Mikel Arteta enjoyed the goalscoring comeback from Bukayo Saka in Arsenal’s 2-1 victory against Fulham in the Premier League but felt the gloss come off the evening as Gabriel Magalhães and Jurriën Timber sustained injuries.
Saka scored Arsenal’s second on 73 minutes, having come off the bench in the 66th minute for his first action since he ruptured his hamstring on 21 December. He ran over to the bench to celebrate with one of the club’s performance coaches, Sam Wilson.
But with the Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid next Tuesday at the Emirates Stadium, the last thing Arteta needed were more injuries. Gabriel was forced off with a hamstring problem while Timber could not finish the game because of pain in his knee. Riccardo Calafiori damage his knee on international duty with Italy and Arteta reported that Ben White also had a knee injury.
“It was a beautiful moment to see how much our people love, respect and admire Bukayo,” Arteta said. “The best example is his reaction. Immediately after scoring a goal, what does he do? He goes and says thank you for all the hard work that all the sports science guys, physios and everybody involved in the recovery have done for him. He lifted the stadium.
“The downside is Gabi and Jurriën. We don’t know how they’re going to be. We’ll be assessing them tomorrow. There are two players in this team that never want to come off and it’s those two, probably. Gabi felt something in his hamstring. Jurriën was already struggling very early in the game. He managed to continue [but] at some point he couldn’t.
“Calafiori, Ben White, Jurriën and Gabriel Magalhães – you can imagine [how I feel] with those four players in the defensive line in one week. We have still another four that are so willing that they will do their job.”
Arteta said he had never known a worse season for injuries. “The good thing is that it’s been like this the whole season. You see [Gabriel] Martinelli today … we missed him for three months. You see Bukayo, Kai [Havertz] four months. Gabi Jesus, almost the whole season ... it’s what it is. We want it so much that we’re going to give it a real go and we are very excited for the next week.”
