I don't personally think the Burnley side works against most teams. I'm keen to blood Lokonga but he'll naturally get minutes as part of squad rotation. All that being said, I can't see beyond Xhaka as first choice at the moment (sadly).

We might as well use this period to give AMN a run in the midfield and finally decide whether he's worth it or not. If yes, we have found a Xhaka replacement and if not, we should get him out in the summer.

Problem is that nobody matches Xhaka for progressive passes. Odegaard may theoretically be able to do it, but is much weaker defensively. Lokonga and Maitland are better ball carriers.

Whatever the option, there's a big trade-off. This injury has come at a bad time.

We’ll be just fine. Time to step up Loko. Nothing in his way now.

It will be an interesting experiment. Usually when Xhaka is out for a long period the grass doesn't end up being greener, but I don't think we've ever had a fit and firing Partey in midfield so the hope is we fare better.

From my point of view, the silver linking is we might be forced to play the 4-3-3 more often and I really want that system to work. Though I also think Partey and Lokonga as a pairing has lots of potential.

Good thing we held on to Elneny.

It also means I can watch Arsenal games again.

Welcome back. The forum missed you and Bosscielny while you were out injured.

Sicario wrote:

Good thing we held on to Elneny.

Yeah if Partey, AMN, Lokonga, Smith-Rowe and Sambi all get injured too we'll probably need him.

Xhaka's injury may impact our plans for the Jan window, particularly as Elneny and Partey will both depart for the AFCON not long after Xhaka's potential return to availability, let alone if we see any departures by either Leno or even Xhaka himself.

The squad is already massively bloated, we can't afford to be making signings based off of a single injury. We have plenty of cover for Xhaka, just need to get on with it.

Especially if we want our youth to blossom.

Just play Lokonga.

This is the perfect opportunity to try out Partey-Odegard-ESR, and a forward 3 of Saka-Auba-Pepe.

Pepe isn't everyone's cup of tea (he isn't mine either) but he does add pace and an element of unpredictability to the side. And he has goals in him too.

I don't rate Xhaka defensively (bizarre tackling technique, doesn't track runners well and non-existent recovery pace), so not worried about Partey-Odegard-ESR defensively. It's his on the ball quality (when given time and space) that we often miss when he isn't in the side but playing Odegard, who is the better footballer, in his place would take care of that.

a month later

[Twitter]

Poor bloke. Hopefully it looks worse than it is.

poor guy, second time this has happened in as many international breaks.

Just when he was about to break into our team too. Feel sorry for him.

Awful timing for him. You do wonder why he didn't just leave in the summer and secure his future rather than trying to squeeze every penny out of the situation.