Arsenal is suffering a midfield crisis ahead of Liverpool match

Arsenal could be forced to start their Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Liverpool with Charlie Patino and Albert Sambi Lokonga as a part of their midfield.

The Gunners have lost Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny to AFCON, which left a huge void in the squad.

They then sent Ainsley Maitland Niles out on loan to AS Roma for the rest of the season.

That left them with Granit Xhaka as the most senior midfielder at the club, but The Sun says he will miss the game against Liverpool after contracting covid-19 again.

The Swiss midfielder has been infected with the virus before, after it was revealed he hasn’t been vaccinated. He is now battling with it again.

The report claims this means Arsenal would likely field a very inexperienced midfield for the match at Anfield and hope Xhaka would be back for their weekend game against Tottenham.

Just Arsenal Opinion

Sending Maitland-Niles out on loan so early in the transfer window makes little sense with this development.

After losing Partey and Elneny, it was clear that we are light in midfield, and the club still sanctioned the transfer of the Englishman.

Now we have to deal with not having enough midfield options for our upcoming matches.

Hopefully, the likes of Martin Odegaard and Emile Smith Rowe will help with both defensive and attacking duties in the game against the Reds.

Tags Carabao Cup liverpool v arsenal

18 Comments

  1. Calum Chamber got voted Fulhams player of the year when he was there on loan, playing midfield. What has he done wrong to be ignored?

    1. I was thinking on the same wavelength. Also ben white can play there since Gabriel is back and partner him with holding.

    2. Who knows…MA is now coming close to ousting half the squad.

      Also apparently he only found out the AFCON existed last month and also that Elneny and Partey are African.

      1. Arteta needs to grow up and not be rigid (in fact a bit rude) with the players. You can not be a unforgiving guy, One who writes off a player and he is done with you.

        There are options for DM in White and Chambers.

  2. Football is a team game .Maybe Ma wants Arsenal to focuz on 4th.
    African born players maybe cheaper but every three or four playerz they are not available during peak season.
    Arsenal shd have learnt their lesson with
    Kanu

    1. truth is the club had lots of time to prepare for missing partey. if xhaka/lokonga is the plan then that will need to hold until partey makes it back. it is just one month, but yea, a pretty vital month for a lot of teams too.

    2. Wolfang,
      Why is Liverpool not loosing with Mane, Keita, Salah out in Africa.

      Arsenal done not have a strong team, Period. And that is down to poor planning. A team aspiring for top 4 leave alone Championship glory must have two players in each positions that can interchange without any drop in form.

      I often wonder why fans and our coach think if Martineli plays well one day, then you do not need Auba, or if Tomi comes in then you do not need Niles of an equally good back up.
      Arteta causes Players to feel unwanted by not sharing Game time.
      How does City keep 22 good players all happy with game time?

  3. Arsenal is suffering a midfield crisis and have been for quite some time. They don’t know how to control it…IJS

  4. Why do we have a midfeilder “shortage”
    We “had ” Torreira, Guendouzie, Willian, Maitland-Niles Ceballos and Joe Willock.
    We still have ESR, Odegaard Lokonga Chambers + Martinelli.
    So do we really have a “shortage” ?
    Self inflicted comes to mind.
    And the answer?
    Better coaching and player management?
    No just go buy more players 🙁
    Is going to the market again after just half a season and after a 150m summer spend a sign of desperation, a sign of ambition or a sign that the squad depth is cr#p.?
    A combination of all the above probably

    1. Exactly Fairfan.

      Arsenal is always one injury, absence in trouble.
      The team is too light in all positions. Poor, Player management really poor with a coach who fights his own players immediately he has an option in a position. He is too young to coach Arsenal. We need a fatherly figure coach the young lads. one who is able to entertain the varying egos and ambitions of the team without banishing players and haunting them out of the team. The owners loose money too when this happens.

  5. And to think that we knew all along that two midfielders would be unavailable at this point, yet nothing was done to ameliorate the situation. Now that has cost us the Emirates FA Cup; will probably cost us the Carabao. Let’s hope it doesn’t cost us a place in Europe next season.
    Instead of making efforts to get Wijnaldum on loan, we are busy dissipating energy in pursuit of an unlikely Vlahovic deal. We haven’t learnt anything from the Locatelli fiasco of last summer

  6. his management of AMN has always been poor and it could cost us some vital games. even if we get somebody in on loan, they probably wont be an epl player and wont adapt right away. midfield jan signings just dont ever make that much of a difference. the settle in period takes time for most midfielders.

  7. I struggle to understand if Arteta is clueless or just delusional, even pep plays Fernandinho/Rodri in defense and midfield sometimes , why can’t Arteta do same, we have chambers, White, Smith-Rowe , Saka, Martinelli and Lacazette all this guys can steady the midfield, yet he chose Patino and Lokonga,

    Arteta had better sit in the chiller to help him think straight against Liverpool and spurs, else we would be in 8th position by January end.

  8. This is just someone writing crap. Hopefully we’ll cause enough problems against the cheats with players back. I hope Tommy is fit..

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