As Arsenal’s attackers finally return from injury, the Football Gods have deemed it the turn of the Gunners defence with William Saliba out of the squad to face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
When the Arsenal team was announced for their trip to Stamford Bridge, William Saliba’s missing name was as much of a standout as it was to see Gabriel Jesus and Viktor Gyokeres both on the bench.
The defender seemed fine in training photos Arsenal released before the game, but something clearly happened in that training session, meaning he watched the match from the sidelines, alongside his centreback partner, Gabriel.
Before the game, Mikel Arteta said: “Yesterday in training he was uncomfortable, so we need to explore a little bit more what happened. I don’t think it’s something major, but enough not to be involved in the game.”
After the match, Arteta told reporters when asked about the impact of losing both Gabriel and Saliba, “It’s been a headache, because we’ve had to have a lot of options and changes over the last few months for different reasons.
“That one is very unexpected and it happened yesterday, but the beauty of it is that you have players so willing to play, so willing to connect with each other, and it makes their relationship even better. So, it was a great match for all of us, and it gives you the reassurance that whoever is there is going to perform.”
Asked about when the pair are likely to return he added, “I don’t know. I think [Wilo] has another test tomorrow to see the extent of that feeling, that sensation that he had, then we’ll know more. With Gabi, there are still some weeks to go.”
Leandro Trossard was also missing, failing to recover from the problem he picked up against Bayern Munich midweek.
Arteta added, “It’s been a big week, starting with the derby, with how emotional and the intention we had to win it, then to play Bayern Munich three days later. We lost players in those games and today, for example, we had to play a partnership we hadn’t played before in a really difficult match.
“The captain is still not here, the No. 9 is still not here, Kai [Havertz] is still not here, and we lost Leo [Trossard] in midweek as well. But the team had to react to that, and overall it’s been a really positive week, because the difficulty has been immense, but I have this flavour that today we should’ve won the game, and we haven’t. That’s a learning point for me.”
Arsenal team to face Chelsea: Raya, Timber, Mosquera, Hincapie, Calafiori, Rice, Zubimendi, Eze, Saka, Martinelli, Merino.
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Lewis-Skelly, White, Odegaard, Norgaard, Nwaneri, Madueke, Gyokeres, Jesus.
As always, you can keep up-to-date with all Arsenal’s injury problems on our dedicated injury page.