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Arsenal will look to bounce back from their disappointing draw with Fulham when they take on AS Monaco in the Champions League.
Arsenal face another busy week as they prepare for key fixtures in the Premier League and Champions League. The Gunners missed the chance to cut Liverpool’s gap at the top of the Premier League to four points as they drew 1-1 at Fulham on Sunday afternoon.
Bukayo Saka had a late goal ruled out after Gabriel Martinelli was deemed to have been offside in the build-up. Meanwhile, London rivals Chelsea took advantage of Liverpool’s fixture with Everton being called off as they won 4-3 at Tottenham Hotspur, coming from 2-0 down to clinch victory in North London. They now sit four points adrift of the leaders.
Up next for the Gunners is the visit of AS Monaco in the Champions League. Mikel Arteta’s side have won three of their five games in the league phase of the competition, with 10 points on the board. They sit inside the top eight, which provides immediate passage to the round of 16, with three games remaining. Monaco are one place below them, with the Gunners boasting a better goal difference. A total of seven sides are on 10 points, with the fight for a top-eight spot set to go down to the wire.
Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting at the Emirates, there are injury concerns for both Arsenal and Monaco to contend with. Monaco were dealt a fresh concern over the weekend while Arteta will hope some of his injured stars will be fit enough to return in midweek.
AS Monaco injury news
Wednesday’s visitors will be without midfielders Denis Zakaria and Soungoutou Magass. Zakaria is the captain of the Ligue 1 side and picked up a hamstring injury in the warm-up ahead of Saturday’s 2-0 win over Toulouse in Ligue 1.
Monaco manager Adi Hütter said: “Zaki got injured again. He felt something in his hamstring and we preferred not to take any chances. I’m a little worried. I had these kind of injuries a lot when I was a player, I have a little bit of this experience. We’ll see with the MRI tomorrow, I can’t say much more for now.”
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Arsenal injury news
For Arsenal, Gabriel Magalhaes, Riccardo Calafiori and Oleksandr Zinchencko missed out against Fulham with it currently unclear if they will be fit enough to face Monaco. Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu are longer-term absentees and will miss out in midweek as they are not due back until at least January.
Arteta said after Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Fulham that he hoped to have the former trio back against Monaco but was unable to provide any clear timelines. He said: “I hope, but it’s more a question for the doctors and physios to understand where we are. We are missing a lot of players in the backline. The good thing is that whatever we put there they respond. They respond with a good attitude and performance.
“We know that when we have consistency there [in defence] how much it’s giving us. That’s a different season. It’s bringing different challenges. We’re trying to face them and we’re going to continue in that direction.”
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