WENGER LOSES WALCOTT AND OX FOR BAYERN TRIP

ARSENE WENGER is resigned to taking on Bayern Munich next week without Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott. Oxlade-Chamberlain pulled up with a hamstring problem in the opening minutes of Arsenal’s Capital One Cup defeat at Sheffield Wednesday. Walcott, his replacement at Hillsborough on Tuesday, soon followed him off with tightness in a calf muscle. It gives Wenger a selection headache ahead of Wednesday’s trip to the Allianz Arena because so many of Arsenal’s injuries are in the same area on the right side of midfield. He is already without Aaron Ramsey, who pulled a hamstring against Bayern last week and will be out for a month. Tomas Rosicky, Jack Wilshere and Danny Welbeck are all long-term absentees. Mikel Arteta is also injured, and the crisis has exploded at a vital moment. After a poor start to the European campaign, Arsenal are scrapping to qualify from the Champions League group. They are well placed in the Barclays Premier League, but have a tricky fixture at Swansea on Saturday. Walcott’s injury is not thought to be too serious, but he is expected to be out for a fortnight, which would be enough for him to miss the north London derby against Tottenham and put him in doubt for next month’s England friendlies against Spain and France. There are fears Oxlade-Chamberlain will be out for longer, a personal setback after Ramsey’s injury presented him with the chance for an extended run in the team. That chance may fall instead to Joel Campbell, who is yet to convince Wenger he can be relied upon. Another option is to bring in Kieran Gibbs on the left and move Alexis Sanchez to the right. The Arsenal manager is, however, critically short of options in midfield and attack. Without Walcott and Welbeck, he has only Olivier Giroud to play at centre forward, while there are several young squad players out on loan. Serge Gnabry has made only one brief appearance in the Premier League while on loan at West Bromwich. Isaac Hayden, a 20-year-old midfielder on loan at Hull, has not started in the Championship for six weeks. Chuba Akpom, also at Hull, has featured more often but teenage midfielder Dan Crowley has returned early from his loan spell at Barnsley.