Arsenal suffered a triple injury blow in their 1-0 victory over London rivals Crystal Palace in the Premier League. Eberechi Eze’s first-half strike against his former club was enough to take the Gunners across the finish line. Despite bagging the three points on offer, Arteta will not be too pleased with the three Arsenal stars who had to be replaced due to injuries.
Bukayo Saka was among the players replaced by the Spanish boss. It was later revealed by Arteta that the attacker was carrying an illness, and it was a precautionary decision to take him off the field of play before he sustained any injuries.
Saka was visibly off colour in the game against the Eagles. Arsenal were leading the game when the decision to replace Saka with Martinelli was made. Saka’s 2025/26 campaign has been marred by injuries, allowing the Englishman to start only six out of the nine league games played by the Gunners this season.
What’s the update on Saka?
Mikel Arteta admitted in the post-match presser that his backroom staff were unsure about Saka’s involvement in the Crystal Palace fixture until the very last moments. The boss also lauded his attacker’s excellent commitment that enabled him to turn fit in time for the English top-flight game. Here is what Arteta has been quoted as saying by Goal –
“He’s been ill, he hasn’t trained really, so we didn’t know whether he was going to be fit, so he made a big effort to be available today. The doctor was brilliant as well to guide us, to give us the best opportunity for him to be in the best possible condition, so he’s managed to play a few minutes. The longer the game went on, the more he was going to fatigue and risk an injury, and we didn’t want to take that risk.”
Triple injury blow to the Gunners
The timely update on Saka will be pleasing news for the Emirates faithful. However, three other Arsenal stars were forced off the field against Crystal Palace due to injuries. William Saliba was the first to be taken off at the half-time break and was replaced by Cristhian Mosquera. Declan Rice and Riccardo Calafiori joined Saliba in the sick bay in the closing moments of the game. Here is what Arteta spoke about the injured trio –
“The first one was Willy who had to be taken out after the first half, Declan was struggling from the first half with a knock that he took and Riccy, let’s see how that will go.”
The Gunners are scheduled to play host to Brighton in an EFL Cup fourth-round fixture before making two challenging away trips to Burnley and Slavia Praha in the coming days. The Emirates faithful would be hopeful of having their best players available and fit for these important clashes.