LONDON: Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is concerned that the increase in injuries in his squad could jeopardize his bid to win the Premier League title this season.
Most recently, Declan Rice and Cristhian Mosquera joined Arsenal’s long list of injuries during the 2-0 win over Brentford this morning.
Arsenal strengthened their position as league leaders with a five-point lead over Manchester City thanks to goals from Mikel Merino and Bukayo Saka at the Emirates Stadium.
The victory extended Arsenal’s unbeaten run to 18 matches in all competitions and secured their eighth consecutive home win.
Mosquera had to be taken off before half-time, joining a list of injured defenders, including Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba.
The situation became even more worrying when Rice was seen suffering from a calf problem and had to be substituted 10 minutes before the end.
“Of course it’s not good news. Declan has to go out. We don’t know yet, we’ll have to see tomorrow what the problem is.
“Declan can walk, but he can’t play. He’s played a lot of minutes and now we play on Wednesday night and have to go back on Saturday morning,” said Arteta, who is also missing Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard.
After a busy week with matches against Tottenham, Bayern Munich and Chelsea, Arteta tried to rest Saka, Jurrien Timber and Eberechi Eze against Brentford.
However, all three were still forced to be included to ensure victory, causing Arteta’s dissatisfaction with the match schedule.
“Rest? That’s a pretty positive word. We had to make some changes.
“We had a very challenging week at every level. We were asked to play three days later, with one less recovery day than our opponents.
“We can play extra minutes, but if we can give ourselves a little extra time to recover and look after the players’ welfare, that would be very helpful,” he said.