Confirmed Arsenal news ahead of Leeds clash – Two key men ruled out

Arsenal will welcome Leeds United to the Emirates stadium on Sunday, but will do so without two of their key players.

Bernd Leno and David Luiz will both return to the squad after their red cards against Wolves, and while the former will be expected to slot straight into the first-team, the latter has stronger competition for his place.

The Gunners had appealed the Brazilian’s ban, but to no avail, despite Arteta’s initial statement that there wasn’t any contact.

Arsenal confirm that Thomas Partey is the first of two players who won’t be fit to play this weekend. The Ghanaian limped out of the match with Aston Villa (again) with a strain on his hamstring, and will continue to be assessed into next week.

Kieran Tierney also remains out having struggled with a strain in his right-leg of late, but we are hoping he should be reintegrated into full training next week.

It will be interesting if Nicolas Pepe is given the nod (pun intended) to start against the side he picked up a red card against not too long ago, as we definitely cannot afford to finish the match without the full 11 as we look to overturn back-to-back defeats.

Leno could well prove to be a big plus on the day, but I feel that Kieran Tierney will remain the biggest miss this weekend, although we should still have more than enough to come away from Elland Road with the win secured.

Patrick

Tags Kieran Tierney Thomas Partey

12 Comments

  1. I thought we were at home?The absence of two of our major assets is a blow, and I suspect Arteta may decide to use Saka at left back to bring balance to the back four.The trouble is, he will faced by the very dangerous Raphinha who was very impressive against Palace. The result is more important than performance at the present time and any win will suffice.

  2. Partey and Tierney ,turning into Diaby and Jack .
    This is what Arsene had to deal with over the years and it seems to be continuing with Arteta,not sure if it’s any worse than any other top team but it’s obviously highlighted from our fans perspective .

    1. Bro you are right and I blame our medical team,very Poor. Van Persie is another perfect example. We sold him to Man U and he only had 1 , 3 week injury that whole season,bagged top goalscorer and a league title at the same time. 🤦🏾‍♂️🙆🏾

  3. the usual rinse and repeat injury reports, at some point you just have to stop with the kid gloves helicopter parenting treatment and have these guys play a little banged up and see what happens…I think our mindboggling history when it comes to injuries has created a systemic problem within the training room, where we now are too quick to pull the plug on players in the hopes that will help us avoid the issues of the past…this hasn’t worked and if these players are that fragile it raises some real serious red flags moving forward…what makes this even more difficult is that these should be two centerpiece players who would be incredibly difficult to replace…we’re really not playing for anything this season so it might be best to take some chances knowing that worse case scenario each will have a full off-season to figure things out…I know this might sound harsh but we simply can’t afford to go through another extended period of time where our “key” players are constantly unavailable due to injury…it simply isn’t a tenable situation for a team that will never have the depth to overcome such issues

    1. Perhaps it is time to look into training methods as to why we suffer constant injuries. Partey rarely missed games for Atletico, yet he plays only every other match for us it seems.

      I don’t believe in curses or jynx, there is a rational explanation as to why too many players suffer injuries at Arsenal.

      It is made all the worse due to them being key players and positions where we lack real depth.

      1. like I said Durand, I just think their simply too hyperaware on the injury front, so they’re quick to pull the shute and too cautious when it comes time to get them back out there…I think if they could get away with it they would package them all in bubble wrap 24/7

  4. I was recently told by a self professed sage on JA, that the injury problems have improved since the days of AW, but, despite a clean sweep of our medical and training staff, the injuries still continue and at an alarming regularity regarding certain players.

    However, despite the views of some of our fans (myself included) we are not the most affected by injuries over the last few seasons.
    Liverpool and manure have had players unavailable over longer periods than ourselves (Source Transfer market).
    Interestingly, when Leicester won the PL, they had the least amount of players out during that season (Source Transfer market).

    Like the myth that has surrounds our club regarding the defence at present, this is also becoming a similar theme.
    We should have the players available who can cover for injuries / unavailability through suspension etc and, seeing the list of so called “deadwood” that some fans are wanting to see shipped out, the situation could be even worse, especially when no ready made replacements are brought in.
    Having red cards issued that are not deserved, doesn’t help the situation either, but the fact remains,
    all clubs suffer from these kind of situations.

  5. It’s well with Arsenal FC. Just hope we’re going to do well to secure three points from them, because normally we suppose to beat them. Who are Leeds United if not for willian that ran out of form?
    COYG, elneny and xhaka will surprise us alongside with odegaard. Wish you all the best from Nigeria

  6. I think in Arsenals training, they put much emphasis on tactics instead of physical fitness yet arsenal is the team which have laziest prayers in EPL but we still get many injuries, why? Players legs are not used to strain ,make phisical fitness hard ,u will c players getting used ,and no more injuries will happen regularly like this , cos players who used to run first using alot of energy like lumburg and Thierry, used not to get such regular injuries, but these lazy players are sick all the time ,its irritating,

  7. An article writer who does not even know that his team play at home, not away, opens himself up to ridicule as to any other of his comments having validity. BASIC factual errors of THIS kind should never be made by anyone who thinks themself a writer.
    I feel that losing BOTH Partey and TIERNEY will prove critical in denying us a win, so I predict a draw!

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