Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Bukayo Saka will not join up with England this week having been unable to train since tweaking his hamstring in Tuesday’s defeat to Lens. William Saliba has also withdrawn from the France squad due to a toe problem.
On Friday, Arteta had claimed Saka was “in contention” to feature against Manchester City but despite staying overnight in the team hotel, the winger was not part of the matchday squad. Clearly, the manager was trying to throw mentor Pep Guardiola off the scent.
“No, he could not make it, he hasn’t had a single training session so he will be out,” said Arteta in his post-game press conference. “He’s not available to play football at the moment.”
As it turned out, it was a player returning from a hamstring injury of his own that grabbed the winner on a dramatic afternoon at the Emirates. It was assumed that Gabriel Martinelli would not be fit to play having sat out the last five matches but he was included on the bench and made a stunning impact as a second half substitute with a late deflected winner.
Unfortunately, the man he replaced, Leandro Trossard, suffered a second hamstring issue of the month. The Belgium international missed the draw with Sp*rs and win over Brentford a couple of weeks ago but made a quick recovery. Perhaps too quick.
On Martinelli’s return, Arteta revealed: “He’s been saying for a few weeks I’m going to be there against City and obviously everybody was saying, ‘Gabi it will be too early for you’.
“Yesterday, he said, ‘Boss, I told you I’m going to be ready for this.’ And it happened that Leo [Trossard] after 30 minutes he felt something in his hamstring. So when I turned around he was already ready to go. You know, “Boss I’m ready to go.”
“So it’s just the joy of a kid. His mentality is incredible at his age and it’s just a joy to have him because today he could change the game and he was really helpful for us to win the game.”
As far as we’re aware, Martinelli has not been called up by Brazil for this Interlull so he can spend a couple of weeks working on his fitness. The same goes for Saliba.
In a statement, the France Football Federation said: “The Arsenal defender suffers from pain in his right big toe. He will remain available to his club to treat this chronic injury.
“After speaking with Dr. Franck Le Gall, the French team doctor, Didier Deschamps noted William Saliba’s withdrawal and decided to replace him with Jean-Clair Todibo.”
Fingers crossed it’s not as bad as it sounds. Arsenal return to action on 21 October when we face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Then it’s a midweek trip to Sevilla, who have just sacked their manager.
Normally I hate the Interlulls…….
Ken’s got gout!
Glad France are being sensible with Saliba. You get the sense if he played for England Southgate would have none of it. “his big toe? well if he can’t get ‘ere by ‘imself, send him a toe truck!”
If he was English, he wouldn’t make the squad. There’s no dethroning prince Maguire while Southgates in charge
Love Martinelli’s attitude. What a player. £6 million! Pound-for-pound the best value player in the Premier League.
What a fucking game! Disciplined performance! Cheats should have had two reds, but this is better. Gtf in gooners! Martinelli, huge impact. We’ve missed him. Harvertz, maybe striker it is. Looks useful with his hold up play, maybe more than Eddie. Maybe this is the pathway to some Saka rest! What a fucking win!
I dunno. Rice is looking like a steal at100m.
What a team we have.
Saliba having a “chronic injury” doesn’t sound good. He sure played through it well today though!
Usually a toe just needs rest and you can’t do much else. Hopefully two weeks going easy on it will do the trick.
We lost the PL last season due to his injury, hope he makes it through this season uninjured.
That was his back though
Nope, we didn’t. We weren’t mentally strong enough. This season so far especially today, we’ve been strong “en la cabeza”. Look at Arroz, don’t you notice that he just plays his game no matter who is in front of him and the circumstances? He has that.
I hope its not serious but I like how the team is managing the players well this time and I feel they will need some rest… Saka Trossard Saliba Won’t be playing for their countries in this intl break. Martinelli just recovered and might not be called up. South Gate hardly picks white so yea, he will be resting too. Thomas Partey… if he plays for Ghana, I hope he comes back fit. Good win today. Delighted. Feels good wining just before the break. I hate losing before the intl break as you have to wait for a while before… Read more »
Pain in his right big toe due to having Erling Haaland under his boot all afternoon
I’m actually surprised that he hasn’t got a hip injury caused by carrying Haaland around in his pocket all afternoon.
whatever haaland related ailment it was saliba decided he wasn’t going to get any shots today
How many more mistakes from Raya before Ramsdale gets a recall?
Any other outfield player making those mistakes might not be on the pitch next game
Sure, Raya had some bad plays in the first half- he and 10 other teammates were clearly out of sorts, until minute 35 or so. Things changed.
Raya’s second half bombs connecting to Arsenal targets in the waning minutes of the game absolutely killed City’s hopes of mounting a last second equalizer.
Not saying Ramsey would have been as nervous at first (though everyone showed it, tbh), or isn’t capable of accurate long passes, but Raya did what Arteta expected from him, and helped kill the game. I don’t see Arteta changing his 1st team GK choice.
Yeah, Raya had a Shakey half hour, but after that he was brilliant. The Raya kai connect with Kai to top looks promising. He doesn’t look too have the creativity for 8, but useful #10 in this system that so desperately needs a big man, link up forward.
Its about how we play. It seems Arteta is willing to overlook some mistakes if it gets us to a better place. I remember the nerves when we switched to playing out from the back more in Arteta’s early days, this is just the next phase. Also, having watched multiple highlights since the final whistle im starting to think the Alvarez one is at least partially big Gabis fault for passing to his weaker foot in a tight spot. Minor error for both players adds up to bigger risk, these are the margins at this level
I read the Guardian on the regular because I’m that way inclined, but this is wrong:
“Guardian Media Group is a global news organisation that delivers fearless, investigative journalism – giving a voice to the powerless and holding power to account.”
The Guardian silences any criticism of Manchester City. Any. And you all know what kind of criticism I’m talking about. Gutless journalism.
“Fearless” is a bit of a stretch, given their history of rolling over to have their tummies tickled at the mere sight of a libel case.
What’s a libel case?
Sending thoughts and prayers to Saliba’s toe
*wiggle your big toe… wiggle your big toe*
Hopefully someone gets the reference.
Her index toe is longer than her big toe!
so his right toe is big
Glad so many of our key players will be able to skip international duty to recover and return to fitness. There is a huge stretch of league and CL matches ahead that will be so important to our season and need everyone as fit as possible. I hope Partey is not going on international duty and players that do go like Rice and Odegaard come back injury free.