Arsenal have suffered a setback ahead of their Premier League clash with Wolves as full-back Riccardo Calafiori faces a suspension. The defender collected his fifth booking of the campaign during their loss to Aston Villa, triggering an automatic one-match ban. He received the caution in the 72nd minute with the score locked at 1-1.
The Gunners subsequently fell to defeat following a dramatic late winner from Emi Buendia. Calafiori will be forced to miss Arsenal's next Premier League fixture, when they welcome struggling Wolves to the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, December 13. His unavailability represents a significant setback for Arsenal given the defender has featured in every Premier League match this term. He netted the decisive goal in their season-opening triumph against Manchester United.
Throughout this campaign, his duties have involved advancing into attacking positions to support the forward line. Discussing this approach before the fixture, Mikel Arteta remarked: "Controlled? That word and Ricky, especially in the attacking phase, it doesn't match too much.
"But it's something that we want, you know, because he has this intuition, his capacity to smell danger, to attack spaces that are very difficult for the opponent to defend. And he does it in a way that for him is natural, which is always good. So, yeah, we encourage him to do that."
He continued: "In pre-season, last pre-season, we started to say, if you have the feeling and it flows, and things happen naturally and he's comfortable there, and he's more comfortable playing there than the midfield line, and he's very comfortable every time he's stepping into the position box, and he gets better there, well, we have to use that as his quality."
Arsenal faced concerns over the defender during the recent international break following his return from Italy duty. Nevertheless, he proved his fitness by featuring in Arsenal's triumphant north London derby victory against Tottenham when club football resumed.
The ban will prove particularly damaging given injury worries surrounding three other defensive players. Gabriel Magalhaes, William Saliba and Cristhian Mosquera were all absent from the Villa encounter through injury.
There remains optimism that Saliba might recover in time for the upcoming fixture against Wolves.