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Arsenal dealt major injury blow – key man ruled out of Man City clash

By mac14 on December 21, 2020

Arsenal have been handed a major injury blow with the news that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been ruled out of our Carabao Cup quarter-final with Manchester City.

Aubameyang sat out Arsenal’s trip to Everton on Saturday evening after picking up a calf injury and the striker was forced to watch from the sidelines as we slumped to a 2-1 defeat at Goodison Park.

It was hoped the Gabon international’s issue was only minor and he’d make a swift return to action, however, Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Aubameyang has been ruled out of tomorrow’s Carabao Cup clash with Manchester City at the Emirates.

The boss says Auba is ‘feeling much better’ but will have a scan in the next few days to see how long he’ll be on the treatment table for.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference today, Arteta told Arsenal.com:

Let’s see how the boys are today. Auba is not fit for tomorrow, that’s for sure. He won’t be playing tomorrow so we will see who is available because we have a few doubts as well in other positions. We want to get together a very competitive team because we know the level of City and we want to win the game tomorrow.

Auba is feeling much better and he was more positive yesterday than in the previous two days. He will have another scan in the next few days and we will see how quickly we can get him back in the team. But we know how important he is for us and he feels that responsibility and he is trying his best to be back fit as quickly as possible. For the rest, I don’t think we’re going to have any news today before training.

Let’s hope for good news once Aubameyang’s had his scan. He may not be playing to the best of his ability this season but he’s still a vital part of this Arsenal team and we cannot replace his goal threat.

It’s going to be interesting to see what kind of team Arteta selects tomorrow. Arsenal desperately need to get back to winning ways and beating City to reach the semi’s should buy the boss more time to turn things around. Another defeat, and the pressure mounts, so it might be sensible to go with a strong team.

Granit Xhaka still won’t be available as he serves the final game of his suspension and Thomas Partey is out with a thigh injury but Gabriel Martinelli could start after making his first team return off the bench at the weekend.