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Piero Hincapié won't face Lille at the Emirates tonight, and neither will Martín Zubimendi. Mikel Arteta confirmed that both hurt their ankles in the warm-down after Saturday's 2-1 win over Leeds, so Zubimendi has been lost to a day on which he never got off the bench. Both were due scans on Monday, and Arteta said a time frame for each would follow. He said Hincapié's injury looked the more serious of the two. Hincapié could be facing a broken foot or ankle and a long spell out, according to Arseblog News, and the manager's own words make that hard to wave away.
Losing two players in an extra post-match session is maddening injury news, because nothing in the match caused it. Neither had started a Premier League game this season as of Saturday. Hincapié's three league appearances and Zubimendi's five all came off the bench. Zubimendi cost £55.8m from Real Sociedad in July 2025. Squad players or not, a senior defender and a senior midfielder are a lot to lose in one go, and it lands just as the Champions League starts filling the gaps between league games.
The better news is William Saliba, who has resumed training on his own after a long-standing back problem. The same site has him targeting a return next month, but Arteta couldn't say whether he'd be available before the mid-November international break. "In the next few weeks, we can start to introduce him to the team to see where we are to actually make him available for the squad," he said. That puts Saliba weeks away from helping, so he's no answer to tonight's shortage.
Tonight is also Arsenal's first competitive meeting with Lille, and it brings a reunion for both sides. Gabriel Magalhães left Brazil for Lille in 2017 and moved on to Arsenal three years later. He played 52 times for the French club and got a taste of the Champions League there. He called it "a very special day" and said he has "a lot of love for LOSC". Olivier Giroud is the other returning face. He's 40 now and has 12 goals in 51 games for Lille since arriving last season from Los Angeles FC, having scored 105 times in 253 appearances for Arsenal. Arteta remembered him as "really, really a handful". That scoring record isn't a farewell tour, so Arsenal's centre-backs should treat him as a threat before they treat him as a tribute.
Martin Ødegaard's real contribution to Saturday's comeback came from fixing Arsenal's press rather than from his creativity, according to [The Athletic](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7684138/2026/10/13/did-you-notice-martin-odegaard-press-tactics-fixer/).
Arteta's own verdict on Leeds focused on the final third, where he wants Arsenal to finish more of the moves they start. "We need to be more clinical now to finish more actions," he said. Even so, he's content with the openings Arsenal are making. Thirty of their 78 league shots have hit the target, and their 10 goals are the fifth-most in the division even though their shot count sits midtable. Those numbers point at volume more than finishing, which makes the more useful half of what Arteta said his wish to get Bukayo Saka into central areas more often. Saka is already Arsenal's top league scorer with three, and the closer he plays to goal, the more of those shots should fall to him. Arsenal's league wins have mostly been tight, with three of the five settled by one goal, so a few more chances through the middle would give them some breathing room at Nottingham Forest on 18 October.