Mikel Arteta says Emile Smith Rowe picked up a muscular injury in Arsenal’s win over Leicester City on Sunday.

There were a lot of positives to take from Arsenal’s win away to Leicester City at the weekend. After a poor start to the match, Mikel Arteta’s side largely dominated, and they turned that dominance into goals to record a 3-1 win.

There were positive displays from the likes of Willian and Nicolas Pepe, but the one worrying sign (excluding Leicester’s opener) was seeing Emile Smith Rowe go down with an injury.

The 20-year-old has a history with injuries, and the problem forced him off after just 42 minutes of the Leicester match. Arteta explained afterwards that it was a muscular problem.

“It was a muscular injury so we decided to take him out,” Arteta said. “Hopefully, it’s not going to be too bad.

“I’m concerned because for Emile to come out and say, ‘I cannot continue playing’… It should be something related to his hip. I don’t know how bad he is but he was in a good place after the game.”

It would certainly be a blow to see Smith Rowe out for any serious period of time. Arsenal have the midweek off, so that will help, but we’ll have to wait and see how long he misses.

This is exactly why Martin Odegaard was brought in. It would have been madness to expect Smith Rowe to stay fit and play every game for the rest of the season, and the Real Madrid loanee has done a good job in his place when called upon.

Odegaard will likely start against Burnley now, but if Smith Rowe can make it back in time to replace him in one of the following matches, that would be a boost.