It was in the warm afterglow of a scintillating dismissal of AZ Alkmaar earlier this month that Arsène Wenger talked up an armoury that had become the envy of the Premier League. "Have I ever had so many options on the creative side? Certainly not," he offered, before listing six forward-thinkers who had not even featured. Yet, with one cramp of a groin and another rip of an ankle ligament, Arsenal have been forced to think again.
Wenger tends to fear the onset of winter, when the true potential of a side's season is determined by the sheer number of bodies cluttering up the treatment room. The Frenchman had already been contemplating Nicklas Bendtner's absence with a groin complaint, sustained in the north London derby to prompt surgery and a month on the sidelines, when news filtered through from Pescara that Robin van Persie had torn ankle ligaments following a challenge from Giorgio Chiellini in Holland's goalless – Wenger might argue meaningless – draw with Italy. Initial fears that bones had been broken were allayed, although a recovery period that begins with a doctor massaging fluid from a cow's placenta on to the joint and stretches, at best, to Christmas hardly represents a fillip.
Van Persie has been this season's Arsenal revelation to date. A player more used to wreaking havoc from the left had flourished as the central pivot of a front three. There had been eight goals in his last 11 club appearances in all competitions, to complement the conveyor belt of assists he provides, with Wenger claiming he could become "the best passer in the league, and the best goalscorer also". "Injuries are the biggest problem he has had up until now," he had added. Those words have proved prophetic.
Denied two regular strikers, three if the fringe player Carlos Vela is included, Wenger has been left to consider what alternatives remain. The manager will be loth to switch from a system that has coaxed 55 goals from 19 games this season, a staggering ratio that, should it be maintained in the Premier League, would see the season yielding 124 goals. The fact they have benefited from 17 different scorers already this term suggests this is a squad that revels in the freedom of Wenger's adopted 4-3-3. Yet, with Emmanuel Adebayor sold in the summer, Van Persie remains the only player in this squad who has ever managed double figures in a Premier League season and, currently, the only forward Wenger considers best employed in the centre.
Arsenal boast an array of apparently interchangeable attacking players. Andrey Arshavin, Tomas Rosicky, Samir Nasri, Theo Walcott and even Emmanuel Eboué are all used to operating wide, potentially on either flank, and flourish when given the licence of a No10 to wander. Even Bendtner, at 6ft 4in a more natural target man, had been employed in one of the wider berths this season flitting around Van Persie. The Dutchman has become so much more.
Wenger's system is, of course, fluid with the Holland international only nominally the pivot for the front-line. He may be 6ft 2in but he is no aerial focal point. His manager even tempered praise of the Dutchman's development this term in the wake of his two goals in the 3-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur by pointing out that the 26-year-old "needs to work on his heading".
At first glance Eduardo da Silva might appear a natural replacement as a player who arrived in north London with the reputation, established at Dinamo Zagreb and with Croatia, as a prolific goalscorer. Yet, while Eduardo may start at Sunderland on Saturday in Van Persie's stead fresh from scoring twice in Croatia's 5-0 mauling of Liechtenstein at the weekend, the reality is that the striker is still finding his feet and fitness after almost a year out following an horrific ankle fracture back in February 2008. There have been niggling injuries since and a rustiness that has blunted his edge. His time will surely still come but, in the meantime, Wenger has considered utilising Arshavin, the playmaker turned poacher, in the middle of his front trio with pace and trickery from those at his side.
That would appear a bold move. Players are usually taller than 5ft 8in when they lead the line in the Premier League, although Arsenal are not a side prone to launching the ball long. Walcott's return from knee ligament damage will provide another alternative with Wenger having long considered the England international a player capable of plundering through the middle though, whichever option the Frenchman takes, the sense that Van Persie is one of a kind lingers.
The likely extent of Van Persie's absence will only become clearer later this week after the Dutchman flew to Serbia yesterday to begin the unconventional treatment on his ankle. "I will meet with the female doctor who helped [the PSV Eindhoven midfielder] Danko Lazovic," he said. "She is vague about her methods, but I know she massages you using fluid from a placenta. I am going to try. It cannot hurt and if it helps, it helps." He departed with Arsenal's blessing, and with all fingers crossed.
