Arsenal has been dealt a huge injury blow as Arsene Wenger has confirmed Olivier Giroud suffered an ankle injury during the 4-0 win away to Swansea City on Saturday.

The in-form striker, who had scored in each of his last eight starts for the club, once again found the back of the net to give the Gunners the lead eight minutes from half-time but his stay on the pitch was cut short after he signalled to the bench that he was having discomfort. He was taken off the field in the 60th minute and Wenger has now said that he has no idea about how bad the injury is.

“He has an ankle problem, I don’t know how bad it is. But he is being assessed by the doctor. I don’t know, but he’s limping quite a lot and so I hope it’s not too bad,” Wenger told Arsenal’s official website.

Giroud has been in red-hot form and it will be a huge blow for the North London outfit if he gets sidelined for few weeks. They are already going through an injury crisis with Hector Bellerin, Mathieu Debuchy, Kieran Gibbs, Francis Coquelin, Santi Cazorla, Theo Walcott and Per Mertesacker all out due to injuries.

Meanwhile, Arsene Wenger’s side returned to the top four with the thumping win over the Swans. However, the match was not as easy as the scoreline suggests as the visitors struggled to break down a resilient Swansea side before Giroud gave them the lead. Two own goals and one from Alexis Sanchez ensured all three points for the visitors.

“We had some problems to get going but I put that down to the fact that Swansea played very well in the first half. They were well-organised, they put unbelievable work in and certainly the second half we took over and they couldn’t follow the pace that we put into the game anymore. We were relentless until the end and much sharper in the transitions and more accurate and quicker in our passing. That made a big difference,” Wenger pointed out.