Gunners lose injured Gallas

Arsenal FC will be without captain William Gallas after the centre-back suffered a groin injury in yesterday's 1-1 draw with Blackburn Rovers FC.

Dunn leveller
Gallas, who turned 30 on Friday, picked up the injury trying to avoid a challenge from Roque Santa Cruz in the 24th minute and was taken off soon after. "He has done his groin, I knew it straight away," Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger said. "He will be out for three weeks." The injury compounded a difficult afternoon for Arsenal who were forced to settle for a single point despite leading for much of the match through Robin van Persie's 17th-minute strike. Blackburn drew level with 19 minutes left when David Dunn's long-range strike slipped through the hands of Jens Lehmann. It was the second mistake Lehmann had made in a week that had led to a goal, but Wenger stood firm in defence of his veteran goalkeeper.

'Unhappy'
"Of course Jens is really unhappy with it," he said. "He is really down in the dressing room. I don't need to tell him he made a mistake, he is an intelligent boy and he knows that. We do not want to blame him today. We just want to take the positives from our behaviour. I am very happy with the team and their resilience. I must say we battled very hard. The players are of course frustrated because we should have come home with three points but let's just keep that attitude in the future." Arsenal are seventh in the Premier League with four points from two games and are on course to return to the UEFA Champions League after defeating AC Sparta Praha 2-0 in the away leg of their third qualifying round tie last week with return, which Gallas will miss, next Wednesday.