Mikel Arteta, Manager of Arsenal, reacts during the Premier League match between Fulham FC and Arsenal FC at Craven Cottage on December 08, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)Mikel Arteta, Manager of Arsenal, reacts during the Premier League match between Fulham FC and Arsenal FC at Craven Cottage on December 08, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Mikel Arteta, Manager of Arsenal, reacts during the Premier League match between Fulham FC and Arsenal FC at Craven Cottage on December 08, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Arsenal injury news ahead of the clash against Everton in the Premier League.
Mikel Arteta has admitted that Arsenal’s injury issues are mounting as two more players were absent from training.
The Gunners face Monaco in the Champions League tonight before they face Everton in the Premier League on Saturday (3pm GMT). In their 1-1 draw against Fulham last weekend, Arsenal were without five defenders in Gabriel, Riccardo Calafiori and Oleksandr Zinchenko along with long-term absentees Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu.
Arteta had hoped to get Gabriel, Calafiori and Zinchenko back for the Gunners’ upcoming games. But the trio were not spotted training before the Monaco encounter. What’s more, two more defensive players were not involved. Jurrien Timber and Thomas Partey, who had to feature at right-back against Fulham, could not be sighted.
It means that seven players could be unavailable for Everton’s trip to the Emirates Stadium - with Arteta confessing that he has decisions to make. The Arsenal boss (via Football.London) said: "We have to manage a lot of the players. Some of them are probably not going to be fit for tomorrow. We have 24 hours to make those decisions.
“It is what it is. We have to accept the challenge, and there are opportunities for other players (that come). In the ideal scenario, we are in charge of those decisions because it (injuries) is forcing us to make them for the wrong reasons. But we need to accept the reality and move forward.
“We have a lot of joint injuries which are very difficult to predict or assess. We have some through tackles that are quite difficult to avoid. The other one is probably overload, the amount of minutes they have to play. The knock-on effect of not having one or two players available means you have to put more stress and minutes into someone else. That’s not a good change because the consequences and loads of other players end up being much higher than you want. But this is where we are.”
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