Mikel Arteta says Riccardo Calafiori’s suspected knee injury is “not great news” for Arsenal ahead of Sunday’s crunch game against Liverpool in the Premier League – live on Sky Sports.
Arsenal’s laboured 1-0 Champions League win over Shakhtar Donetsk at the Emirates was overshadowed by Calafiori having to come off injured in the second half after an awkward fall.
Left-back Calafiori, replaced by teenager Myles Lewis-Skelly, is the latest player on Arsenal’s growing list of potential absentees ahead of a huge game in the league against leaders Liverpool.
“He had to come off because he felt something,” Arteta said of Calafiori after the game. “I don’t know the extent of it so in that sense not great news.”
Arsenal will be without William Saliba in defence through suspension after his red card in the league defeat at Bournemouth, while Jurrien Timber has not played since the start of the month due to an injury.
Arteta is also unable to call on defensive duo Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney because of long-term injury issues, leaving him with limited options against Liverpool if Calafiori and Timber are unable to recover in time.
Martin Odegaard is another that remains out, while Bukayo Saka has missed the last two games with a hamstring problem, picked up with England. His injury status will be a huge focus in the coming days.
Arteta did not seem hopeful about Saka’s chances before the game. “I don’t know, he wasn’t able to train yet, so that’s unlikely,” he told Amazon Prime.
Ben White was removed at half-time against Shakhtar after picking up a booking and Arteta clarified after the game that this was only done to prevent another sending off for his side, rather than because of an injury.
“It was my decision to take him out,” said Arteta. “He had a yellow card and we’ve played enough with 10 men in recent periods. They had a lot of density on that side, a lot of players on that side, so I didn’t want to take any chances there.”
Arteta: ‘Tired’ Arsenal will be flying come Sunday
Arsenal looked “tired” by their own manager’s admission against Shakhtar, hardly encouraging ahead of the visit of Liverpool, but he is confident that his side will be re-energised by Sunday.
“We played two nights ago with players coming from internationals after flying from Brazil and many countries,” said Arteta, asked if he was concerned the fatigue would impact the Liverpool game.
“I was expecting a bit of a drop off. And the fact that we put so much in the first half and didn’t get the distance in terms of the scoreline, I think we paid a bit for that.
“Then we made life more difficult for us because we started give the ball away in not the right areas and then it was more open. That didn’t help. But we have now four days. Believe me, come Sunday we’ll be flying.”
He added: “We’ll review, have a day off, then two days to prepare the game. Sunday is far and we are more than comfortable that we’ll be in the right place.”
Arsenal’s upcoming fixtures
Liverpool (H) – Premier League – Sunday, October 27 – live on Sky Sports
Preston North End (A) – Carabao Cup – Wednesday, October 30 – live on Sky Sports
Newcastle United (A) – Premier League – Saturday, November 2
Inter Milan (A) – UEFA Champions League – Wednesday, November 6
Chelsea (A) – Premier League – Sunday, November 10 – live on Sky Sports
Nottingham Forest (H) – Premier League – Saturday, November 23
Sporting Lisbon (A) – UEFA Champions League – Tuesday, November 26
West Ham United (A) – Premier League – Saturday, November 30 – live on Sky Sports
