Mikel Arteta's Arsenal side know now more than ever just how important their trip to Manchester City on Wednesday is set to be. After a third successive draw, this time after coming back from two goals down themselves in a 3-3 draw with Southampton, the Gunners could find themselves losing all momentum in the title race.
Despite the boost of a returning Oleksandr Zinchenko, Mikel Arteta was still left frustrated after the bottom-placed Saints went 2-0 and 3-1 up at the Emirates Stadium. There had been uncertainty over the Ukrainian's availability for the game but his return couldn't bring a change in fortune.
It was the ninth goal Arsenal had conceded in four games without centre-back William Saliba after his continued absence and there is still no good news to bring on that front. "No big news," he said. "The picture hasn't changed from last week. Regarding William [Saliba], we still have to wait a little more.
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"He is not progressing as quick as we hoped. It's a bit delicate and we want to be very certain when we push him that he is ready to absorb the load and the risk that we will take and at the moment that's not possible to do."
There had been hope that the integral defender would be able to make a rushed return against Manchester City in mid-week but Arteta is remaining coy on that so far. "I don’t know, it’s a bit early to do [predictions]," he admitted.
"Probably next week we are going to have more certainty. There is some evolution, he is doing more activity, but he is not there yet to start to throw him on the pitch at the level that the sessions demand to compete in this league."
He has been a massive miss in recent weeks. Arteta was also without Granit Xhaka against Southampton as the Swiss midfielder left a big gap in the midfield. "This morning unfortunately Granit [Xhaka] wasn’t feeling well so we had to get him out of the squad," the Spanish head coach explained.
Elsewhere it is only Takehiro Tomiyasu and Mohamed Elneny that are out long-term. Ahead of the clash with Manchester City Pep Guardiola will have to deal without key defender Nathan Ake won't be available for the game. "I don't know. He's [Ake] not ready for tomorrow but I don't know the damage," Guardiola said.
"I think this afternoon they do the final test to see exactly what he has." Elsewhere Phil Foden is in contention despite not playing for over a month. "He was on the bench in Munich after two training following two, three weeks without training. Every day that passes he'll be better."
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