Arsenal crashed out of the League Cup with a pretty miserable performance on Wednesday night. Arsene Wenger opted for a rotated team but with Southampton naming a strong line up, the Gunners really struggled.
The likes of Jeff Reine-Adelaide, Rob Holding and Carl Jenkinson were given game time – it was a clear chance for the clubs fringe players to impress, but one player who you might expect to see in this fixture is Yaya Sanogo, especially with Alexis Sanchez rested and Olivier Giroud injured – but the Frenchman was nowhere to be seen, and he hasn’t been all season.
But Wenger finally had an update on the Frenchman following the Southampton defeat. He said: “He (Sanogo) had a real medical problem that I cannot explain you here. It’s confidential. He has no life threatening problem”
Odd. Obviously we at Fresh Arsenal all hope that Sanogo is recovering well from whatever has happened to him. Hopefully he can get back to playing football soon – but from the way Wenger described his injury, that does not look overly likely.
Sanogo has never set the world alight at Arsenal but he has always had the backing of Arsene Wenger and as a young player, it is sad to see something that appears to be very serious, effect his career.
Sanogo spent the end of last season on loan at Charlton where he scored a hat trick in one game, but failed to impress consistently. His best moment in an Arsenal shirt is probably his goal in the home game against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.
He also scored a hat-trick for Arsenal in a friendly against Benfica, something that most Arsenal fans probably remember him for. He’s 23 now and with just 11 games for Arsenal’s first team and this injury set back halting his progress, I think it is unlikely we will see him at the club for much longer.