Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta confirmed Viktor Gy\u00f6keres will not travel for the Champions League trip to Slavia Prague after picking up a muscle problem at the weekend. The update, given in the manager\u2019s pre-match briefing, indicated the club will carry out further tests and imaging to assess the striker\u2019s condition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am concerned because he hasn\u2019t had many muscular issues and he had to leave the pitch. He was feeling something and that\u2019s obviously never a good sign. Especially for a player that is very, very explosive, so we are digging in a little bit more to understand where we are in terms of the injury and we will announce it when we know more,\u201d Arteta said in his pre-match press conference.<\/p>\n
Arteta also confirmed Mart\u00edn Zubimendi will be unavailable because of yellow card accumulation. With a number of attacking names already absent this season, the manager once again faces selection headaches.<\/p>\n
Last season Arsenal endured a run of attacking injuries that sidelined Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka. Faced with similar issues this term, Arteta has previously used Mikel Merino as a makeshift striker and is expected to do so again on Tuesday. Merino was a reliable emergency option late last season, but the arrangement is described as less than ideal given the club\u2019s investment in other forward options.<\/p>\n
Saka has returned from a hamstring injury suffered earlier in the campaign, but Arsenal remain without Noni Madueke, Martin \u00d8degaard, Jesus, Martinelli and Havertz. Leandro Trossard has operated as a false nine under Arteta in the past, but moving him centrally would create a vacancy on the left that could push Eberechi Eze out wide despite his stronger recent form as a No. 10.<\/p>\n
Arsenal\u2019s squad depth will be tested across the midweek trip to Slavia Prague and the subsequent visit to Sunderland. The November international break arrives shortly and, if key players return to full fitness, the club could be in a stronger position when domestic action resumes later this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta rules Gy\u00f6keres out for Slavia Prague; further imaging ordered as Arsenal juggle absences soon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4251,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,172,1125],"tags":[1047,1229,1228],"class_list":["post-4252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-epl","category-strikers","tag-champions-league","tag-mikel-merino","tag-muscle-injury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4252","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=4252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}