Mikel Arteta says Arsenal are doing their best to get Kieran Tierney fit again but it sounds like the Scotland international won’t be available for Saturday’s trip to Aston Villa.
The 23-year-old has been struggling with a calf problem in the last month and has missed five of the Gunners’ last six games. Worryingly, it sounds like he may now have a new problem.
Given the left-back has established himself as an integral part of the defensive unit and a dangerous attacking outlet, his absence hasn’t gone under the radar.
Asked for an update on the Scot, the boss said: “It’s a different injury in this case. Kieran is a player that really pushes himself and he has to be able to perform physically at his best because he cannot help himself. Even in training he can’t help himself.
“We are trying to manage him in the best possible way and find every possibility to give him the best chance to be fit as soon as possible, and we are here to support him as much as we can.”
No doubt, Tierney will be desperate to get back on the pitch as soon as possible, especially with the European Championships on the horizon. Arteta, quite rightly, isn’t so fussed about his player’s international ambitions and just wants him back for the Premier League run in.
“What I want is that he’s fit to play for us as soon as possible, then if he’s fit and he’s ready to represent his country, there we go, it’s one of his dreams and he needs to fulfil that. But what I want is for him to play for Arsenal.”
The Gunners had been tipped to recruit back-up for Tierney in the January transfer window – Southampton’s Ryan Bertrand was linked, as were Crystal Palace duo Tyrick Mitchell and Patrick van Aanholt – but a deal never materialised. It means right-footed Cedric is likely to get more game time.
While Arteta hinted the reports weren’t off the mark, he says he’s pleased with the way the club went about their business in the circumstances.
“We cannot do everything,” he said. “As I mentioned before, there are so many things that we had to do in this transfer window and we had to focus on the priorities for that.
“We almost did everything we wanted to do and there are things to do, but when you talk about the squad evolution, it’s going to take time and a big effort. Things have to happen your way as well and that’s not the case all the time.”
We need two CL level left-backs considering Tierney’s injury issues. Our full backs tend to be the only pure wingers in our attack, so they are crucial.
Ah well, at least we got rid of one promising squad player who can play in this position.
Said it once and I’ll say it again, it was really not a great idea letting AMN go.
AMN has been great as a wing back in a back five, but his performances on the left of a back 4 have been shaky at best. That’s a bit of a problem when you consider that the team has switched from a 5 to a 4 at the back.
Perhaps. But I still prefer him to Saka – which massively disrupts our attack – or Xhaka. If either Bellerin or Cedric has any issues or just needs a rest, we could be cutting off our nose to spite our face.
Quite simply, bar Saka who is now key to our attack, AMN is the fourth best full back at the club. We all agree we need four CB’s so why not four FB’s?
No saka, no xhaka, how about laca at right back? Just kidding. Maybe If ww try gabriel in left back it might just unleash his inner Brazilian beast mode. Just make sure it’s not a santos-type beast
I mean left back
It was a stupid idea. 3 full backs both injury prone? I mean why would they think Saka is an option to cover left back. He is such an important player in that forward position he should never be considered to play as a full back.
You’d better get your cheque book out then Prakhar.
I’m not sure about your comment about them being the only pure wingers, but they do hold the width when Saka, Martinelli, etc cuts inside, so they’re an integral part of our setup. That being said, you have a good point that we need a natural LB cover for KT that is above serviceable at worst. The way KT plays reminds me of Jack Wilshere. I don’t think KT will have the injury problems that Jack has, but he does play with reckless abandon and that makes him vulnerable to injury, re-aggrevation, etc. Cover for KT must be one of… Read more »
Not so fussed about it. We played for YEARS without a decent backup to Hector even with all his form and injury issues and the best backups we could muster were Jenkinson and Chambers. Now we at least have Saka and Cedric who can do a more than adequate job at LB. Worst comes to worst we could always play Reiss Nelson there. Not like he’s doing anything else and he might be interested in getting some first team minutes even if it is at RB or LB. If you look around the league there aren’t many teams(only Chelsea and… Read more »
Hear, hear, we all want him on the pitch. Add him into the improvements we’ve made recently and we are looking good (if no more red cards).
Relatively though, if you compare our league position it isn’t that much different (particularly given teams around us have games in hand) to what is was earlier in the season. To make real progress, we not only need to succeed – and one point from the last six isn’t great – but we need quite a number of the teams above/around us to fail at a commensurate level. That hasn’t happened enough, which is why we are (still) where we are. There’s an awful lot of work to do yet so “looking good” may be just a little premature at… Read more »
Our performances have dramatically improved. I’m confident we would have gone on to score 3 or 4 at Molyneux, were it not for ridiculous refereeing.
If we had won (which we would have done apart from the red cards) we would have been 6th, above Sp*rs. And on the back of a good streak with Tierney, Mari and Auba to come back as well.
So cause for optimism but I agree we need to keep on going with Saka/Partey/Holding/Leno/Auba/Laca/Pepe/Tierney/Gabriel/ESR all looking like a good foundation for a team.
Consistency is what’s killing us at the min same as most teams in the league, I think we have the makings of a pretty good side but not this season, happy with the way the window went the clear out was badly needed, only now we can start putting the pieces together from the summer onwards.
Those 120 minutes in the FA Cup against Newcastle when he should have been resting have proven very costly
And to think that the next round we tossed the FA cup away…
Yep that was idiotic. We all said it at the time.
The next Wilshere/Ramsey?
Really worried about Tierny. Hope we are not about to see another Diaby here!
Broken leg! Hope not!!!
You must have some weird logic to even come near that conclusion. They’re situation is nowhere near the same ballpark.
Their*
That’s bad news as he’s obviously an important player for us. As others have said, there’s been a nagging doubt about Tierney’s injury record since joining us (and before that at Celtic). I really hope he isn’t going to become another Wilshere regarding injuries. Only time will tell, so fingers crossed. We do need adequate cover more than ever given this latest news which I’m not sure we have, but we’ll just have to make do with what’s available.
This guy is such a fighter in training and on match day, both his strength and weakness. I think we are just going to accept he will get injured. Good to know Arteta realises and accepts hence why we were looking for good back up.
Honestly what is the point of having great players if you can never rely on them to be fit. I love Tierney but he’s approaching Ramsey territory. Fit for 3 months a year, get him up to speed (which also takes time) and then permanently injured with some niggle. The team grows reliant on him and then struggles without him. I’m surprised more hasn’t been said about this – other teams don’t have to do without their star players nearly as much as we do.
We shouldn’t be shitting ourselves just because he plays 120 minutes in a cup tie. I feel like every time we play a good team they have a full roster of players to choose from and we are always missing 2-3 (sometimes more) key players. Hardly a fair match up.
i absolutely agree. players who are frequently injured are so frustrating – especially when they’re so good. tierney’s injury record just isn’t good.
i don’t really think him not wearing more clothes in winter is to blame, but could it perhaps play any role in this? again i don’t really think this but could it be a factor?
Yeah he got injured cos he didn’t wear a vest and his longjohns
Fuck me some of the comments on this site are ridiculous.
Muscle elasticity and tendon flexibility have been proven to be linked to temperature and blood flow (which is affected by temperature), so although I don’t believe Tierney is injured because he wears t-shirts outdoors, it’s not a ridiculous argument
Ramsey was fit far more than not. His injury issues are regularly blown way out of proportion in comparison to what the reality was.
If a guy can play the best part of 30odd games a season then you obviously need a solid backup / alternative but there’s no need to stress too much.
Diaby and Wilshere levels of injury however are the serious worry marker.
Ramsey missed over 150 league matches in his 11 years at Arsenal played 262 out of 418. I’d say he missed plenty of time
Yes those numbers are shocking. Although they and you are not taking into account a full season missed with a broken leg.
Also his stop start return from said broken leg…fine include those but its basically a follow on from the same thing. Expected recovery issues from such a major injury.
Once fully recovered from his broken leg, Rambos injury issues were no where near as bad as people make them out to be. Noticeable but not drastic.
Ramsey also spent a year out on loan at Forest after coming back from said injury to get back to his best (shrewd from Arsene, as without that season away, the fan base would have destroyed him for the inconsistencies in his game that come from being out for so long at a hugely important part of his career)
Ramsey, in my opinion, should still be at the club on rotation with ESR.
I’m not a fan of Kolasinac but maybe we should have kept him for cover until the summer since we didn’t make any money by sending him to Schalke
We can always recall him if necessary
Kolasinacs days had ended, every time he played he hampered our attacking slickness
No!
As much as I like him it’s clear we need a competent left back as tierny can’t be trusted to play many games back to back
He’s played 17 of our 22 Premier League fixtures, and 4 of the 5 games he’s missed have come in the last two weeks. So it’s not as if he’s been in and out all season.
Great point, games are coming thick and fast. I’m please there is no midweek game next week. I think some of our players could do without the intensity of 3 games in 7 days.
Fair point, for some reason my impression was that he is in and out of the team with these minor niggles, still recon it may become an annoying issue tho, maybe I’m overreacting but it seems to me that he is always gonna be a player that need to be carefully managed, unfortunately I don’t really see he as a 50+ match a season player which is a problem given his importance to the team.
With winter fast fading, should be expected for man like Tierney. Beast mode fast fading. We’d manage his world class mode until the next winter
Bit of a glass cannon this boy. What happened to our academy churning out full backs like they were currency?
Rise young Lopez, use Bellerin’s rise as your inspiration.
Won’t mind a Ben Cottrell there too
maybe it’s time to start dressing warm for training during the cold…idk.
Get well and get back soon KT.
Whats the point of signing players who are always injured Tierney came and took forever to get fit, when he did Unable to keep fit. An unfit wingback is about as usefull as our new Runnerson keeper who i bet never gets injured, Martinelle another who likes the sickbay more than the smell of horse oils. When a player looks like he’s found a bit of form Arteta rests him till he gets injured in training. Our once high scoring striker Aubamyang playe all season like a miss fireing cannon then disappears on a mercy mission just as his form… Read more »
I’m sure this will get downvoted, but his t shirt and shorts wearing is a fun meme until he gets repeated muscle injuries during winter. Layering up isn’t a silver bullet, but keeping muscles warm helps prevent injuries.
*expletive deleted*
I’m so sorry for the lad. He has a winner’s mentality and having him in our team changes the whole dynamic.
This is why it would be stupid to have sold Bellerin.
All our fullbacks have injury issues. AMN has not shown a level of consistency to warrant risk of graduating him upwards last summer.
Currently between Bellerin and Cedric, we just about have cover. It would be a shame to have to play Saka at left back. But that is the back up with Tierney out
…the other alternative would be to play Chambers in his natural position at Rback when need be as cover for Bellerin. but I’m not sure our Cockney Spaniard is familiar with left side.
I remember chatting to a Celtic friend of mine when we signed Tierney. He said he was quite injury prone. Hopefully this injury will not be too serious.
FFS
That decision to let AMN go out on loan…….
Doesn’t sound good to me, likely going to come back too early and get injured again either with the same injury or new one from compensating.