Mikel Arteta is 'worried' that Granit Xhaka could face a spell on the sidelines after he picked up an injury against Tottenham.
Arsenal impressed during the north London derby on Sunday as they claimed a 3-1 victory over their city rivals.
It was going to be the perfect day at the office for the Gunners until Xhaka went down injured in the build-up to Heung-Min Son's consolation with ten minutes to go.
And Arteta is concerned that the Swiss midfielder could be on the treatment table for some time.
He said: "Unfortunately he (Xhaka) got injured. I’m pretty worried because it doesn’t look very positive at the moment."
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Xhaka came straight back into the starting XI after returning from suspension despite Arsenal's successive wins against Norwich City and Burnley.
Arteta deployed a 4-3-3 formation at Turf Moor with Martin Odegaard and Emile Smith Rowe in the middle of the park ahead of Thomas Partey, but reverted to his favourable 4-2-3-1 set up against Spurs as Xhaka replaced Nicolas Pepe.
With no injury concerns ahead of derby day, Arteta had a full squad to choose from.
And the fact he recalled Xhaka suggests he views the line-up against Spurs as Arsenal's strongest side.
But unfortunately, it looks like his dream scenario going to be cut short due to Xhaka's injury.
Arteta added: "We had to think about it. We had different options to play against them.
"We believe that the way we set up and what we wanted to do in the game it was the right call to do that.
"I understand that a lot of people would say ‘you won the last two games why are you going to change it’.
"We did it with the intention of being the right thing to do to start the game and then to have other options as well to change it."
