Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger willing to spend in January after Walcott injury

Theo Walcott is out for the season with a knee injury

Sky Sports reports that Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has admitted Theo Walcott’s season-ending injury may force his hand and see him enter the transfer market in January.

Wenger has long preferred to avoid shopping in the mid-season window, but with a heavy amount of injuries sustained in his attacking areas of late, he feels he may need reinforcements in order to keep Arsenal’s title bid as strong as possible.

Wenger does have Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain coming back into contention while Serge Gnabry impressed against Spurs in the FA Cup, but with a paucity of attacking options available to him presently, Wenger is well aware that he needs to bolster his threadbare squad.

The Gunners boss told reporters: “[Walcott's injury] has accelerated speculation first and of course my desire as well – but let’s not forget about Serge Gnabry who can play in the first team.

“We have Oxlade-Chamberlain back and we have many other players who can play on the flanks so to find better solutions than what we have internally will not be easy.

“Up front we lose Theo as a potential centre-forward and that’s maybe where we have to look outside. We hopefully have Bendtner back in three weeks. We are there for the opportunities, but it is very difficult at the moment.

Wenger also backed Walcott to bounce back from his injury that will see him miss the World Cup in Brazil this summer, saying, “Theo is handling it as well as you can when you have such a shock because he’s mentally strong, he’s a very balanced person and he can put it into perspective.

“We know that he will have the dedication and the serious attitude to come back as strong as ever.”

Arsenal will hope to have Oxlade-Chamberlain in the squad against Villa for the first time since the opening day defeat to the same opposition, while Aaron Ramsey and Kieran Gibbs could also be back in contention.

Since returning from injury at the end of November, Walcott scored five goals in nine appearances with a conversion rate of 26.3%.

He created 14 chances in that time as well, but whoever deputises for him on the wing will hope to achieve better than the 28% success rate he achieved when attempting to take-on a player.