Mikel Arteta has been left juggling a growing list of fitness worries ahead of Arsenal\u2019s trip to Liverpool, with Declan Rice among those under an injury cloud. The midfielder was forced off against Everton last weekend after, in Arteta\u2019s words, he finished with \u201ca problem\u201d, leaving his availability for Sunday\u2019s clash at Anfield uncertain.<\/p>\n
Rice is not the only concern. Arteta admitted after Arsenal\u2019s Carabao Cup exit that \u201cRiccardo was out, Noni was out with an ankle and Declan Rice finished with a problem the other day,\u201d underscoring the scale of the issue facing his side.<\/p>\n
Some absences, though, are already clearer. Bukayo Saka has joined William Saliba on the list of long-term injuries after damaging his left quad in the Champions League draw with Bayern Munich. Saka is expected to miss at least six weeks and will not be back before the start of December at the earliest.<\/p>\n
Saliba\u2019s situation remains less defined. The defender has not played this season since surgery on a persistent back problem that became too much for him at this summer\u2019s World Cup. Arteta has described the signs in his recovery as \u201cvery, very positive\u201d, but he has not offered a return date, with the end of November mentioned only as a loose target.<\/p>\n
There is also uncertainty around Christos Tzolis. The summer signing picked up a thigh problem while on international duty with Greece in the fall and was ruled out for around three weeks. He may yet have a role on Sunday, but his status remains unresolved.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, Max Dowman will not be able to win Arteta over through the FA, although Arsenal could still try to secure the teenager\u2019s availability by appealing his red card against Fleetwood. The 16-year-old was dismissed for kicking out at Harrison Neal, with the force described as minimal but still enough for a straight red. With no VAR at this stage of the Carabao Cup, Michael Salisbury\u2019s on-field call stood at the time. Dowman was found guilty of violent conduct, which the FA Handbook describes as \u201cwhen a player uses or attempts to use excessive force or brutality against an opponent when not challenging for the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal\u2019s injury list is growing before Liverpool, with Rice, Saka, Saliba and others in doubt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1067,175],"tags":[1066,242,180],"class_list":["post-22107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-carabao-cup","category-liverpool","tag-carabao-cup","tag-injury","tag-player-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}