Even away from Emirates Stadium, injury blows with some impact on Arsenal are seemingly never-ending. The Gunners have been plagued by key absences this season with Gabriel Magalhaes and Riccardo Calafiori the major doubts to feature against Everton on Saturday.
Prior to the 3-0 Champions League win against Monaco, Jurrien Timber and Thomas Partey missed training which sparked concern over whether they would be able to feature. Thankfully for Arteta, it looked to just be load management as Partey played the full game with Timber introduced for the final half hour.
Arteta has been rather tight-lipped on what is keeping Calafiori and Gabriel out of action, but recently he offered insight into their respective recoveries amid hope the latter can return this weekend. “We need a cage there because he [Calafiori] wants to go out, train and play," the Arsenal boss said earlier this week.
"We need to calm him down because he is so willing. It is the way he is, the way he plays. It started with the national team with a kick, then he had the knee issue. After that he lost a lot of things. Because of the injuries he had to play more than we wanted. And then he got the issue in his groin."
"Big Gabi has not had a muscular injury [before, but] he is playing a lot now, he is travelling, going to Brazil, he is a starter with Brazil." Takehiro Tomiyasu, Ben White and Oleksandr Zinchenko are also currently dealing with injuries and now a player still on Arsenal's books is set for an extended period out of action.
In the summer, Reiss Nelson joined Fulham on loan from the Gunners and has thus far impressed while at Craven Cottage. Unfortunately for him, he will not be able to continue doing that for the next few months after picking up a hamstring injury against Brighton with Fulham boss Marco Silva offering a rough timeline on his return.
"Joachim and Harrison Reed are out," he said before the Premier League clash against Liverpool. "Reiss Nelson is going to be longer. Probably around 10 weeks, he'll be out." Regardless of his injury, Nelson was always guaranteed to miss last weekend's 1-1 draw against Arsenal as he would be ineligible to face his parent club.
With Nelson joining former Arsenal trio Emile Smith Rowe, Bernd Leno and Alex Iwobi, Arteta sent a clear message to all four players ahead of reuniting with them. "They’re doing very well," he told reporters. "I’m very happy for them. Reiss is still one of our own but the rest as well. It will be great to see them."
Though Nelson's injury does not directly impact Arsenal, his absence and possible further injury problems may come into play when the time arrives for decisions to be made on his future.