Declan Rice has insisted he’ll be available to face Aston Villa with Arsenal this weekend, despite his late substitution on Wednesday due to an injury complaint.
Arsenal suffered a couple more injury scares during Wednesday night’s 2-0 win over Brentford, with Cristhian Mosquera forced off in the first half and Declan Rice in the second.
After the game, Mikel Arteta initially suggested that both injuries would require further assessment.
“Yes, obviously it’s never good news, Declan [Rice] had to come off, we don’t know, we’ll have to see tomorrow what he’s got,” Arteta said. “[Cristhian] Mosquera is the other one that is out, obviously we have big Gabi and Willy [Saliba] out as well.”
“[Rice] could not carry on playing, so we have to wait and see tomorrow what happens,” Arteta added. “[On Mosquera], we have to wait and see. It’s probably the knee or ankle. We don’t know. He could not really tell us exactly how it was, but he wasn’t able to continue.”
Yet Rice’s own assessment of his problem sounded much more positive. Speaking to Sky Sports’ Gary Cotterill, the midfielder insisted he’s “fine” and will be available for Saturday’s early game away to Aston Villa.
Given that information, perhaps the real concern should be focused on the defence. Assuming Mosquera is now out of action, Arsenal could be without William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes this weekend as well, significantly reducing their options at centre-back.
Most likely, Jurrien Timber will be tasked with filling in again, and perhaps talented youngster Marli Salmon could get a call-up to the bench. But that would require Ben White making another start at right-back just two days from now, having played very limited minutes so far this season.
In an ideal world, Mosquera turns out to be fine, or at the very least Saliba is fit for the Villa game. There’s just going to be some uncertainty hanging over Arsenal’s defensive situation for the next couple of days.