Johan Djourou hopes early return can brace Arsenal for late title push

Posted Thursday, March 17, 2011 by Guardian.co.uk

• Arsenal defender optimistic over shoulder injury
• 'I believe we will win the Premier League'

Johan Djourou hopes early return can brace Arsenal for late title push
Arsenal's Johan Djourou lies on the pitch after dislocating his shoulder during the FA Cup defeat by Manchester United.

Johan Djourou says that Arsenal will win the Premier League title and believes that the achievement would be even more special than the club's Invincibles triumph of seven years ago. The Switzerland centre-half has also not yet given up hope of making a return from his shoulder injury in time for the final push.

Djourou dislocated the shoulder in a freakish collision with his team-mate Bacary Sagna in Saturday's FA Cup quarter-final defeat at Manchester United and he has since run the gamut of emotions. After the pain, came the hope when scans showed that there were no ruptures to the tendons or fractures to the bone. Based on this, the Swiss Football Association ran an optimistic bulletin that the injury was not too serious.

But Djourou knew that the damage in the area was still bad – he was told as much after one of his scans on Monday – and the only question regarded whether he needed an operation that would end his season or if he could get away without one and possibly miss only four to six weeks of action.

He feared the worst when he attended a consultation in London on Wednesday afternoon with the same specialist who treated the shoulder injuries of his club-mate Theo Walcott. But the specialist told him that he wanted to postpone the decision over surgery until early next week, as there was a chance that the problem could resolve itself naturally.

Djourou continues to worry that the operation will be required but he is feeling more upbeat.

"In my heart, I was initially hopeful because they said to me that I didn't have a rupture and nothing was broken so I was thinking: 'Brilliant, I can get back as quickly as possible,'" he said.

"But then we come to reality. When you dislocate a shoulder, it takes a lot more time. The thing with shoulders is that if you don't operate and I played in a month, it could come out again. We'll just have to see how it settles over the next few days."

Djourou's absence is a blow to Arsène Wenger, who is already without his best central defender Thomas Vermaelen, because of a long-term achilles problem. The Arsenal manager will put his faith in Laurent Koscielny and Sébastien Squillaci, despite them failing to convince as a partnership.

Djourou's frustration is heightened given he was enjoying the best season of his career after the nightmare of missing virtually the entire campaign last time out because of a knee ligament injury. But he continues to see the silver lining.

"I truly believe that we will be the champions," he said. "We are disappointed with our cup exits but the Premier League is still the main trophy, we are still on for it and we have to believe.

"I also think that people don't give us the credit we deserve. We get a lot of stick because we haven't won for a while and we just want to win to put an end to all that. To say, 'That's it, there it is'."

Djourou signed for Arsenal as a 16-year-old in 2003 from Etoile Carouge in Geneva and he was at the north London club when they went undefeated through the 2003‑04 season to win the title.

"I think it would be even more special to win the Premier League this time," Djourou said, "because the wait has been so long for us to win something and, also, the weight of the pressure that people have put on us has been so great. These are the two things that we need to get rid off.

"It's true that there is a lot of weight on our shoulders. We always say we don't care about it but of course, when people say it to you all of the time, it gets in your head at some point. You are always thinking about it. It might be just a relief for the club and the players to win the title."

Djourou is aware of the view that Arsenal are wont to toss away their chances of silverware. "In a way, it's true," he said, "because we have been in situations where we were points clear but we managed to lose.

"We haven't won for so long but we have got the quality and if we could get that first trophy, it could be the start of something new."