In December, a sudden cold snap swept across the British Isles.
Far away in north London, Wenger's mood at Colney Training Base was even colder than the weather outside.
Sagna and Gibbs were injured!
The team doctor had discovered it during training that day and told him that both players would miss the Premier League's fourteenth round at the weekend.
That meant Wenger would have not even a single regular full-back available for the away match against Man City.
Damn it, how was he supposed to play this match?
In the midweek League Cup game, he had not fielded traditional full-backs because he had wanted to defend solidly. And what had happened? They had still lost.
Now he had made up his mind. Since they could not defend properly, he would go all-out against Man City and fight Guardiola to the bitter end.
But he had never expected all his full-backs to get injured.
For fuck's sake! Could things get any worse?
Had anyone ever been this unlucky?
Wenger felt like going crazy. He grew extremely agitated.
Arsenal currently sat seventh in the Premier League table, just three points behind fourth-placed Newcastle, but that did not mean Arsenal had a great chance. Quite the opposite—in fifth and sixth ahead of Arsenal were Chelsea and Liverpool, and both teams were eyeing the top four hungrily.
By Wenger's own estimation, Newcastle were unlikely to hold on to a top-four spot, but Tottenham Hotspur still had a very good chance of staying there. The teams at the top, Man City and Manchester United, were both performing steadily, especially Man City, who had maintained a perfect record so far.
Under such circumstances, if Arsenal wanted to break into the top four, they had to produce solid results.
In other words, Arsenal had to try