Arsenal battled through the pain barrier to pick up a crucial victory over Wolves, who had equalised in the 90th minute through Tolu Arokodare
Ryan Taylor
23:09, 13 Dec 2025Updated 23:11, 13 Dec 2025
Mikel Arteta
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Mikel Arteta says he had to risk injury to William Saliba as Arsenal were so light on the ground against Wolves
Mikel Arteta has claimed Arsenal are "buying tickets for another injury" after he decided to play William Saliba in the desperately-late win over Wolves.
The Frenchman had missed the Gunners' past four matches in all competitions, sitting out of Chelsea, Brentford, Aston Villa and Club Brugge due to injury but he returned to the starting line-up on Saturday and soldiered through the entire game.
Arteta said it was rolling the dice because Saliba is still not fully fit, explaining when quizzed on Ben White's injury: "He hasn't played a lot of minutes because of the previous knee issue that he had. Then the moment he started to get some momentum, he had to play a lot because we didn't have any other solution.
"We even had to risk today Willy because probably it wasn't the best call to play 90 minutes because we're buying tickets for another injury but we don't have anybody else."
White was forced off just after the half-hour mark after feeling something in his hamstring as he chased back after Hwang Hee-chan.
Myles Lewis-Skelly replaced him and the former Brighton defender is now set to undergo tests to determine whether he has suffered any notable damage.
Arteta added on White's fitness: "It looks like a hamstring but probably tomorrow or the day after, we will know more."
The Arsenal squad have now been given two days off and will be due to back in at the Sobha Realty Training Centre on Tuesday when preparations will begin for the trip to Everton.
The Gunners have restored their five-point lead at the top of the Premier League but the gap can be closed to two again if Manchester City win at Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Ben White
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Ben White was forced off with a hamstring issue
Still, Arteta sees positives in the fact Arsenal still managed to salvage a win, something he doesn't feel his side might have necessarily done in previous seasons.
He continued: That's something very positive but I don't put it down to resilience.
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"We should have stopped the source before and that's on us. You have to give credit to Wolves and what they've done. I watched the game when they played Stamford Bridge, when they played against Villa and how unlucky they were not to get a result.
"I knew that wasn't going to be an easy game at all but we made it even harder with what we did in the manner that we conceded the goal and that's unacceptable."
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