Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has voiced his frustration over the club’s mounting injury concerns as they prepare for their UEFA Champions League clash with Club Brugge on Wednesday.
The Gunners have suffered multiple injury problems this season and have been dealt new worries ahead of their trip to Belgium for their sixth UCL game of the campaign.
The North London side will miss the services of Declan Rice, Leandro Trossard and William Saliba for the clash, while teenage sensation Max Dowman has also been ruled out with injury.
“Yeah, a big one. I mean, losing Max again, it’s obviously not ideal with Leo, who is just coming back, that we have to manage the minutes. Willy is still not there.
We’ve not got Big Gabi, and we have other players that they could only play certain minutes. Like, for example, Riccy [Calafiori] the other day. But it’s a situation that we have managed since the beginning of the season”, Arteta revealed
“We are in December, so it’s been almost five months in a remarkable way, and we’re going to continue.”
Arsenal have won all of their five games so far and sir on top of the 36-team standings with 15 points so far.
The Gunners however suffered a slight setback last weekend in the English Premier League, narrowly losing to Aston Villa to dampen their title aspirations.
They could an automatic spot in the knockout rounds of the competition with victory on Wednesday, as they remain the only unbeaten side in Europe’s top-tier competition this season.
“Not training, no, because we don’t have time to train. So, training is not there. But obviously, the fact that you are missing players, you are loading other players more”, the Spaniard continued, when asked if the training procedures is the major cause of their growing injury list.
“That’s a consequence of that and it’s a really dangerous. The fact that we have some others who have long-term contracts that haven’t been with us since the beginning of the season. But, yeah, it’s a test for the team, and so far, we have reacted very, very well to that.”
Mikel Arteta’s men will hope to bounce back from their defeat to Aston Villa last weekend with victory over Club Brugge at the Jan Breydel Stadium on Wednesday night.
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