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Arsenal Hit By HUGE Fresh Injury Blow
Our poor ‘luck’ with injuries continued last night as Mikel Arteta was forced off during our embarrassing draw with Anderlecht with a hamstring injury.
The Spaniard was seen clutching his left leg as he limped off shortly after Anderlecht had pulled a goal back to make it 3-1 midway through the second half.
Arteta was actually having a decent game up until that point and we completely lost control of the match after he left the pitch, with the visitors going on to score two further goals to seal a dramatic 3-3 draw.
After the game, Arsene Wenger confirmed to the clubs website that the skipper has ‘done his hamstring’, but he doesn’t know how long he’ll be on the sidelines for. However, the boss also feels the game turned after Arteta went off as he was one of the only players protecting the defence.
Arsene said:
“He has done a hamstring. I don’t know what is wrong or how long he will be out for.”
“I think when we lost Mikel Arteta we lost out because he was one of the few who defended well. That didn’t help. Apart from that maybe we underestimated subconsciously Anderlecht and got punished. In the Champions League you need to be at the mental level or you get punished and certainly we were not.”
Arteta has only just returned from a calf injury so this latest setback comes as a huge blow. While it’s clear that he isn’t the mobile holding midfielder we need in the side, Arteta is certainly the best option we’ve currently got in the squad.
He was badly missed over this past month while he was out with his calf injury and he’ll be missed again if he’s now ruled out for another few weeks.
It seems certain that the 32-year-old wont feature against Swansea on Sunday but thankfully we then have two weeks off for the international break, which will give Mikel time to recover.
Hopefully he’ll then be available to face Man Utd at the Emirates on the 22nd November.
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