Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Bukayo Saka is facing “many weeks” on the sidelines after tearing his hamstring in Saturday’s 5-1 win over Crystal Palace.
The loss of the England international is compounded by the news that Raheem Sterling, who was signed as backup on loan from Chelsea in the summer, sustained a knee injury in training last week and is also facing “weeks” out.
Updating the media on the fitness of Saka, he said: “He’s not looking good, he’s going to be out for many weeks.”
And on Sterling, he added: “He’s going to be out for weeks, I believe. He needs some further testing tomorrow to understand the extent of the injury. It’s his knee and we have to wait another 24 hours but, unfortunately, he’s going to be out for a while.”
As the games come thick and fast, the challenge for the Spaniard is finding solutions amongst a squad that has already been stretched to the limit this season.
“We have to look internally at what we have and be creative,” he added. “Do a very good exercise again. How can we mould the squad? How can we adapt to the circumstances and be different? We cannot pretend to be the same.
“We’re going to have to be different and try to find the best way to do it. And be very competitive and win a lot of games.”
Despite the news being a clear “a big blow” to Arsenal’s title ambitions – the Gunners have it all to do to close a six-point gap on Liverpool – the manager is trying to put a positive spin on things, pointing out that his side have overcome the loss of key players many times before.
“It’s going to be a really good exercise for all of us to think about ways to overcome another challenge because we already have a lot in the season.”
“I’m putting some ideas together,” he continued. “I haven’t got there yet, but I have a few.
“Then I want to speak with them [the players] as well to understand how we’re going to generate that and take it in a positive way because that’s going to mean that we’re going to be different.
“We went through the period with Martin [Odegaard injured]. We went through the period with five or six defenders missing.
“We went through the period without many other players. We will continue to do that, finding ways and taking it with positive energy. That’s it.”
Having mostly avoided serious injuries since breaking into the Arsenal starting lineup at 17, it sounds like Saka will need some time to process the situation.
“You can tell that he’s not been injured [seriously before] because he was really, really emotional. He was really down. And we need to lift him up because it’s part of what we do.
“It’s part of what he does. It’s part of his job. A big part of his job. And he will be fine. I think he’s going to need a few days.”
In time, Arteta hopes the injury will aid his development: “At some stage, at this level, you’re going to get injured. Unfortunately, [it’s often] badly. It could have been much worse. It can be something else that can take you out for a year.
“It’s how you react to that, how you overcome that situation. It’s a great learning process for him as well. I take it this way. It is what it is. He’s injured. We cannot change it.”
He added: “He’s going to immediately realise that he’s so important in that dressing room.
“So, his energy level, his body language, the way he communicates with the rest of the team has to be really, really good because it’s the only way at the moment that he can help. So, he better do that well.”
Given the transfer window opens in a week, Arsenal may well be tempted to recruit cover. That said, they won’t be able to sign another player on loan as they’ve already filled their two-man quota with Sterling and goalkeeper Neto.
On shopping in January, Arteta said: “My intention right now is to, within the team, what we have, get the best out of that. What is outside is not in our control.”
Interestingly, he made clear that his backroom team, currently being led by interim sporting director Jason Ayto, have already done their homework ahead of the window.
“The preparation is done and we are ready if something happens. Obviously, we didn’t predict the situation with Bukayo and Raheem. At the same time, we predicted more if something else happened, for example, in the defensive line. But the job is done and, OK, if something has to happen, we will be open.
“But the main focus now is how we extract still a lot of potential that there is in this squad.”
Not even January yet and our season is properly over.
Makes me sick how unfair football can be, we just can’t have nice things.
Winning the league or not is not and should never be our whole season. Yes, Liverpool look very good but even if you take the view a few key injuries might stop us overhauling a 6, potentially 9, point gap – there are 3 other competitions, two of which we’re doing brilliantly in. We have arguably the best back 5 in world football and in Rice and Odegaard I don’t even think it is arguable we have the best two players in their position, noting Rodri’s injury. With all due respect to Saka and everything he brings, we can still… Read more »
Although I respect it, I can’t share the source of your positivity. To me this seems nothing more than coping mechanism and clinging on to (delusional) hope. In the 15 years I’d been supporting this club I’ve never thought of a realistically bigger chance to win the league after the City fall off and the fact that it’s not happening again feels extremely disappointing. This was the chance and we can’t capitalize on it. Winning the CL is probably the most difficult achievment in football so wouldn’t get my hopes up there. Fa and or Carabao cup would be nice… Read more »
Didn’t Arsenal score 3 goals after he was taken off. He is good but other players can step up if needed.
Yep. Seasons pretty much cooked. It was a while ago tbf. Courtesy of a sub par transfer window, injuries, bent refs and inconsistent form. Technically we’re still in it, but I am sure most people, including the players and the manager, know that you can’t win the biggest competitions without your best players unless you are outrageously lucky (not a strong chance of that for us). We’ll have missed Saka and Odegaard for at least 25 games come the end of the season. Take just Salah out of that Liverpool team for half of that time and they are nowhere… Read more »
My god, the whiny-ness and entitlement of this post turns my stomach. Ergh. Get a grip.
How exactly is wanting the best for my team entitlement, especially this year when we seemed to have everything in place to achieve something truly great?
Don’t listen to him, you are absolutely allowed to feel how you want. There are a hand full of people on here who are seemingly uncomfortable with the idea of Arsenal winning something again and like to dictate to others how they should feel. I don’t really understand the psychology behind it tbh….maybe it’s a control thing.
Alright, I’ll bite. It’s a slow day in the office, let me answer your (again hugely whiny) question. “Wanting the best for my team” wasn’t anywhere in your original post. If you’d said that I would agree with you. However, what you actually said was, that the season was already over (whining, and 100% not true) and you are sick how unfair things are (whining and entitlement) and why can’t you have nice things (entitlement). Here’s some reality for you, seeing as you live world where everything is unfair: We’re the 3rd biggest club in the country. We’re 3rd in… Read more »
Nothing wrong with wanting the best from the team. However it’s your negativity in writing us off which is why people are criticising you. We’ve never been a one man team.
You can’t selectively take luck into account. If this year was our best chance because City are shit because of injuries, then it’s also not our best chance because we have been insanely unlucky with injuries and referees. You don’t get to pick and choose which chance events occur. Liverpool haven’t won the league yet. They have been incredibly fortunate so far, we have been incredibly unfortunate so far. We are only 6 points behind them. Assuming we’ve already lost the league at this point is like assuming you’re going to die because you got a runny nose.
Why? Guy desperately wants to see Arsenal win the league for the first time in his life and regardless of where the blame lies, he has every right to be disappointed that according to every logical metric, we will likely not achieve our goal even with the cheats imploding.
Sure but just imagine the players or the manager talking like that. Do you talk like that when you face a challenge in life?
The overwhelming majority of the challenges you are facing in “real life” are where you have some sort of control and influence over the situation.
Being a fan of a football club is clearly a powerless situation, making it more frustrating.
“Majority” is not the point. When you face a major challenge in life it is because you don’t have control (otherwise it would be a simple problem-solving matter wouldn’t it?).
The point is about how you respond to difficult situations.
Wait till he’s supported them for 60+ years – THEN he can talk about being “disappointed”!
That’s FOOTBALL, mate and you have to accept the good and the bad.
One player isn’t a team, unless that player is Thierry Henry. The side will cope without saka, because we have to. This injury is a consequence on the overreliance on him, the schedule, and the greedy international federations. Sterling’s injury is of little consequence because he wasn’t providing anything to begin with.
Yes, everyone else needs to find their game in his absence. Stranger things have happened.
Cheer up all, we are the run in kings now. We will overtake pool in March and win the league by 9 points. I just hope we don’t go too early so we can win the league at anfield.
Saka was played in all matches including Carabao cup. And he is the same situation with the England team
Poor lad, feel sad how he is being run into the ground
Our season has just begun. Relax 😀
Feck.
Not to over-react or anything,
but we really need to stop the players breaking mirrors, underneath ladders.
This means more playing time for Lewis Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri
Yes. MLS – A League of His Own.
I think Martinelli did fine on the right vs C Pal and maybe starting there will turn around his fortunes. Same with Trossard. And while Saka is a huge loss, maybe Jesus will remain on a hot streak? If those three can “up their game” we can cope.
Get well soon Bakayo!
BTW, we dodged a bullet with Mudryk
Objectively a season without odegaard and saka playing in the same team much, shouldn’t be a title winning season.
But still strangely I feel we have everything to play for……
Domestic cups maybe. In terms of the league, you don’t need to hear a death rattle to know something’s going to likely die very soon.
Jeez I bet you play the grinch in your school panto.
If you think it’s completely impossible for the mighty Liverpool to drop 10 more points than us between now and the end of the season, you might not have noticed what has just happened to City. Liverpool might stay this good and this lucky for another 20 or so games. But it wouldn’t even register in the top 1000 weirdest things to happen in the premier league if they didn’t.
Of course. Objectively you should be right. It ought take saka to get the title.
Let’s just see how far the others can go though.
God forbid if the whole squad had food poisoning the same day, some of you guys’ first reaction would still be claiming how it’s a great opportunity for the under 21 team to get some minutes under their belt.
Gutted
“Many weeks” not “many months”.
It could have been a lot worse.
While BS is a great player and one of our best, I think we should still be able to cope with the January fixtures without him.
Heads up Ginner fans. We can’t be downcasted with this bad news.
I still believe Liverpool is catchable. Spurs played into their hands yesterday. Not many time will be that generous.
…not many teams will be that generous
I think many weeks in this case means definitely more than a month, maybe as much as two, in which case you the have a slow period of easing in afterwards so we might not get full form Saka until March. At least I’m going to assume that and maybe hopefully get a positive surprise if he comes back earlier. It will need to be a combo of Martinelli and Nwaneri taking over that position now and I think both are ready to at least contribute 75% of what Saka does there. Martinelli in particular will enjoy playing on Odegaard’s… Read more »
The main issue is that simply coping wouldn’t be enough considering the gap, we basically have to perform flawlessly in the 6-8 league games to have any realistic chance.
This was bound to happen at some stage and we can’t be reliant on one player for everything.
On the plus side, Martinelli played better from the right than he has on the left all season. Also the run of fixtures isn’t too bad for the next few weeks.
I want to see other players stepping up like Jesus and Martinelli have recently.
I think we will all be surprised at the evolution and unpredictability of the team in the next few weeks without Saka.
I think one of our major problems this season has been the over reliance on Saka. As such, teams mark him out of game and we had no other solution.
Now that he is out of the team and other player stepping up, we might see a much improved Arsenal side capable of going on a winning run.
That doesn’t mean we wouldn’t miss Saka and we need him back ASAP.
Get well quick, Saka.❤️🙏🏽