It’s only the start of a new season, and already our dire luck with injuries has struck again, this time with arguably our player of the season last time out, Samir Nasri, breaking his leg. News is he will only be out for three months (the fact we say ONLY three months, just illustrates how used to these injuries we have now become), which I find hard to believe considering he was said to have BROKEN his leg. Although, saying that, I am certainly no doctor.

So now, onto the implications that this injury will have on the early stages (fingers crossed it stays at that) of our season. We're fine on the left of midfield, which is where Nasri has largely played for us. As the players that are likely to step in to replace him are all far better when playing on the left. I am referring to the likes of Arshavin, Rosicky, Walcott, Vela, but the problem here is the weakness on the right. I simply don’t see who in our squad would play there regularly and excel? The role doesn’t suit any of the previously mentioned names, because the angle isn’t right, they are restricted to only crossing the ball being right footed, which doesn’t suit their strengths. As for Vela, when on the wing he is more of a traditional ‘winger’ which is more suited to playing on the left. The only player that we have that is more of a threat when on the right is Wilshere, but at 17, we should avoid placing too much pressure on him. So this injury could give us the added incentive to purchase a quality right sided midfielder, someone in the mould of a Yoann Gourcuff would be fantastic. Not that I expect this to happen.

The injury could also possibly force Wenger’s hand into purchasing a new defensive midfielder for next season, as we saw Nasri playing there at the end of last season. This is certainly a possibility, however I do not think this is the case, as although Nasri can do a job as a defensive midfielder, it is a waste of his talents and he is certainly not suited to the role. In my opinion, next season we should either sign someone for the postion, or play one of Song or Ramsey there. Song because he is simply the best at it we have, and Ramsey because - bar Fabregas - he is by far our most talented central midfielder and he will need to be given a chance at some stage, so why not now whilst we are weak in this area?

Another problem with Nasri being injured is that it could, along with the departure of our dear Adebayor, leave us very light upfront. With Walcott, Arshavin and Vela needed on the wings, we will be left with Van Persie, who has a history of injury problems, Eduardo, whose fitness is very unreliable at the moment, and Bendtner who although I believe is a potentially quality striker, is still a bit of a rough diamond and not someone I would trust to be starting 25 Premiership games just yet. The signing of a striker this summer, for me is currently more important at this stage than the defensive midfield position. Not sure who the striker I would recommend is, I’d leave that to the boss, but I certainly don’t fall into the ‘get Huntelaar’ camp. He may get you goals, but he does very little else and I prefer players to have a more all round contribution to matches. Also you can almost completely write off Huntelaar’s scoring record in the Dutch league as evidence of his ability, as there have been many players down the years who dominate the Eredivisie and then score very little elsewhere, namely Kezman and Kuyt. I would even argue the purchase of a right sided midfielder is a higher priority, although of course I would love us to sign a defensive midfielder, taking into account our current financial state, we simply have to make priorities.

So all in all, this injury to Nasri simply strengthens my view that we need to add at least one more quality player to our squad this summer, whichever position it might be in. I am sure on this point at least, that you all will agree with me, although whether this actually happens, I am less confident.

However, on a more positive slant, I would definitely say that going into this season we are stronger than going into the last. As we have only lost Adebayor (who isn’t exactly the most important player we could have lost), we have added Arshavin, got Rosicky and Eduardo back to fitness, and everyone else has a year’s extra experience. Of course, we have also added Vermaelen, but at this stage, I could not say he is any better than Silvestre or Senderos, so couldn’t say he will improve our squad.