da fezbet： It was almost Danny who?
da 888casino： Manchester-born Danny Welbeck had spent six seasons in the Red Devils’ first-team squad, making his debut in September 2008 at the age of 17. He went on to win the Premier League, League Cup (twice) and FIFA Club World Cup for United, scoring 29 times in 142 appearances.
An established England international, Welbeck scored six times in seven appearances for England during 2014/15, including match-winning braces against Switzerland and Slovenia in the European Championship qualifiers.
The 25-year-old moved to Arsenal from their bitter rivals Manchester United in a £16m deal in 2014 after he was deemed surplus to requirement by Louis van Gaal. It was known that the rejection by Van Gaal hurt Welbeck, as he had been at Old Trafford since childhood and only saw his future with United. Van Gaal had other ideas and he was sold.
For Welbeck, his time with Arsenal started well enough, but in April last year, it came crashing down after the Chelsea game. What was meant to be a few weeks out with a knee injury, ended up being ten months on the sidelines. He became England’s forgotten man. But not anymore. Arsenal’s adaptable striker returned last weekend against Leicester and scored the winning goal. All this after set-back after set-back, but a never say die attitude.
The Arsenal medical team treated the injured knee time after time and were convinced it was no more than bruising as Welbeck became unable to train. He would pull-up or not be able to participate at all, as the pain kept on nagging at him. With an up-coming FA Cup Final, Welbeck was attempting to beat the injury, but in the end it got the better of the 25 year old and it became very apparent that Welbeck would be out for longer than first thought.
Following the necessary surgery Arsenal announced at the time that: “It had been hoped he would avoid surgery, but after increasing his training workload, the injury to his cartilage did not respond as well as hoped and the decision was taken last week for him to undergo surgery by a leading specialist in the field.”
As Welbeck stepped up his fitness regime he continued to break down and the longer this went on and he didn’t play, the longer Welbeck became the forgotten man outside of The Emirates.
Since his debilitating injury, other strikers have risen to the fore and now Welbeck faces a fight to regain a place within the England squad. Much in the same way as ‘Welbz’, West Ham’s Andy Carroll faces similar problems after a lengthy lay-off. But both have a target to aim for and both are superb finishers on their day.
The European Championships are a matter of months away and as Wayne Rooney can pack his bags with some confidence of a place, others are still ahead of the pair from London. The continued rise of Tottenham’s Harry Kane virtually guarantees him a place, Daniel Sturridge is back and scoring goals again and with Leicester’s Jamie Vardy emerging and Jermain Defoe an outside possibility, Welbeck has some work to do. Luckily Roy Hodgson is a Welbeck fan and as long as he’s fit and scoring, he’ll be in with a shout.
So far as Arsenal are concerned, Olivier Giroud has had a decent season although he is not as pacy as Welbeck and it is Welbeck that seems to compliment Ozil’s style of play better.
Some Arsenal fans have gone a bit overboard claiming after the win last weekend that the title is theirs. Fanciful maybe, but there’s no doubt that the return of Danny Welbeck has given everyone at Arsenal a boost and an injection of confidence. So, if he can stay fit and keep scoring and there’s every likelihood with his pedigree that he can, then you can’t bet against them.
The league title chase just got a little more interesting.
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