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Arsenal have suffered a blow as defender William Saliba has gone off injured in the early minutes of the Premier League clash against Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday, August 31. The Frenchman was replaced by new signing Cristhian Mosquera in the fifth minute.
Mikel Arteta's side face the defending champions today at Anfield with both sides looking to extend their 100% winning run in the Premier League this season. Both sides won their opening matches, but at least one of their runs was set to end.
Arsenal have not won at Anfield since 2012, and their wish to get all three points today suffered a blow early in the game. Saliba, who has formed a formidable partnership with Gabriel in the defence, was taken off injured after a coming together with Liverpool striker Hugo Ekitike. The defender had his foot stamped on by the striker and was unable to continue.
The injury adds to Arteta's worry as Bukayo Saka was also ruled out ahead of the game. The Englishman is set to be on the sidelines for weeks with a hamstring injury, and the manager said:
"Bukayo is doing better, but he will be out for a few weeks, unfortunately. No surgery. It's not as bad as the previous one. Very unfortunate to pick it up because it’s on the other side. It's an action that requires full power from him. Then, he clashes with the opponent, he needs to change pace again, and he felt something. So he will be out for a couple of weeks."
Martin Odegaard was also doubtful for the game after coming off in the 5-0 win over Leeds United, but the club captain has made the bench at Anfield.
Mikel Arteta spoke about Kai Havertz's injury ahead of Liverpool vs Arsenal
Mikel Arteta was questioned about Kai Havertz's injury in his pre-Liverpool press conference, and the Arsenal manager admitted that the German was out for weeks. He added that the former Chelsea man had a knee issue and had to undergo surgery. He said:
"I think it will be weeks, but I don't know how many months. Very unfortunate, very sad for him. He did tremendously well to recover from the previous one; he’d never had an injury before, and suddenly this happens. But this is our profession, our football, we need to live with that. We lost another big player for many, many weeks, but it [surgery] was the right thing to do. The doctors advised and I think he was very convinced at the end that it was the quickest and the best way to resolve that issue."
Arsenal are in talks to sign Piero Hincapié from Bayer Leverkusen on loan for the season. The defender is set to have his medical before completing the move on deadline day, September 1.
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Sripad is a veteran Sportskeeda football journalist who has been with the company for around 10 years. His tryst with writing happened in class XI when he started penning blogs, and his foray into football was during the early 2000s, watching matches with his cousins.
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If given a chance to change a football rule, Sripad wants VAR to be fully automated and offside rules to be less stringent. When not working, he likes to watch past Formula 1 races and play FIFA.
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