Following Saturday’s injury to Ben White, Arsenal need to put faith in their youth players to step up to the first-team squad over the festive period.
On Saturday night, Mikel Arteta confirmed that Ben White appears to have suffered a hamstring injury, with further assessments to follow over the coming days.
That’s a significant blow to Arsenal, as the Gunners went into the current campaign with their only senior alternatives to Jurrien Timber being White and Cristhian Mosquera. If White is out for weeks, with Mosquera already sidelined, Arsenal now have no obvious options to replace Timber.
That’s particularly problematic because Timber has had injury flare-ups of his own recently. The defender was forced to sit out of Wednesday’s game against Club Brugge after picking up a knock, so it’s fair to say he’s not fully fit himself.
If Arsenal simply cross their fingers and hope that picking Timber in every single match from now until White or Mosquera return won’t be an issue, there’s a good chance we’ll soon be hearing about the Dutch international being ruled out of action. The Gunners need to consider alternatives.
In the senior squad, there are a few players with very limited right-back experience.
William Saliba played there a few times for Saint-Etienne and Marseille, but never for Arsenal. Riccardo Calafiori played a couple of games at right-back for AS Roma’s u17 team. Christian Norgaard played there once, for Lyngby Boldklub, in 2011.
The more obvious alternatives come from Arsenal’s academy, with Marli Salmon and Josh Nichols both available and already taking part in first-team training on a regular basis.
Both Salmon and Nichols have already made their Arsenal debuts under Arteta. Salmon came on at right-back just this week against Club Brugge, whilst Nichols played the full 90 minutes in the League Cup 5-1 win over Bolton Wanderers last season.
Yet there’s no denying it would be a big ask for either of the two to start any of Arsenal’s upcoming matches.
Coming on at 3-0 against Club Brugge or starting against a League One team is one thing, but playing Premier League matches in a title race or starting in a League Cup quarter-final against a top club like Crystal Palace would be another.
But Arsenal don’t really have much of a choice. A serious Timber injury would be devastating, and the club must protect him.
At the very least, one of Salmon or Nichols needs to be in the matchday squads over the coming weeks, replacing Timber as a substitute whenever possible.
Then Arteta needs to have a serious think about whether it’s worth starting Timber in the League Cup quarter-final, three days after the away game against Everton, four days before another Premier League match against Brighton.
With Ismaila Sarr away at AFCON, Palace’s left-wing won’t be at full strength. Perhaps the most sensible option would be to rest Timber and give Nichols another League Cup run-out.