Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has given a clear assessment of a developing defensive crisis, confirming William Saliba, Gabriel and Cristhian Mosquera will be unavailable for an extended period.<\/p>\n
Saliba and Gabriel were absent for the recent clash, joined on the sidelines by Mosquera, who suffered an ankle injury in the Gunners\u2019 2\u20130 win over Brentford on Wednesday evening. Piero Hincapi\u00e9 and Jurri\u00ebn Timber were selected in defence, flanked by Riccardo Calafiori and Ben White. That makeshift backline \u201ccould not withstand Unai Emery\u2019s in-form Villans, though, and were left stunned when the final whistle blew in Birmingham.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arteta offered no encouraging medical updates after the match. \u201cIt is what it is. I think we have to cope with that [their absence]. We\u2019re going to have to cope with that for a period of time as well.\u201d Saliba has missed Arsenal\u2019s last three matches after picking up a knock in training ahead of the trip to Stamford Bridge. Gabriel has not featured since sustaining a thigh injury while representing Brazil during the November international window.<\/p>\n
On Mosquera, Arteta was equally direct. \u201cHe\u2019s going to be out for weeks. Unfortunately, it\u2019s much more than what we expected, with the way he was feeling,\u201d he said. Previous reports stated Mosquera would be out for at least six weeks, a timeline that leaves Arsenal extremely shorthanded in defence ahead of a busy holiday period.<\/p>\n
Arteta acknowledged the wider implications for the title race and the squad. \u201cWe know that and the team has to be able to adapt that,\u201d Arteta said of Arsenal\u2019s injury woes. \u201cDon\u2019t look for excuses. Obviously, we know what [Saliba and Gabriel] bring, especially in games like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added there is hope Saliba could return in time for the trip to Belgium to face Club Brugge in the Champions League on Wednesday evening, but no definitive timeline was offered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta: Saliba, Gabriel and Mosquera are sidelined for a period, leaving Arsenal short at centre-back<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4942,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1303,969],"tags":[1081,947,1033],"class_list":["post-4943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal-news","category-premier-league","tag-adaptation","tag-ankle-injury","tag-brazilian-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4943","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=4943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}