Mikel Arteta: I’d just stay at home if Arsenal didn’t have desire to win title
Mikel Arteta: I’d just stay at home if Arsenal didn’t have desire to win title
Arsenal Football Newsletter
Arsenal Football Newsletter
Mikel Arteta is hopeful Eberechi Eze and Kai Havertz have avoided serious injuries after being forced off in Arsenal's win over Newcastle.
Eze scored the only goal of the match, firing in a superb strike from distance inside the opening ten minutes for what proved to be the winner.
He had to be replaced early in the second-half after going down off the ball. By that stage, Kai Havertz had already been replaced after limping off with just over half an hour played.
Eze sat on the bench rather than going straight down the tunnel, indicating it was not a significant issue, and Arteta suggested Havertz's injury was also not a major one.
"They are muscular niggles," Arteta said.
"We don't think it's too much. We have to wait and see if they can be available for Wednesday."
Expanding on why Havertz had to go off, Arteta added: "He had a little niggle.
"I don't know how serious it is. It didn't look to big. The action, the way he describes it, is not too sharp. But we have to wait and see."
Kai Havertz was forced off in the first half against Newcastle
Arsenal will hope both can prove their fitness to be involved in the Champions League semi-final trip to Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night.
Arteta has not yet had the chance to play the pair alongside Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka this season due to a succession of injury issues.
The Arsenal manager also revealed that Martin Zubimendi had been battling illness leading up to the match and that led to his replacement against Newcastle with ten minutes remaining.
"Zubi was sick," Arteta said.
"At half-time he wasn't feeling good. He tried his very best, I think he played a really good game.
"But at the end we had to take him off."