Eberechi Eze netted his first Arsenal goal on Sunday to see off former side Crystal Palace by a 1-0 scoreline, moving the Gunners four points clear at the top of the Premier League.
That meant Mikel Arteta’s men took full advantage of defeats to title rivals Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea at the weekend, as the Gunners sit pretty at the top of the pile as the Premier League season approaches the quarter-mark.
Arsenal face a Carabao Cup fourth-round clash against Brighton & Hove Albion on Wednesday and are also off to a fast start in Europe, having won all three of their opening games in the League phase of this season’s Champions League.
Arsenal face quaruple injury worry
Sunday’s victory, however, may have come at a cost, as Arteta now has four injuries to sweat over ahead of the midweek clash against the Seagulls.
Gunners' trio William Saliba, Declan Rice and Riccardo Calafiori were all substituted off against the Eagles, while Gabriel Martinelli is another injury worry, with Arteta giving an update following the victory at the Emirates.
"William Saliba felt some pain. Declan [Rice] was the same," Arteta told Sky Sports, before addressing the injury situation in his post-match press conference.
Well, the first one was Willy [Saliba] that obviously had to be out after the first half, Declan as well was struggling from the first half with a knock that he took, and who was the other one? Ricci [Calafiori]? As well. So yeah, let's see how that will go.
“With Declan I don't really know because it was knock, whether it was a calf or an Achilles. Yeah, I think [Martinelli is okay]. He said he felt something, we do not know if it is a muscular issue or not.”
Saliba was the first to be replaced, when he was withdrawn for Cristhian Mosquera at the half-time interval, before Rice went down after a knock and needed treatment with ten minutes remaining. The England man was replaced by Mikel Merino, with Calafiori also being replaced at the time, as Piero Hincapie came off the bench for a Premier League debut.
Arteta also revealed that Martinelli will be checked over by the medical team, and added that Bakayo Saka’s withdrawal was out of precaution, with the winger recovering from a recent illness.
“He [Saka] has been ill," Arteta said. “He has not trained and we did not know if he was going to be fit.”
Arteta continues to be without skipper Martin Odegaard, who was ruled out until after the November international break, while the Gunners are also without Noni Madueke, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus.
Wednesday's Carabao Cup tie against Brighton is followed by a trip to Burnley next weekend and then a midweek trip to Slavia Prague, while the Gunners visit Sunderland in their final game before the November international break.
