Mikel Arteta sought to calm concern over William Saliba after the defender was unable to feature in Sunday\u2019s 1\u20131 draw with Chelsea. The manager played down the likely seriousness of the problem but confirmed the club expect to know more by the end of Monday.<\/p>\n
Saliba\u2019s absence left Arsenal without one of their customary aerial presences alongside Gabriel, who remains sidelined and, Arteta said after the final whistle, still has “some weeks to go” in his recovery. With both established centre backs unavailable, Arteta paired summer signings Cristhian Mosquera and Piero Hincapi\u00e9 in the middle. It was only Hincapi\u00e9\u2019s second Premier League start and Mosquera\u2019s third, and the Gunners conceded first from a set piece in a match where those changes were significant.<\/p>\n
Fans were left awaiting further clarity on Saliba\u2019s condition. “I think he has got another test [on Monday] to see the extent of that feeling\u2014that sensation he had\u2014and we will know more,” Arteta told reporters. He added context on the decision to leave Saliba out, saying, “In training [on Saturday], he was uncomfortable, so we need to explore a little bit more what happened. I don’t think it’s something major, but enough not to be involved in the game.”<\/p>\n
Arteta indicated the medical team need to establish the issue precisely so the club can manage Saliba\u2019s return with the congested winter schedule approaching. The upcoming fixtures listed by the club underline that period: Dec. 3 Arsenal vs. Brentford (Premier League), Dec. 6 Aston Villa vs. Arsenal (Premier League), Dec. 10 Club Brugge vs. Arsenal (Champions League), Dec. 13 Arsenal vs. Wolves (Premier League), Dec. 20 Everton vs. Arsenal (Premier League), Dec. 23 Arsenal vs. Crystal Palace (Carabao Cup), Dec. 27 Arsenal vs. Brighton (Premier League), Dec. 30 Arsenal vs. Aston Villa (Premier League).<\/p>\n
For now the message from the manager is cautious optimism: further tests will clarify Saliba\u2019s situation and dictate how quickly he can return to the squad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta downplayed Saliba issue after Stamford Bridge; tests due Monday as Gabriel remains sidelined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4815,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[1066,1047,199],"class_list":["post-4816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","tag-carabao-cup","tag-champions-league","tag-cristhian-mosquera"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4816","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=4816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}