri, Tomas Rosicky, Bacary Sagna, Alexandre Song, Robin van Persie, Thomas Vermaelen, Sebastien Squillaci.

Aston Villa: Brad Friedel; Brad Guzan; James Collins; Carlos Cuellar; Curtis Davies; Habib Beye; Richard Dunne; Eric Lichaj; Stephen Warnock; Luke Young; Stewart Downing; Jonathan Hogg; Stephen Ireland; Isaiah Osbourne; Stiliyan Petrov; Nigel Reo-Coker; Moustapha Salifou; Steve Sidwell; Ashley Young; Gabriel Agbonlahor; John Carew; Emile Heskey.

Birmingham: Maik Taylor, Stephen Carr, David Murphy, Lee Bowyer, Roger Johnson, Liam Ridgewell, Sebastian Larsson, Craig Gardner, Kevin Phillips, Cameron Jerome, Garry O’Connor, Barry Ferguson, Colin Doyle, Matt Derbyshire, Scott Dann, James McFadden, Michel, Keith Fahy, Nikola Zigic, Stuart Parnaby, Alexander Hleb, Jean Beausejour, Ben Foster, Martin Jiranek, James O’Shea.

Blackburn: Paul Robinson, Martin Olsson, Chris Samba, Gael Givet, Ryan Nelsen, Brett Emerton, David Dunn, Nikola Kalinic, El-Hadji Diouf, Vince Grella, Morten Gamst Pedersen, Mark Bunn, Steven Nzonzi, Keith Andrews, Michel Salgado, Jason Brown, Frank Fielding, Pascal Chimbonda, Mame Biram Diouf, Jason Roberts, Benjani.

Blackpool: Charlie Adam, Alex John-Baptiste, Chris Basham, Stephen Crainey, Malaury Martin, Daniel Coid, Ishmael Demontagnac, Neal Eardley, Robert Edwards, Jaso Euell, Ian Evatt, Matthew Gilks, Elliot Grandin, Marlon Harewood, Dekel Keinan, Brett Ormerod, Keith Southern, Ludovic Sylvestre, Gary Taylor-Fletcher, Luke Varney, David Vaughan, DJ Campbell, David Carney.

Bolton: Robbie Blake, Adam Bogdan, Gary Cahill, Tamir Cohen, Kevin Davies, Mark Davies, Sean Davis, Johan Elmander, Ricardo Gardner, Stuart Holden, Jussi Jaaskalainen, Ivan Klasnic, Zat Knight, Chung Yong-lee, Fabrice Muamba, Andy O’Brien, Joey O’Brien, Martin Petrov, Sam Ricketts, Paul Robinson, Jlloyd Samuel, Gretar Steinsson, Matt Taylor, Al Al-Habsi.

Chelsea: Petr Cech, Branislav Ivanovic, Ashley Cole, Michael Essien, Ramires, Frank Lampard, Yossi Benayoun, Didier Drogba, John Mikel Obi, Florent Malouda, Jose Bosingwa, Yury Zhirkov, Paulo Ferreira, Salomon Kalou, Ross Turnbull, John Terry, Alex, Nicolas Anelka, Henrique Hilario, Daniel Sturridge, Patrick van Aanholt, Jeffrey Bruma, Gael Kakuta, Fabio Borini, Josh McEachran.

Everton: Tim Howard, Mikel Arteta, Jan Mucha, Steven Pienaar, Iain Turner, Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, Tony Hibbert, Phil Neville, Seamus Coleman, Tim Cahill, Phil Jagielka, Louis Saha, Sylvain Distin, James Vaughan, John Heitinga, Victor Anichebe, Leigton Baines, Yakubu, Marouane Fellaini, Jermaine Beckford, Leon Osman.

Fulham: Mark Schwarzer, David Stockdale, John Pantsil, Fredrik Stoor, Aaron Hughes, Rafik Halliche, Chris Baird, Brede Hangeland, Carlos Salcido, Stephen Kelly, Zoltan Gera, Clinton Dempsey, Bjorn Helge Riise, Dickson Etuhu, Kagisho Dikgacoi, Danny Murphy, Jonathan Greening, Simon Davies, Damien Duff, Andrew Johnson, Diomansy Kamara, Moussa Dembele, Bobby Zamora, David Elm, Eddie Johnson.

Liverpool: Jamie Carragher, Joe Cole, Stephen Darby, Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson, Brad Jones, Paul Konchesky, Jay Spearing, Daniel Agger, Fabio Aurelio, Ryan Babel, Milan Jovanovic, Dirk Kuyt, Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Lucas Leiva, Raul Meireles, Christian Poulsen, Pepe Reina, Maxi Rodriguez, Martin Skrtel, Fernando Torres

Manchester City: Shay Given, Joe Hart, Stuart Taylor, Jerome Boateng, Wayne Bridge, Aleksander Kolarov, Vincent Kompany, Joleon Lescott, Shaleum Logan, Micah Richards, Kolo Toure, Pablo Zabaleta, Gareth Barry, Nigel de Jong, Adam Johnson, Michael Johnson, James Milner, David Silva, Yaya Toure, Patrick Vieira, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Emmanuel Adebayor, Jo, Roque Santa Cruz, Carlos Tevez.

Manchester United: Ben Amos, Darren Fletcher, Tomasz Kuszczak, Darron Gibson, Edwin van der Sar, Ryan Giggs, Wes Brown, Owen Hargreaves, Nani, Anderson, Park Ji-Sung, Jonathan Evans, Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes, Antonio Valencia, Gary Neville, Dimitar Berbatov, John O’Shea, Javier Hernandez, Nemanja Vidic, Michael Carrick, Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney.

Newcastle: Sol Campbell, Steven Taylor, Shola Ameobi, Joey Barton, Danny Guthrie, Peter Lovenkrands, Jose Enrique, Alan Smith, Leon Best, Fabricio Coloccini, Jonas Gutierrez, Steve Harper, Kevin Nolan, Wayne Routledge, Danny Simpson, Ryan Taylor, Mike Williamson, Xisco, Fraser Forster, Tim Krul, James Perch, Cheik Tiote, Hatem ben Arfa.

Stoke: Asmir Begovic, Danny Collins, Rory Delap, Salif Diao, Matthew Etherington, Abdoulaye Faye, Ricardo Fuller, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Danny Higginbotham, Robert Huth, Kenwyne Jones, Carlo Nash, Jermaine Pennant, Danny Pugh, Ryan Shawcross, Thomas Sorensen, Tuncay Sanli, Ryan Shotton, Tom Soares, Michael Tonge, Jonathan Walters, Glenn Whelan, Dean Whitehead, Andy Wilkinson, Marc Wilson.

Sunderland: Marcos Angeleri, Phil Bardsley, Darren Bent, Titus Bramble, Fraizer Campbell, Trevor Carson, Lee Cattermole, Paulo Da Silva, Ahmed El Mohamady, Anton Ferdinand, Craig Gordon, Asamoah Gyan, David Healy, Steed Malbranque, George McCartney, John Mensah, Simon Mignolet, Nedum Onuoha, Andy Reid, Kieran Richardson, Crisitjan Riveros, Michael Turner, Robbie Weir, Boudewijn Zenden.

Tottenham: Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Sebastian Bassong, David Bentley, Vedran Corluka, Peter Crouch, Carlo Cudicini, Heurelho Gomes, Michael Dawson, Jermain Defoe, William Gallas, Tom Huddlestone, Alan Hutton, Jermaine Jenas, Younes Kaboul, Robbie Keane, Ledley King, Niko Kranjcar, Aaron Lennon, Luka Modric, Kyle Naughton, Jamie O’Hara, Wilson Palacios, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Stipe Pletikosa, Rafael van der Vaart.

West Brom: Giles Barnes; Roman Bednar; Chris Brunt; Scott Carson; Marek Cech; Simon Cox; Graham Dorrans; Marc-Antoine Fortune; Pablo Ibanez; Gonzalo Jara; Dean Kiely; Abdoulaye Meite; Ishmael Miller; James Morrison; Youssouf Mulumbu; Boaz Myhill; Peter Odemwingie; Jonas Olsson; Steven Reid; Paul Scharner; Nicky Shorey; Gabriel Tamas; Somen Tchoyi; Jerome Thomas; Gianni Zuiverloon.

West Ham: Ruud Boffin, Robert Green, Tal Ben Haim, Manuel da Costa, Danny Gabbidon, Herita Ilunga, Lars Jacobsen, Winston Reid, Jonathan Spector, Matthew Upson, Luis Boa Morte, Valon Behrami, Jack Collison, Kieron Dyer, Julien Faubert, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Radoslav Kovac, Mark Noble, Scott Parker, Pablo Barrera, Carlton Cole, Zavon Hines, Benni McCarthy, Victor Obinna, Frederic Piquionne.

Wigan: Chris Kirkland, Mike Pollitt, Charles N’Zogbia, Emmerson Boyce, Gary Caldwell, Ben Watson, Hendry Thomas, Ronnie Stam, Jordi Gomez, Hugo Rodallega, Mohamed Diame, Maynor Figueroa, Steve Gohouri, Daniel De Ridder, Ali Al-Habsi, Antolin Alcaraz, James McArthur, Mauro Boselli.

Wolves: Marcus Hahnemann; Wayne Hennessey; Carl Ikeme; Kevin Foley; Ronald Zubar; Richard Stearman; Jody Craddock; Christophe Berra; Steven Mouyokolo; George Elokobi; Stephen Ward; Jelle van Damme; Karl Henry; David Jones; Michael Mancienne; Dave Edwards; Greg Halford; Nenad Milijas; Adlene Guedioura; Matt Jarvis; Stephen Hunt; Kevin Doyle; Steven Fletcher; Sylvan Ebanks-Blake; Marcus Bent.

Just days after Arsenal announced that Robin van Persie will miss three to four weeks due to an ankle injury comes news that Nicklas Bendtner has reinjured his groin and is out until November.

Even with that lengthly layoff, Arsenal still made Bendtner one of their 25-man squad for the first half of the season, showing that the Arsenal medical staff do believe that he will be back in two to three months.

The transfer window closed with Arsenal making no moves, which means that Almunia is Arsenal’s number one, at least until January. One move that was made today was Armand Traore has joined Juventus on loan for the 2010/2011 season. Juventus will then have an opportunity to buy Traore next summer.

So what did Arsenal do this summer? Heading into this transfer window it was pretty clear that Arsenal needed to get better defensively (defence and goalkepper) and that Robin van Persie needed some help up front.

Defensively Arsenal brought in Laurent Koscielny and Sebastien Squillaci to replace Sol Campbell, William Gallas and Mikael Silvestre. Early days, but from what I have seen so far, Koscielny and Squillaci are an improvement over the three players that left.

In the summer Arsene Wenger criticized his three goalkeepers and I was positive that Arsenal would be getting a new number one. So I am shocked that Wenger has stayed with Almunia.

Overall the Arsenal defence looks better than it was last season but the goalkeeping situation still worries me.

In midfield Arsenal made no moves, although keeping Cesc Fabregas for at least one more season is like signing a new player. Hopefully with another year of experience Fabrgas and Wilshere can continue to improve.

Up front Arsenal finally landed Marouane Chamakh to help van Persie. I like Chamakh and believe that he will be a very good player for Arsenal once he settles. With Eduardo leaving this summer, Chamakh was basically an replacement for him and a step up for the Gunners.

So overall it was a good summer. I would grade it a B. Did not get the goalkeeper we wanted, but got everything else. How would you grade Arsenal deals this transfer window?

Well that was quick. Robin van Persie injured his ankle against Blackburn and is expected to miss up to a month of action.

Van Persie reported to Holland’s camp Monday where they diagnosed the injury. The Dutch Football Association said he would be out for “at least a few weeks”. Arsenal estimate that his absence will be for between two and four weeks, depending on how quickly the swelling subsides.

There is no doubt RVP’s class as I wrote earlier today, but van Persie has been at Arsenal for six years now and has yet to make 100 league starts for the Gunners. With the arrival of Chamakh, maybe Wenger can wrap RVP is cotton balls and save him for the big league games and Champions League matches. That was Arsenal can get him for the important games as the Gunners are a much better team when van Persie is in the team.

Missed the game against Blackburn due to a family activity so was left to watch the match highlights. A full game report is here is you missed it

Couple of things that stood out watching the game. One is that Arsenal are so much more dangerous when Robin van Persie is in the lineup. The pass he made to Theo was brilliant. Two is that this is the type of game were Arsenal would have dropped points in previous years. A physical team that contests everything and throws (literally) a lot of high crosses into the box. But unlike Man City, Arsenal did not fold away from home and the fact that the Gunners got all three points is really encouraging.

Three, is was nice to see Cesc Fabregas back in the middle of the park, pulling the strings of the Arsenal attack. He makes everyone around him better and I am glad that Wenger took his time easing both van Persie and Fabregas back into action, unlike at Chelski where Terry and Lampard are already injured.

Still no new news on the Mark Schwarzer transfer saga that has dragged on all summer. It looks like Shay Given’s is heading to Fulham on loan (I would rather have Given than Schwarzer) and when that happens Fulham will let Schwarzer go to Arsenal. With the transfer window closing tomorrow night this will be a late transfer deal,

The Carling Cup draw was made on Saturday and Arsenal get Spurs at White Hart Lane. Game is scheduled for 21 or 22 September. The last time we met Spurs in the Carling Cup was 2008 when Spurs won 5-1 so I am hoping that Wenger’s young guns can exact some revenge.

Jack Wilshere made headlines off the field this weekend as he was arrested in the early hours of Sunday following a “fracas”. Wilshere was arrested but released on bail and is “unlikely” to face charges. It’s unusual to see a Arsenal player make the tabloid headlines.

Arsenal has just announced the schedule for its Champions League group games. The part that jumps out at me is that the Gunners play Chelsea, Man City and Man United all away the weekend after a Champions League game. That is going to impact the selection choices or Wenger.

Match Day 1
Arsenal v SC Braga
Wednesday 15th September 2010
(Sunderland away the following weekend)

Match Day 2
FK Partizan v Arsenal
Tuesday 28th September 2010
(Chelsea away follows this)

Match Day 3
Arsenal v FC Shakhtar Donetsk
Tuesday 19th October 2010
(Man City away follows this)

Match Day 4
FC Shakhtar Donetsk v Arsenal
Wednesday 3rd November 2010

Match Day 5
SC Braga v Arsenal
Tuesday 23rd November 2010
(Aston Villa away)

Match Day 6
Arsenal v FK Partizan
Wednesday 8th December 2010
(Man United away)

Arsenal missed a lot of the big guns in today’s Champions League draw. As the top seed in Group H Arsenal will play Shakhtar Donetsk, Braga and Partizan. Could be some tricky away games for Arsenal but I still expect them to qualify as group winners.

Arsenal’s Opponents:
Shakhtar Donetsk
Stadium: Shakhtyor Stadium (51,504)
Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk qualified directly for the Group Stage and are already seven games into their domestic league season. Former Arsenal striker Eduardo has scored twice in three appearances for Shakhtar.

Sporting Braga
Stadium: AXA Stadium (30,154)
Sporting Braga came second in the Portuguese Liga last season and defeated Sevilla 5-3 on aggregate in their play-off match to reach the Group Stage.

Partizan Belgrade
Stadium: Partizan Stadium (32,710)
Serbian champions Partizan Belgrade qualified for the Group Stage after defeating Anderlecht on penalties in their play-off. Both legs had ended 2-2. It is their first appearance in the Champions League for seven years.

What do you think of the draw?