Since January and the winter transfer window, which seen an amazing amount of Arsenal players go out on loan, and of course Pierre Emerick Aubameyang taking himself off to Barcelona on his own accord, Mikel Arteta has been left with a wafer thin squad.
We suffered the most when we lost Kieran Tierney and Thomas Partey in the same week, which led us to losing three games in a row. Last week we were blessed with getting Takehero Tomiyasu back to the fold, but we had big worries about Bukayo Saka’s fitness after he was taken off during the Man United win.
Luckily he recovered enough to start today, and we also saw Tomiyasu start for just the third time this year, but despite our hard-fought win at West Ham, we were dismayed to see both players taken off injured yet again, with the danger that they both might miss the crucial games coming up in the race for the Top Four.
But thankfully Mikel Arteta took time to reassure the fans after the game that both of our stars were not seriously injured, but we are also waiting to hear if Ben White has recovered from his hamstring injury, although Rob Holding was a more than adequate replacement in today’s match.
Arteta told Arsenal.com: “Ben got injured against Manchester United, he felt a muscular problem and we checked him, and we will have to access him in the next few days to see how he is.”
The boss was much more upbeat about the situation with Saka. He said: “Bukayo was fine, he was really fatigued and he has been through a little injury as well.”
So that sounds like he will be okay with a whole week to recover in front of him. And on Tomi, he was certain it wasn’t a big problem either. “Tomiyasu has just that he had been out for so long and could not continue.”
Obviously after Tomi being out for so long, his injury was more of a worry, but when pressed, Arteta said simply: “No, hopefully, he’s fine.”
So good news all round. Now bring on Leeds!
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Video – Mikel Arteta Talks about Arsenal’s massive win over West Ham, injuries and the team’s “character”