Arsene Wenger confirmed our worst suspicions ahead of Arsenal’s match against Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday.

Francis Coquelin was subbed off early for Mikel Arteta in our 2-1 Premier League loss against West Brom and appeared to be holding his knee. Although he was limping and seemed to be in pain, the fact that he walked off the pitch unaided gave most Gooners, including myself, a glimmer of hope that it was just a precaution.

Alas, we should have known better. We are Arsenal after all.

Wenger has confirmed that the defensive midfielder will be out for at least two months, which is a huge blow on top of the thousand other injuries we currently have. To make matters worse, Mikel Arteta is also out, so now, unless Wenger decides to get experimental, we have to rely on Mathieu Flamini.

“I’m always cautious,” Wenger said regarding Coq’s injury. “It will be at least two months but I don’t want to speculate more than that.”

The situation is far from ideal and I can’t imagine we won’t sign a new midfielder in January.

Fortunately, it does appear that Rambo will be back in business soon enough and will be available for the match on Tuesday. However, it’s likely that he’ll be handled with kid gloves for the first few weeks, given his injury record.